David J Hayes

Well done to the TRACTION team for producing a wonderful themed issue, within which I'm very pleased to have had material included. A nice touch is that the cover shot of issue 261 features 40061 (formerly 261). I, for one, hope that this special edition is well-received by the readership and leads to further themed issues of TRACTION appearing in future. Cheers.

Thank you, David. Your complimentary comment is very much appreciated. Cheers.

Thanks Andy. Much appreciated. Cheers.

Hello everyone. This is the first time I have commented on this forum (or any forum for that matter) and would like to say that I very much appreciate everyone's views, good or bad (preferably good, though!), regarding my articles in TRACTION. I also appreciate that some of you are a tad tired of reading about the Black Country freight scene, but I hope you still enjoy viewing the images accompanying those features. Although the Black Country is very much my main area of "expertise" so to speak, though I don't regard myself as being an expert, I am delighted to know that for many it is still a fascinating region to read about, even for those living in the West Midlands. I have attempted to document the Black Country's interesting and complex freight operations by covering various lines and periods spanning the 1970s to the 1990s and beyond, and hope that this body of work will one day be a useful "database" for future generations of enthusiasts. I am also grateful to Stephen Rabone for "fighting my corner" and for emphasizing that TRACTION has, over the years, covered freight operations in many other parts of the UK. I've even tried to broaden my range of freight articles in recent times by looking at the West London Line, Teesside Chemicals and Kent Coal amongst others, for all of which I have received complimentary comments I'm very happy to say. My other past articles in TRACTION and the TRACTION Annuals (bookazines) have covered molasses traffic to Menstrie, the North & West route, passenger activity in Dorset and the South Wales main line. I hope to submit more varied articles for possible inclusion in TRACTION as and when time permits, and also plan on submitting several other Black Country-related features covering locations within the region that I feel would be of particular interest to the modelling fraternity. Cheers.