TRACTION 262

[steverabone]

Welcome to TRACTION issue 262 which is on sale from 29th January

 

Don't forget if you can't obtain a printed copy you can order by post or subscribe to our digital issue. Details can be seen below.

 

David Hayes concludes his feature about the operation of the tanker trains for the British Oxygen Company with a look at their final years in the 1990s. To complement this article David Ratcliffe has provided details of some of the wagons used on these trains.

 

Railwayman Robin Morel talks about the variety of Class 47s that turned up at Wembley Yard on freight trains and the problems that these differences could cause.

 

Long after British Rail steam finished it was still possible to see steam locomotives hard at work and Jeff Nicholls visited Bickershaw Colliery in 1978 to photograph National Coal Board steam working side by side with Class 47s on MGR coal trains.

 

Another type of freight operations attracted Chris Lenton when he photographed aggregate trains in Norwich during the 1990s which were hauled by a surprising variety of motive power.

 

Heading north, David Lindsell’s photographs of Class 37 hauled trains in the Fort William area will bring back many memories of their use on freights and the sleeping car trains even after they had been displaced by ‘Sprinters’ from most passenger services.

 

The long summer evenings were often used by enthusiasts to get out and about watching trains that might otherwise not be seen during the darker months of the year. Alistair Fyffe had two favourite locations on the West Coast Main Line near Warrington and at Wigan and ventured out on several beautiful evenings.

 

Colin Boocock returns with another of his contributions about European railways; this time it is about a chance discovery in the Netherlands of a remarkable collection of classic diesel and electric locomotives.

 

Many enthusiasts ignored the interesting variety of industrial locomotives that could be seen all over Britain at one time. David Ratcliffe continues his series of features about them, this time considering the products of Hudswell Clarke.

 

Change on the railway is a continual process and in 2021 we can expect to see dramatic improvements on the railways in the Liverpool area with the introduction of the new Stadler Class 777 trains. It’s a good time, therefore, to look back over the years, using photos from Gavin Morrison, of the Merseyrail Class 503, 507 and 508 in the Wirral area.

In TRACTION MODELLING we feature the superb 4mm scale Riddings Junction which is set on the Waverley Line between Carlisle and Edinburgh. There is also a close look at the new Graham Farrish Class 31.

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by steverabone