The Dorsetway Line – The Friendly Line! _Page 12

On Thursday 24th June 1982, 33113 awaits departure from Wool with 2W02, the 08:01

Weymouth to Bournemouth service.

Peter W Cooper

Stephen rabone Editor tel: 07794 773697 e-mail: steverabone@hotmail.com editorial postal address: 120 Churchill Road, Middlesbrough TS6 9NS

Regular Contributor: colin boocock andy coward

It’s not often that news reaches us that two new types of main line diesel are soon to be at work in Britain, but that is what has happened in the first few weeks of 2012. The first of these was the arrival of ten former Cargo Net (Norwegian State Railways freight division) Di8 Bo-Bo diesels to work on Teesside at the reopened Redcar blast furnace.

The first five locomotives arrived in December, with the second batch reaching Britain in February. Their new owners GBRf have won the contract to operate all internal works for the SSI, the Taiwanese owners of the Redcar plant. Whilst the Di8s are too large to work on the National Rail network, it will be possible to see them at work from public roads around the Lackenby and Redcar area. In fact the maintenance depot is clearly visible from the main Middlesbrough to Redcar road. It’s expected that the locomotives will be repainted in GBRf colours but when I saw Di8 716 a few weeks ago it was still in the red and yellow Norwegian colours.

Whilst the Di8s will be confined to the private steelworks network the next new type of locomotive that will be appearing on Britain’s railways will be able to roam much more widely. Direct Rail Services (DRS) have ordered fifteen of the Vossloh Espana ‘Eurolight’ Bo-Bo diesel locomotives with the intention of using them on its key intermodal and passenger train services. The ‘ Eurolight’ locomotives are already in service in Germany and will have 3750hp Caterpillar c175 engine and ABB AC traction equipment delivering a top speed of 100 mph. The ‘Eurolight’ has an appearance similar to the Class 67 and it is expected that the first will be delivered in late 2013.

Turning now to the contents of issue 203 of TRACTION that well respected photographer, Gavin Morrison, has been dipping into his archive for this issue’s Gallery feature on diesel multiple units in East Anglia. His images range from black and white photographs taken in the 1970s, with not an overhead wire to be seen, through to the early days of the ‘Sprinter’ revolution now nearly twenty years ago.

In the second part of his article about operating 55022 Royal Scots Grey on the main line, Martin Walker describes what happens when the locomotive is out on a typical working. Colin Boocock, in his article about the five types of Crossley powered locomotives, contrasts the experiences in Australia, mainland Britain and Ireland and asks whether they were a brave innovation or simply an unmitigated disaster.

Peter Cooper clearly has a great affection for the Dorsetway Line from Bournemouth to Weymouth and made extensive notes about what he saw in the 1980s, before electrification and the decline of Summer Saturday holiday trains. He found the railway staff particularly helpful and calls it the “Friendly Line”. Paul Fuller, from the Class 58 Locomotive Group, begins a series of articles about this distinctive class of freight locomotives by looking at the reasons for their introduction and their work during the British Rail years.

In one of the most moving accounts I’ve ever read about the job of a locomotive driver, Bob Dunn recounts his experiences working on the West Coast Main Line when the overhead catenary failed not once, but twice, and he received minor injuries. ‘This is an emergency call’ will change your perceptions as to what it can be like at the ‘front end’.

In TRACTION MODELLING Paul Lunn takes a detailed look at the possibilities opened up by the various models of footbridges and the incredible variety to be found on the railway network. In his second article this issue Paul delves back into the records of 1960s and 1970s to look in some detail at the mysteries of the four character train identification system that used to be displayed on locomotives and multiple units. This was a ‘golden age’ when it was possible to identify trains by their head code. For the editor, 1S68 will always be the down ‘Thames-Clyde Express’! Finally, I’ve been getting out my models of diesel motive power to run on my distinctly steam era ‘Hellifield’ layout.

Railtours from a locomotive owner’s perspective _Page 20

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