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

Regular Contributors: colin boocock paul a. Lunn

Welcome to issue 200 of TRACTION! When Nick Pigott wrote the Editor’s letter for Issue 1 of TRACTION back in August 1994 it was in response to the nostalgia that many railway enthusiasts felt for the ‘old BR’ of the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Nick wrote, “The privatisation of British Rail and the opening of the Channel tunnel threaten to revolutionise our railways – and change the way they run beyond all recognition.”

Two hundred issues of TRACTION further on and Nick’s prophesy has indeed seen Britain’s railways changed dramatically; in some ways for the better but in other aspects with less positive results. Locomotive hauled passenger trains have declined in number, although there are some encouraging signs on the horizon. True, the variety of motive power on the main line has declined, although let us remember that members of former BR Classes 08, 20, 31, 33, 37, 47, 56, 60, 73, 86, 87, 90, 91 and, of course, the HSTs are still hard at work on the network on both passenger and freight. Then there are those preserved locomotives that venture out on special trains including, of course, 55022, which surprised everybody by becoming part of the rail freight traction fleet during 2011.

What probably wasn’t anticipated back in 1994 was the tremendous growth in the use of diesel traction on our preserved, or heritage, lines. The numbers who turn out for the diesel events at lines up and down the country show just how much enthusiasts miss the days of locomotive hauled passenger trains, which we used to take for granted.

However, it is still possible to sample locomotive hauled service trains in many parts of the country, albeit with diesel motive power provided by General Motors in the shape of Classes 57 and 67. • The First Great Western Penzance to Paddington overnight trains behind Class 57s, as well as HSTs on all their daytime expresses. • Arriva Trains Wales Holyhead to Cardiff workings

(soon to be increased to two trains each way) use ‘57s’ and, in the future, ‘67s’ • Chiltern Trains services from Marylebone to

Birmingham have ‘67s’ • National Express East Anglia’s electric trains from

Liverpool Street to Norwich are hauled by ‘90s’ while ‘47s’ still take trains on to Great Yarmouth as well as providing cover for missing DMUs. • Every East Coast train features locomotive haulage behind ‘91s’ and the indefatigable HSTs.

• Virgin West Coast has its Class 90 hauled

“Pretendolino” used on relief services and, on some trains to Holyhead, Virgin still use a Class 57 to haul a ‘Pendolino’ from Crewe. • Cross Country and Midland Mainline make use of their HST fleets in much the same way that ‘good old BR’ did. • Scotrail uses Class 90s and 67s on a variety of works. Local trains run from Edinburgh to Fife as well as the sleepers from London to both Lowland and Highland Scotland. Try the ‘67’ on the sleepers to Inverness or Fort William if you want a real ‘haulage’ experience.

Obviously, this is but a pale shadow of what used to be, but there are signs that locomotive hauled passenger trains may be making a comeback. Irish Rail have put up for sale their large fleet of Mk111 coaches and, I understand, several Train Operating Companies are showing an interest…

Should any reader have tried to use all of these varied locomotive hauled services in a continuous “All Line Rover Ticket” holiday I’d love to read of their experiences. Alternatively, why not work out an itinerary to travel on as many locomotive or HST powered services as possible in a week? Send your ideas in to TRACTION and we’ll publish the most well thought out itinerary. Obviously, you may have to use DMU or EMU operated services but these should be kept to a minimum.

Turning to the contents of TRACTION 200 Colin Boocock celebrates the two hundred ‘D200s’, as we used to call them back in the pre-TOPS days. Simon Carter recalls the fiftieth anniversary of the entry into service of the ‘Deltics’ and remembers the last months of their use on the main line thirty years ago.

Andy Coward tells us how a Virgin Class 86 came to be named after a West Midlands DJ and the subsequent preservation of 86259 Les Ross. Charles Makintosh reviews Class 47 activity on the main line in the first six months of 2011. Gavin Bland returns to the days when Tinsley TMD was one of the principal freight locomotive depots in England, with a variety of motive power that astonishes today.

In the first of what I hope will become a regular feature of TRACTION, John Hooson has selected some of his most interesting photographs to include in the Gallery section, and tells us a little about the more personal side of the background to each of the images.

‘Dave’s Diary’ is one of those fascinating articles, which contain hard factual information about an aspect of modern railway history that has now totally disappeared. Craig Munday has used a guard’s journal, written by a friend Dave Davies, to tell us about locomotive hauled passenger and parcels workings from Penzance in 1980.

In the TRACTION MODELLING section Paul Lunn makes a suggestion for staging a freight train derailment in real time. This is all backed up with detailed information from railway Rule Books so that the modeller can stage the “recovery” correctly. In addition to this we present the photographs of Richard Kaye who witnessed and, amazingly, ‘kept his cool’ enough to take photographs of the Dinting derailment in 1981 as it happened! I can’t ever recall seeing photographs of an accident as it happened.

Paul Lunn also writes about the mysterious subject of the track circuit runner wagons, which BR used to ensure that small diesel shunting locomotives correctly worked the track circuiting during shunting operations. Finally Roger Miller tells how to convert an N Gauge Class 20 to operate on DCC controlled layouts.

The sharp-eyed readers among you may have noticed that one of the articles in TRACTION 199 ‘Crewe Works Snapshot – 1983’ by Steve Morris had already appeared in TRACTION 181. We can only apologise for this, which was one of those hiccups that sometimes occur at a time of transition from one publisher to another. Hopefully, it didn’t spoil your enjoyment of ‘199’

And now, on to the next 200!

The two hundred D200s _Page 12

Brand new 1Co-Co1 D211 had just been delivered to Camden depot when photographed there on 30th May 1959. This machine would soon be working the main West Coast expresses to the north. Being maintained at a steam locomotive depot without special facilities, however,

caused many London Midland Region diesels to suffer lower reliability. Later, proper facilities for diesel locomotives were built at depots such as Crewe TMD, Carlisle Kingmoor, Manchester Longsight,

and Derby Etches Park. Colin Boocock

Les Ross meets Les Ross _Page 22

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©atlantic publishers Ltd. 2011 Contents

Gallery _Page 34

The End of the ‘Deltics’ _Page 16

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Current mainline and heritage traction developments

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the two hundred D200s Colin Boocock looks back at the life of the iconic English Electric Type 4s

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the end of the ‘Deltics’ Simon Carter gives a personal recount of the end of the East

Coast race horses

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Les Ross meets Les Ross

Andy Coward explains how a Class 86 came to be named after a West Midlands DJ

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Cumbrian Coast traction Steve Allen visits this scenic line to view freight activity

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Class 47 Update Charles Mackintosh reviews Class 47 operations in the first six months of 2011

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tinsley depot Gavin Bland visits this once important maintenance depot

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Gallery

John Hooson chooses some of his favourite railway photographs

Dave’s Diary

Craig Munday discovers a train guard’s journal for the Cornish

Main Line in the 1980s

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Cover Resplendent in its blue livery visiting loco 50044 Exeter departs Bury (Bolton St.) station working the 14:30 departure for Heywood on 3rd July 2011 during the East Lancashire Railway’s Summer Diesel Gala weekend. Geoff Butler

TRACTION is published bi-monthly by Atlantic Publishers.

next Issue JAN/FEB 201 on sale 2nd DEC 2011

ISSN: 1354-2680

tPo Your letters and photos to the editor

Reviews The latest books and DVDs tRACtIon MoDeLLInG

off the Rails Paul Lunn suggests how the modeller can simulate a freight train derailment live!

the Dinting accident Richard Kaye’s photographs show a freight train derailment as it happened track Circuit Runner Paul Lunn explains what the purposes of these wagons was

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Converting the Bachmann Farish Class 20 to DCC Roger Miller shows how to carry out this conversion

Contributions to tRACtIon We are always interested in receiving contributions for TRACTION to allow us to make the magazine even more interesting. If you can write about your experiences as a member of the railway’s staff, or as an enthusiast, we’d really like to hear from you. We need interesting articles on any subject related to the diesel and electric traction, as well as features for those interested in model railways. Text can be in typed or digital formats. We can accept photographs in colour or black and white, and in any format; prints, negatives, slides or digital.

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