Welcome
Welcome to July and August 2022 issue of TRACTION. We start with an article by David Hayes about a type of freight service that has almost completely disappeared from Britain’s railway, the trip freight train. In ‘T-FOUR-TWO’ he looks at operations in the West Midlands where Bescot Yard’s Trip 42 would run to different freight terminals dropping off and picking up wagons before returning to the main yard. We have two articles about railways in the north east of Britain. The first, by the editor, recalls a night spent on Newcastle Central in 1975 revealing just how much passenger, parcels, freight and mail traffic could be seen during hours when few enthusiasts ventured out. Alan Taylor looks at the early years of diesel multiple unit operations on the North Eastern…