Traction

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…

DAVID BLOWER. As we all well know, there was a time when trip workings were an important and everyday part of railway operations in most parts of the country, especially for wagonload freight. Such diagrams could be quite complex and keep a single locomotive busy for twelve hours or more tripping traffic to and from a multitude of locations, some of which could be visited at least twice or more times during the course of the day. In addition to servicing the heavily industrialised regions, they could even be found visiting some of the more remote parts of the network where they were perhaps regarded as a lifeline for many communities reliant on rail for the collection or delivery of such commodities as animal feed, fresh produce, machinery and a…

CRAIG OLIPHANT It’s the Friday evening of 30th May 1975 and, after a day teaching my class of ten and eleven year olds, I’m heading off to Newcastle to spend the night watching trains at this busy station. Over the last few years I’ve discovered what a fascinating place big railway stations can be at night and have already spent several long chilly nights at Carlisle and York; now it’s Newcastle’s turn. Armed with copious amounts of food and drink for the night ahead, I catch the 17:18 Whitby to Newcastle train from Middlesbrough and arrive in Newcastle at 20:18. On the way I pass West Hartlepool stabling point with its complement of Class 03s, 08s and 37s while at Sunder land there is another ‘03’ on duty for handling…

RAIL ONLINE The1955 British Railways Modernisation Plan envisaged the introduction nationwide of a fleet of 4,600 diesel railcars, mainly for local branch line work (but also including units designed for certain express and cross country routes) which, it was anticipated, would not only achieve significant economies in operation but would also provide a faster and more frequent and comfortable service, particularly on the country’s many (and for the most part unprofitable) branch lines, replacing steam – hauled rakes of often antiquated pre-war non-corridor compartment stock. Experience gained in diesel multiple unit operation in two areas, the London Midland Region’s 22.5 mile long rural branch from Carlisle to Silloth on the shores of the Solway Firth (which was the first branch line in the country to be converted to diesel multiple…

After purchasing ‘Deeping Lane’, the first thing Stephen needed to do was fit new legs and embark on a full rewire. According to Stephen, there was nothing majorly wrong with the existing wiring, but felt that by carrying out the rewire, he would know where all the wires go and would be able to trace faults quickly. He carefully removed the roof of one of the low-relief buildings and mounted replacement centre off switches in the backscene. He also fitted a CDU unit to provide more positive point control. As all the rest of the wiring was coming out, the DCC bus was also redone, despite there being nothing wrong with it. The track power is transmitted through fishplates, which are slid back onto the rails when the boards are…

Arriving in quick succession with customers for N and OO gauges from Revolution Trains are its IWA wagons. Announced in 2019, the manufacturer has relied again on gauging interest from modellers to make the project viable, producing models of the vans in as-built hold-all guise (UIC: Sfins2) and the 30 timber-carrying conversions from 2012 (UIC: Rfnoos). The prototypes were built by Waggon Union in Germany from 1987 with two-piece integral sides and roofs that can be raised and slid over each other for loading. For these, five model liveries are offered in twin packs: one unbranded, two in Norsk Hydro and two in Cargowaggon. These represent a cross-section of the 160 vehicles throughout their lives, which have been used on traffic ranging from fertilisers to bagged clay, steel, aluminium, newsprint,…