Headline News
‘Caley’ Sleeper Mk5s make London debut, Vintage Trains to expand railtour operations, Class 50 Alliance teamsup with GB Railfreight, TfL shortens ‘378s’ for GOBLIN stand-in role, Island Line decision deferred, East Lancs heritage operations threatened by commuter andtram-train proposals.
Track Record The Railway Magazine’s monthly news digest
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70 Steam & Heritage
March launch for Wightwick Hall, ‘Scotsman’ to be reunited with US tour observation car, Caledonian tank for Churnet Valley gala, Barrow Hill to buy MR ‘Half Cab’.
76 Industrial
79 Steam Portfolio
80 Irish
82 Narrow Gauge
84 Heritage Trams
86 Network
Network Rail hails successful Christmas engineering programme, Norfolk swing bridges to be replaced?, faster and drier through Sevenoaks Tunnel, £19m transport hub opens at Newton-le-Willows.
90 Classic Traction
92 Freight
94 Railtours
98 World
100 Metro 102 Traction & Stock
Alstom unveils ‘Breeze’ hydrogen concept for ‘321s’, late start for new DMUs delays ‘Pacer’ retirement, Bombardier to fit ETCS on Heathrow Class 387s, ROG chooses ‘Flex’ for parcels trial, first Caledonian Sleeper Mk3s go for scrap. 106 Traction Portfolio108 Stock Update109 Operations
Regulars
12 Up and Down Lines
12 Railways in Parliament
60 Reviews
62 Subscription Offer
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64 Panorama
Our regular gallery of the best railway photography from around the world.
68 From The RM Archives
114 Meetings
116 Heritage Diary
Details of when Britain’s unique collection of heritage railways and railway museums are open.
129 Reader Services
130 Crossword and Where Is It?
MAIN IMAGE: Bringing a splash of colour to a wintry scene, Colas Class 56s 56049 Robin of Templecombe and 56090 pass Hoghton on the Preston to Blackburn route with the 6E32 Preston Docks to Lindsey empty bitumen tanks on January 23. JOHN HALES
INSET 1: Les Nixon: 70 Years Behind the Lens.
INSET 2: Saving a piece of the GCR – 50 years on.
INSET 3: Re-creating Britain’s first main line diesel loco.
Features
14 Les Nixon: 70 Years Behind the Lens
Nick Pigott interviews one of Britain’s best, and most prolific railway photographers, still contributing to railway publications seven decades after taking his first shot in 1949.
22 Practice & Performance – Local Loco Trials
John Heaton recalls coal consumption trials undertaken by the LMS in 1931, comparing a lightweight M&GN 4-4-0T with a larger Johnson 0-4-4T in a bid to assess whether trains of lower overall weight could cut costs on lesser used lines.
28 Saving a Main Line Railway
50 years ago, the first seeds were sown in a bid to save a section of the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire. Graham Oliver, the railway’s former chief executive, recalls the early days of what would become the country’s only double-track main line preserved railway.
36 Four Lines in Four Days
Robert Drysdale describes his 800-mile trip when he visited four heritage railways in four days using the national network and occasionally a local bus.
45 Re-creating Ivatt’s LMS Diesel Pioneer
The scrapping of Britain’s first main line diesel locomotive in the 1960s left a missing link in the story of modern traction which the Ivatt Diesel Re-creation Society is working to fill.
