Remember that thread about train drivers a while ago?

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Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island
....Well, if you can get a copy, then the May/June issues of Traction Magazine has a cracking article by a West Coast Mainline driver called Bob Dunn about being involved in a couple of nightime high speed accidents in the mid and late '90s (albeit relatively minor in the great scheme of things) resulting in his '87 and '86 respectively being badly damaged.

The article is called 'This Is An Emergency Call', and is one of the best railway related articles I've read in quite a while. I felt for the guy, especially after the second incident (once is bad, but twice must be horrific) when he thought momentarily that the driver he was instructing had been killed and then, still with glass in his scalp then had to deal with a complete bell end of a passenger when the passengers finally were able to get off and almost let the red mist get the better of him.


Great article, it is Traction issue 203. Catch it if you can!


Oh yes, and for the record, I know Traction is not as good as it once was.
 
Oh yes, and for the record, I know Traction is not as good as it once was.

You mean it is slipping, and you need a better purchase?

Get a grip!
 
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Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island
You mean it is slipping, and you need a better purchase?

Get a grip!

And you! .....Oh yes, right, they haven't kept up the adhesion to their original idea for the magazine, have they?

That would make it sub-Traction.

When it launched, Traction was brilliant, but then it changed ownership and it has never been quite the same since, which is a shame, because it is a good article!
 
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Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island
As someone who grew up at the opposite end of the West Coast Mainline from the author and absolutely loved the '86s and '87s, the article was IT for me!
When I grew up, I was going to be a driver on the '303s and then the '86s, '87s and also the '90s. The introduction of the Pendolinos and the '87s getting posted to Bulgaria would have been totally inconceivable to me at the time.


What's more, it'll be a sad day when Freightliner withdraw their last '86s.
 

Speicher

Vice Admiral
Moderator
As someone who grew up at the opposite end of the West Coast Mainline from the author and absolutely loved the '86s and '87s, the article was IT for me!
When I grew up, I was going to be a driver on the '303s and then the '86s, '87s and also the '90s. The introduction of the Pendolinos and the '87s getting posted to Bulgaria would have been totally inconceivable to me at the time.


What's more, it'll be a sad day when Freightliner withdraw their last '86s.

:eek: How much did that cost in stamps?

:giggle:
 
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Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island
I have not subscribed to any mags in a long long time, I just buy them when I can or when there is something which looks interesting in them.

My favourites are Railway Magazine and Todays Railway Europe.

Oh yes, and I have had pictures published too, but nothing in a long time.
 

Speicher

Vice Admiral
Moderator
oh dear :blush: I meant Today's Railways Europe, which shows how long it is since I bought a copy. I once managed to get a good photograph of the only railway engine on Iceland. I thought I would send it to Today's Railways for publication, only to find a photo of the same engine in that month's edition. :sad:
 
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Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island
Yes I've had things like that happen to me too, a bit crap, isn't it?

I had pictures of the class 311 a few years ago and sent them to a magazine which shall remain nameless. They sent them back, saying they wouldn't need them. The next thing I knew, EXACTLY the same pictures had been published in the next edition, but from a certain well known photographer.

Looking at the date, he'd taken them AFTER I'd sent mine!

To say I was unimpressed was an understatement, tossers.
 
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