Diesel Traction in Action Volume 1 - BR locos in the early 1980s on CD

DIESEL TRACTION
IN ACTION
Volume 1

audio CD

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Diesel Traction In 	Action Volume 1 CD cover

"Beasts", "Monsters", "Hellfire!". If you understand this language then prepare to settle down at a drop-light window and soak up some sounds of the past.

Digitally processed mono archive recordings (added pseudo-stereo effect).
Re-mastered again in 2016 for better quality and extended to 80 minutes.


Recorded during 1980 to 1985.

Running time 80 minutes

Early 1980s nostalgia with classes 20, 25, 31, 37, 40, 45, 46, 47, 50, 55, 56 & HST in BR service during 1980 to 1985, heard mostly in the Midlands and Yorkshire.

Highlights include:
**46023 getting to grips with load 14 at Grantham (night time)
**Riding behind a 31 getting stuck on a grade hauling 12 coaches!
**"Whistler Farewell" at Peterborough
**Class 20s on the "Skeggy" at Leicester

7.00

Price includes worldwide postage.

You can download a pdf version of the playlist:
Diesel Traction in Action Volume 1 playlist PDF


You can purchase a digital download version at my Etsy shop and save money:
Diesel Traction in Action Volume 1 at Etsy

Sample sound (mp3) from track number 13:

31184 departs Leicester on a TPO.

Here is the full recording list:

Leicester:
1 - 45139 departs for St. Pancras in the late afternoon. 3rd April 1980.
2 - An unidentified class 45 sets off in a hurry from platform 3 for St. Pancras. 22nd October 1980.

Peterborough:
3 - As 31295 stands at platform 4 an HST whizzes through northwards. Then 55012 "Crepello" is heard in the background departing on the 0805 York - Kings Cross. Somebody asks if I got the HST's number? (No, I didn't!). 31295 then sets off for Norwich. 2nd May 1981.
4 - After a brief pause at platform 4, 37102 does a good horse imitation as it pulls away on a mixed freight (including Grainflow) taking the line towards March. 2nd May 1981.
5 - 47438 departs platform 4 on a northbound semi-fast service. 2nd May 1981.
6 - 55016 sets off at 1317 for York. 26th September 1981.
7 - 37047 leaves for Harwich at 1846. 26th September 1981.

Axminster 27th March 1982:
8* - 50047 pulls away briskly on an Exeter service at 1354.

St. Germans 27th March 1982:
9* - 50027 departs leisurely at 1804 on its way to Penzance, as an HST sounds its horns and passes at the other side of the train.

Chesterfield 28th March 1983:
10 - Two kinds of whistling as 20158/181 on a goods train and an HST 43163/164 both depart southbound as the daylight fades.
11 - 25259 on a parcels train splutters away into the distance (south) at 1937hrs.

Leicester 29th May 1983:
12 - 45102, sounding in fine fettle, arrives and departs on a railtour to Eastleigh.

Leicester 2nd June 1983:
13 - It is still light at 2127 as 20072/075 arrive at platform 3 from Skegness. 31184 departs platform 4 on a northbound TPO train behind the mic. Semaphore signals can be heard. 31415 sets off for Cambridge from platform l (normally a DMU service). It can be heard slowing and accelerating in the distance as it catches up with the TPO. 20075/072 run through light, along platform 2. 43066 (failed) /43104 arrive at platform 4. 20072/075 run onto the empty stock and the front cab door slams as the secondman jumps out. 43066/104 set off for St. Pancras. The secondman jumps back into 20075 and slams the door and 20075/072 depart north with the ECS. 47081 eases through north on the freight line on tankers as 47449 arrives from the north at platform 3 on parcels. As a 47 in the sidings sounds its horns, 08699 arrives with an extra van for the parcels train. The 47, possibly 47261, comes out of a siding and runs into another one.This recording lasted so long, that it got dark and the announcers changed shifts!
14 - 37075 is uncoupled from a parcels train at 2218 at the south end of platform 4, with some difficulty, as the shunter s voice can be heard and the 37 pushes hard enough to move the vans against their brakes.

Leicester 29th May 1982:
15 - 45147 arrives and departs at 0901 for Scarborough. (See cover photo).

Grantham at night:
16 - 47412 departs for the south at 0043hrs. 20th June 1983.
17 - 46026 on the above service a day later at 0041hrs. 21st June 1983.

Sheffield 21st June 1983:
18 - 47316 makes a vigorous start with an MGR train getting repeated wheel-slip.

Healey Mills (Trains departing to the west of the yard). 22nd June 1983:
19 - 40181 gets a bit of wheel-slip as it pulls away at 1224 on tankers.
20 - At 1310, 56092 pulls away in the distance and thunders by with hoppers.
21 - 20180/160 ease passed slowly at 1427.

Grantham 23rd June 1983:
22 - 46023 makes a spirited start at 0053hrs on a southbound passenger and Royal Mail working. This sound is briefly interrupted by 31145 screaming through on a northbound parcels.

25th June 1983:
23 - At Wakefield Kirkgate, 37031 accelerates away on a northbound passenger working.
24 - At Sheffield, 40152 sets off southwards on a passenger train at 2020, watched by a crowd of enthusiasts.

Leicester 1st September 1983:
25 - 25266/45119 propel an additional van onto a parcels train at platform 3.
26 - 25266/45119 then depart southwards at 2115.
27 - Shortly after arriving with a train from Skegness, 20084/135 run light to the north of the station via platform l.
28 - 20084/135 leave platform 3 northwards at 214l with the ECS.
29 - 25198 takes some parcels vans up to the signal at the north end of platform 2.

18th September 1983:
30* - At Nuneaton, a service from Euston had arrived with a class 86 while a class 56 stood by to take the train on to Wolverhampton. However, the mark 1 corridor coaches were vacuum-braked and so a nearby class 31 was summoned. 31171 is heard departing at 1310. On the steep gradient it gets slowed by signals and with 12 coaches in tow, the driver is not happy. As we almost come to a halt, the signal changes to yellow, the wheels slip a few times - the sound of sliding wheels being audible - and the sanding gear can be heard hissing but I suspect had run out of sand. Irate "bashers" shout from windows as we slip to a stand, before getting moving at a walking pace. At the top of the gradient (just before the junction with the goods fly-over), our driver pauses the train to speak to the signalman. The mic did not pick up the conversation! With most of the coaches still on the grade, the driver struggles to get us rolling and we stall again. Bashers express their opinions (edited for language!). But our heroic driver gets us on our way.
31* - At Birmingham New Street, 56029 departs at 1447 for Wolverhampton, and opens up in the tunnel.

Doncaster 23rd February 1984:
32 - 40044 sets off on a northbound parcels from platform 4 at 0323.

9th March 1985:
33* - 25309 (having replaced a failed class 31) pulls out of Stamford at 1555 on a Birmingham - Norwich service.
34 - 47589 pulls away from Peterborough's platform 5 at 1845 on a Glasgow to Harwich train.
35 - D200 (40122) having been saved from the scrapyard, reinstated and repainted green, arrives at Peterborough and then....
36 - ....departs at 1912 with the "Whistler Farewell" railtour.

* denotes on-train recording.


7.00

Price includes worldwide postage.

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