Running a rail timetable relies on the right number of locos, coaches, and staff being fit and in the right place. But on a network the size and complexity of British Rail, sometimes – in fact, often

This time of the year is traditionally quiet because many of the summer-only promoters don’t have much to say as they are working behind the scenes to announce programmes, probably sometime in Februar

PART TWO

RIGHT: On June 4, 1979, 03158 shunts at Ipswich Lower Yard, with the obligatory match wagon needed to make sure the track circuits were operated correctly. It is near the National Carriers depot and s

Provision likely to be on an ‘as required’ basis

Even before I moved to the Chester area for work in autumn 1955, family visits via the city and its railway hub and on into Wales were regularly undertaken, always by train, but now I was living in Sa