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Britain's Favourite Diesel : Like them or loathe them, the EMD JT42CWR, better known as the class 66 or, thanks to that peaked roof, Shed has become a ubiquitous feature of the British railway scene, and is set to remain so for years to come. There can be few places on the national network which haven't seen a Shed at some time since their introduction in 1998. Although built in Canada they originate from the US mid-west, from McCook in the Chicago suburbs, where the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors had their locomotive building plant, and where the prime mover for the 66 is still manufactured. The engine in the 66, a 12N-710-G3B-EC is a linear descendant of the first two stroke diesel developed specifically for rail use by the Winton Engine Company and Electromotive Corporation in 1938, the 567. The two companies, Winton & EMC, had been bought by GM in 1929, they were merged in 1941 to form the Electromotive Division. The 567 was succeeded by the 645 series in 1966 which in turn was superseded by the 710 in 1984. The numbers incidentally refer to the cubic capacity (in cu inches) of each cylinder. Two stroke technology was adopted by Winton in the early 1930s on the back of research money from the US government into improved submarine engine designs. It offered the promise of greater power for a given weight of engine block than could be obtained from contemporary four stroke engines. Although less fuel efficient than four strokes, EMD have stuck with their two stroke designs now for over 70 years, each succeeding type being more powerful, and more efficient whilst emitting fewer pollutants, than its predecessor. In the North American market EMD had, by 1969, seen off almost all their competitors; Fairbanks-Morse, Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton and Alco. Only GE remained and it is GE which in the past 20 years has overtaken EMD in the locomotive sales stakes. But here, for the moment, and elsewhere in Europe the 66 remains the best selling diesel of recent years, although with the advent of GE's Powerhaul product (aka Ugly Betty) that may change. GM sold EMD to two private equity groups in 2005, who in June 2010 sold it to Caterpillar Inc. EMD and their predecessors have been in the rail internal combustion engine market almost from the beginning (EMC was originally founded in 1922), I for one hope they survive and prosper in the 21st Century. Here is a selection of shed pictures, from other galleries on the site for those of you who can't get enough of Britain's Favourite Diesel :-)

Britain's Favourite Diesel

nick86235

Like them or loathe them, the EMD JT42CWR, better known as the class 6 ...

Updated: May 19, 2013 2:07pm PST

Goblin : My first encounter with the Gospel Oak to Barking Line was in the late 1960s when with the son of a neighbour we caught the train, a DMU of course, to Barking from Kentish Town. I don't remember much else to be truthful. Over the years its fortunes have waxed and waned, I recall that in the 1980s, when I was living in Forest Gate in East London, there was very little freight traffic over the route owing to weight restrictions on some parts of the line. Today it is enjoying a renaissance thanks to the injection of upgrade funds from Transport for London and Network Rail, although it no longer hosts boat trains from St Pancras to Tilbury as it did in years gone by. The line's history is quite complicated, what we know today as a single integrated route was in fact two railways. The oldest was the Tottenham and Hampstead Junction which opened in 1868. Originally owned by the Great Eastern (who promoted it) it later fell into the hands of the Midland and, later still, became a joint Midland & GER operation. East of what is now South Tottenham is the route of the Tottenham and Forest Gate which opened in 1894 and was a Midland and London Tilbury & Southend undertaking. Today the 'join' between the two lines at South Tottenham is still quite evident by the track geometry! Being non-electrified there are a number of decent shots from overbridges and stations, the bridge shots often needing steps foir a decent view. Until 2009 the line boasted a mechanical signal box at Harringay Park and a slew of both motor worked and manual semaphores. Now it's LED colour lights, which control both a busy freight scene and also LOROL's 15 minute interval passenger service with new class 172 Turbostars.

Goblin

nick86235

My first encounter with the Gospel Oak to Barking Line was in the late ...

Updated: May 19, 2013 1:49pm PST

Spring 2013 : March and the onset of Spring, and about time too after the relatively cold grey weather we've endured these last few weeks. Officially the winter has been about average but here in SE England and East Anglia it really has been quite miserable. The coming of March saw brighter weather over the first weekend and warmer weather at the begining of the following week. But that didn't last. Winter returned with a vengeance on March 23rd, even the Bluebell Railway's gala opening of the East Grinstead extension wasn't spared the snow although conditions elsewhere were very much worse. The final week of the month features the new East Grinstead extension of the Bluebell Railway, including the first through train from Victoria on the 28th, headed by GBRf 66739 which was named Bluebell Railway in a ceremony at Horsted Keynes. As I work in East Grinstead these days I expect it may feature more in my pictures over the coming months. My first domestic pictures in April were taken on the 10th & 11th in London and South Wales, in somewhat contrasting weather conditions. April 20th brought the first proper spring day, wall to wall sunshine so I took myself around London for the day. The following week was progressively warm and sunny, although my opportunities to take advantage were a bit limited. On Monday 29th, Tuesday 30th and Wednesday 1st I managed pictures of the 1M16 Caledonian Sleeper on the ECML, the Dollands Moor to Dagenham Channel Tunnel Express and its return in the evening and sundry MU shots on London Overground, crossing the Thames and at Norwood Junction. On Thursday 2nd I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours in the evening on London Overground's rebuilt East London Line, between Dalston and Surrey Quays. Our May Day bank holiday weekend was spent, as it always is with a number of old friends and their children, this time in a farmhouse overlooking the River Wye near Symonds Yat. I had a few opportunities for some pictures. The following week was generally disappointing weatherwise, although I did get a picture of the 7L23 in the early morning sunshine at Crouch Hill on my way to work on Tuesday and on Saturday spent an enjoyable afternoon, alternately getting soaked and baked (well sort of) in the fens around March. Week commencing 13th began with a picture of the 7L23 at Junction Road and continued with a range of early evening trains around North and North West London. On Saturday we went to Porthmadog in North Wales for the Welsh Highland Rail Ale Festival, catching the 06:23 from Euston, changing at Birmingham International into the 08:08 to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli. The weather forecast as late as Friday afternoon was not promising, but the reality was very much better, especially on Sunday.

Spring 2013

nick86235

March and the onset of Spring, and about time too after the relatively ...

Updated: May 19, 2013 1:44pm PST

LMS & WD Locomotives : <div style="background-color: #fefefe; margin:0ex;padding:2ex"><html><IMG SRC="http://www.philt.org.uk/photos/i-qLkT2JD/1/Th/i-qLkT2JD-Th.jpg" ALIGN="CENTER" title="London Midland & Scottish Railway" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=84 hspace="10">Preserved steam locomotives of the London Midland & Scottish Railway plus those commissioned by the War Department.</font></html></div>

LMS & WD Locomotives

Phil Trotter

Preserved steam locomotives of the London Midland & Scottish Railway p ...

Updated: May 19, 2013 12:27pm PST

2013 : <html><div style="background-color: #fefefe; margin:0ex;padding:1ex"><IMG SRC="http://www.philt.org.uk/photos/i-tPtBx8h/0/M/i-tPtBx8h-M.jpg" ALIGN="LEFT" title="" WIDTH=234 HEIGHT=60 Vspace="5" hspace="10"></img>Views of the ever-changing and colourful modern scene on Britain's railway during 2013. Generally, photographs are catalogued in locomotive or unit number order.<br><br><br><br></div></html>

2013

Phil Trotter

Views of the ever-changing and colourful modern scene on Britain's rai ...

Updated: May 19, 2013 12:22pm PST

Latest Pictures : <div style="background-color: #fefefe; margin:0ex;padding:1ex"> <html> <IMG SRC="http://www.philt.org.uk/photos/i-tCJBxks/0/M/i-tCJBxks-M.jpg" ALIGN="LEFT" title="" WIDTH=234 HEIGHT=60 Vspace="80" hspace="20"></img><p> All of the latest rail pictures will be uploaded here and held for around a month before being moved to the appropriate collection. Keep up to date with new uploads by following twitter @PhilTorgUK<br> • 19.05.13: Sunday Odds and Sods.<br> • 18.05.13: 47826 and 47854 on 1Z52.<br> • 14.05.13: Newport Miscellany (in the Rain...).<br> • 11.05.13: 5043 on 'The Cheltenham Flyer' and Reading's new look.<br> • 10.05.13: Out and About around Newport and A4 60009 on 1Z30.<br> • 09.05.13: 47805 and 47790 on 1Z53.<br> • 06.05.13: Bank Holiday Bits.<br> • 05.05.13: 60063 and 60059 on 6B61 at Gowerton.<br> • 04.05.13: 34067 on 1Z37 and Didcot miscellany.<br> • 28.04.13: Repainted ATW 150251 and weedkilling MPV 6Z10.<br> • 27.04.13: DRS 20308, 20312 and 47802 on 'The Retro Welsh Dragon'.<br> </font></html></div>

Latest Pictures

Phil Trotter

All of the latest rail pictures will be uploaded here and held fo ...

Updated: May 19, 2013 12:19pm PST

Bluebell Railway 2009/10 :

Bluebell Railway 2009/10

Stephen Leek

Updated: May 19, 2013 12:08pm PST

California: State Railroad Museum, Sacramento, 2006 : 78 photos in chronological order of this excellent museum in 2006. It is particularly strong on the human aspect of railroad history. When I returned in 2011 I found few changes, and 12 photos of these are in a separate collection.

California: State Railroad Museum, Sa...

andrewstransport

78 photos in chronological order of this excellent museum in 2006. It ...

Updated: May 19, 2013 3:05am PST

GWR 0-6-0 No 3205 : Collett Class 2251 No 3205 making a brief visit from the South Devon Railway.

GWR 0-6-0 No 3205

Stephen Leek

Collett Class 2251 No 3205 making a brief visit from the South Devon R ...

Updated: May 18, 2013 9:09am PST

Class 50 diesels : 34 photos, one of DP2 in 1967, the rest of 11 of the 18 preserved class 50s.

Class 50 diesels

andrewstransport

34 photos, one of DP2 in 1967, the rest of 11 of the 18 preserved clas ...

Updated: May 18, 2013 1:35am PST

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