TRACTION 2025 Part 1

FREIGHT TRAFFIC & TRACTION: GBRf’s 60026 comes to the rescue of DRS’s 66433 on the Coatbridge to Daventry intermodal; the Class 56 Group’s 56301 returns to traffic and then transfers to DCR; 37601 is transformed back into 37501 in British Steel blue livery; 47815 hauling ‘dead Shed’ 66502 on the Southampton to Leeds Freightliner; 68033 on DRS’s short-lived Tees Dock-Trafford Park intermodal; 92010 on GBRf’s Dagenham Dock to Garston cars; 56049 working the Lindsey to Kingsbury tanks; 20007 & 20205 hauling a Colas tamper from Rugby to Dollands Moor; 68017 on the new DRS aggregates flow from Drigg to Shap; 37405 hauling a rake of Land Recovery box wagons from Longport to Penmaenmawr Quarry; 56049 arriving at Preston Docks with redundant bitumen tanks for cleaning; GBRf’s first two Class 99s arrive at Leicester; ROG Class 93s undergoing testing...and Freightliner’s 90015 & 90004 rescue ‘dead Shed’ 66601 on the Theale to Hope cement.

PASSENGER TRACTION, RAILTOURS & SPECIALS: GBRf hire in 37403 to work the Edinburgh Waverley to Aberdeen sleepers; Newark ‘Thunderbird’ 47812 on two LNER rescue missions; LSL’s brief hire of 57311 to GWR for the ‘Night Riviera’ sleepers; 33029 & 33207 hauling the ‘Verney Venturer’ charter over the new ‘East-West’ route; 86259 & 86401 ‘top & tailing’ a Liverpool to Wembley ‘Foot-Ex’; 37240 returns to the main line with Vintage Trains; 57603 and the ‘Night Riviera’ sleepers venture over the ‘East-West’ route, 40013 visits Norwich...and a nostalgic return to old haunts for 45118 on the 'Master Cutler' excursion from Leeds to St Pancras.

THERE's ALSO: 20118 & 20132 ‘top & tailing’ the vintage Brighton Belle set on a shakedown run from Crewe to Chester; 47812 & 47802 hauling a rake of ex-GWR HST stock from Laira to Carnforth; 37423 rescuing a defective CrossCountry Voyager stranded at Carstairs; 37706 & 37518 ‘top & tailing’ a move of 47847 & 47843 from Worksop to Carnforth; 33012, 50007 and 50049 on movements of GWR Mark 3 sleepers between Eastleigh and Reading; 37516 & 37518 on a Fort William to Eastriggs snowplough move; 37706 hauling the NRM’s Class 108 DMU from York to Carnforth; Class 37-hauled moves of Mendip Rail JHA wagons going for scrap; Rail Adventure power cars 43423 & 43467 venture into Kent; Class 321, 455 & 465 EMUs being hauled to Newport Docks for disposal; former FGW power cars 43194 & 43153 make their final run on the Mid-Norfolk Railway before their export to Mexico; LSL ‘Bubble Car’ 121022 on an evening excursion from Waterloo to Windsor…and the first Class 44 double-header in preservation.