TRACTION issue 273 starts with an article about the evenings spent watching trains on Rattery Bank in Devon with a surprising amount of freight action. We conclude the two part article about milk traffic to London, whilst a related photo feature turns the spotlight on the milk tankers used on these services.

We travel around the North West in 1993 using a Rail Rover ticket which reminds us just how much has changed in this part of the country with the withdrawal of the ‘Pacers’, the introduction of new rolling stock and widespread electrification. 

In our European spot we come up to date on the variety of locomotives and rolling stock to be seen on the railways of Luxembourg.

We look at the last days of ‘Heritage’ DMUs in the Manchester area. The Portsmouth area once had quite a bit of freight activity based around Fratton yard and we see the traffic there. The Class 60s now owned by DC Rail are seen in their earlier years in our main photo feature.

This issue’s featured layout in TRACTION MODELLING is Upham Market and is inspired by East London commuter traffic in the 1970s and 1980s .