Welcome to Skaledale Junction
My interest in railways began in ernest in May 1992, British Rail was still going strong, but privatisation was only two years away. BR was in its swansong prior to being carved up into many seperate freight and passenger train operating companies. The variety of colours that has since graced our rail network has been phenomenal! After all the change in the name of progress, I still prefer those early trainspotting years at Derby in 1992-1996 seeing the Intercity Swallow liveried HST's (such as 43064 "City of York" & 43085 "City of Bradford"), Cross-Country 47/8's like 47831 "Bolton Wanderer" and 47832 "Tamar". Sunday engineer trips from Chad sidings always produced either a 'Dutch' 56, single 37/0 or pairs of 31's and then there was the trusty work stained blue 08842 shunting coaching stock in and around Etches Park. 47/4's (some still in BR Large logo!) and the then new Rail Express Systems Crewe based 47/7's bringing the mail from the North and the South-West long before the invention of EWS 67's. Pairs of 20's could be seen on the Sheffield-Skegness summer specials with occasional class 56's & 58's on routine MGR workings to and from Toton. I clearly remember 56004 shattering the peace while in charge of the 6M57 Aldwarke-Wolverhamton steel rods on a very damp day in July 1992, while awaiting my first glimpse of 4498 on the main line. But as ever, things change. We are now part of a new era where we see some of our most loved and cherished classes of diesel (and electric) loco's becoming stored, withdrawn and scrapped. Skaledale Junction, is my attempt at preserving what I remember in the early to mid-90's. The period I am trying to modelling is between 1985 and present day. Please feel free to browse through this site and pass on any comments if you wish. |
