Western Region Rail Scene: 1970s–1980s

The Western Region of today is not without its modern followers, but four to five decades ago it was a very different story. Passenger services were locomotive-hauled, hydraulic traction was beginning to be phased out and freight traffic was in abundance. In addition, the first new generation of HSTs was beginning to appear on front-line services. The 1970s and 1980s really were two decades of variety. Garry Stroud presents a fascinating selection of images covering the whole region, from Paddington to Penzance, West and South Wales and north to Worcester and Hereford. These images offer a nostalgic look back to a past era when semaphore signals controlled the line and hydraulic power was giving way to diesel electric traction, first-generation DMUs were the order of the day on branch-line services and diesel depots had a variety of locomotive action.