Indian Summer 1975, 2011

It is 1975 and the Westerns are holding their own while the influx of Class 50 replacements struggled to reach the same levels of availability and reliability as the diesel hydraulics. The end of the Hymeks in March meant the Westerns were the last survivors of the hydraulic era on Britain’s railways. Everyone remembers the long hot summer of 1976 with its record-breaking temperatures but 1975 had its summer moments too. Sadly at the end of that summer, the winter timetable brought with it the biggest Western cull to date, and it is all charted here in this wonderful volume which details the ever changing scene in a month-by-month format. The year was the beginning of the end for the Glam Rock era and punk was just around the corner, little did everyone know the following summer would be the last for the hydraulics.