TIME TRAVELLER

50 YEARS AGO... JANUARY 1970

■ Speaking to members of the Derby Railway Engineering Club at its annual dinner, Mr W G Thorpe – deputy chairman and chief executive of British Railways Board – said that British Railway’s conversion from steam to diesel traction was “Far too sudden a change, far too inadequately planned… Millions were poured out… it was bad management planning”. Referring to the future, Mr Thorpe hoped that electrification would be extended to Glasgow and, speaking of the proposed Co-Co diesel-electric locomotive with a top