Classic Steam Train Collection

This film joins the drivers and engineers on the Western Line engines for live sequences of different journeys. Every aspect of driving a steam locomotive is covered. From observing and obeying signals to understanding the dangers of letting speed run away with you, Clive Groome’s easy manor and vast experience makes this definitive footplate guide a must-watch for anyone interested in steam. Clive one of the most experienced enginemen in the country demonstrates how to fire four very different steam locomotives from lighting up in the morning and oiling the machine right through to the disposal of the engine at night.

On April 1st 2000, a Black Five answered an SOS from the Mid-Hants Railway to work a Daylight Railtour outing from Alton to Bridgnorth, home of the Severn Valley Railway. Known as the maid of all works, there were 842 Black Fives built and she was certainly the most reliable workhorse of the London Midland Region. Their day out on the mainline included the long drag north from Warwick up Hatton Bank where they had the rare opportunity of working a preserved steam engine flat out. The film takes a look at the engine’s performance on that trip including detailed footplate and lineside coverage as the crew worked to get the most out of the mixed-traffic engine.

The ultimate pictorial record of how the world’s most famous express locomotive steamed triumphantly into the Millennium, reborn with far greater power than Sir Nigel Gresley had ever envisaged. It is a story of financial nightmares and engineering excellence and it’s told with the help of three men, her owner, the chief engineer, and the traction inspector who was on the footplate at key moments. A professional TV documentary crew intensively filmed the engine in action during her first year back on the mainline. The result is a unique film, ‘A Day in the Life’ and ‘A Year in the Life’ - the star is “Flying Scotsman”.

In what is believed to be the most intensive coverage of a single steam railtour, a team of professional TV cameramen follow “Green Arrow” to the West Country. But it was a railtour that Green Arrow was never scheduled to make. The original plan was to take a Gresley A4 to Plymouth. Filming had already started aboard 60007 “Sir Nigel Gresley” when mechanical faults ruled the engine out. As luck would have it, the only survivor of the V2 class, “Green Arrow”, had just come back from major surgery and she came to the rescue in spectacular fashion. No-one could have imagined the volcanic efforts the big 2-6-2 engine would have to produce, particularly on the infamous Devon banks, in order to reach Plymouth. This brilliant programme reveals the drama of steam traction at its most volcanic.