(Standard DVD) British Railways Today: Issue 5
Description
Run-time: 1 hour and 44 minutes approx.
The fifth programme in an occasional series featuring trains in action from the National Network as well as on Britain’s Heritage Lines.
The first of a two-part feature kicks off the programme with a look at traffic on the busy four-track mainline between Crewe and Stafford. An interesting mixture of freight and passenger traffic is seen with class 221, 350 and 390 units at work: on the freight side class 66s dominate but we also see class 86s, class 90s and a class 88. Heritage traction is witnessed with a class 47 and 37 top and tail also seen.
A quick visit is made to Horsted Keynes station on the Bluebell railway, with local steam trains in action.
We continue with the steam theme in our look at Black 5 steam locos at work on the Mallaig line out of Fort William in Western Scotland.
A look at GWR diversions along the Severn Estuary between Chepstow and Gloucester. Classes 800, 142, 153, 60, 66, 56 and 70 all appear next to a picturesque stretch of the river.
Our ‘Bits and Pieces’ section features 20227 and 189 at Stratford-upon-Avon, 31452 at Okehampton, steam on the GlosWarks Railway and engineering trains with 66s and 56s at the helm through Cam and Dursley.
A look at CrossCountry diverted passenger trains through Westbury where we feature these as well as Hitachi IET, 66s, 158s, 159s, 165s and 166s on a mixture of passenger services as well as freight traffic consisting of stone, container and infrastructure workings.
We finish the programme with D1015 Western Champion on a freight train in Gloucestershire during a special test run.