Publisher: Strike Force Entertainment
Region: Region 0
Format: PAL
Language: English
Running Time: 163 minutes
The definitive archive-film led history of the early years of Britain's nationalised rail network.
Post-War, the 'Big Four' Railway companies struggled with a backlog of maintenance of permanent way, engines and rolling stock borne of the under-investment and acute demands made on them during the Second World War. Nationalisation as 'British Railways' came in 1948 and brought with it steam locomotive standardisation and the beginnings of the wholesale transition to diesel and electric traction as outlined in the 1955 Modernisation Plan. The story of this time of intense and controversial change is told in definitive detail with archive fi lm, period newsreels and testimony and interviews with both railwaymen and railway historians.
Among the locomotives featured are the A4 Pacific Class, the First diesel-electric loco no. 10000, the BR standard Britannia class, 9F class 'Evening Star', the Deltic prototype, the Peak D1, D.M.U's, Warships, Westerns, the Blue Pullman and the Glasgow Blue Electrics.
Topics Include:
The formation of the British Transport Commission
A review of post-nationalisation motive power and the locomotive trials
An overview of the resulting BR Standard Class steam locomotives
The 1955 'Modernisation Plan'
First generation diesel-electric locomotives.
The Western Region diesel-hydraulics
The relative merits of Steam and Diesel traction
Various suburban electrification schemes
Freight, marshalling yards, good depots, mail trains, cars by rail and many more...
Interviewees Include:
Alan Pegler OBE, railway preservation pioneer and saviour of the Flying Scotsman
Jim Rees of the National Railway Museum
Engine drivers of the mainline steam era John Fletcher and Ted Abear
With Colin Divall - Professor of Railway Studies and Head of the Institute Of Railway Studies And Transport History at York University and the National Railway Museum.