Trainload Type 5's
When
this programme was originally issued on VHS in 1993 it was an ‘up to
date’ look at the railway’s Type 5 locomotive fleet. The Foster
Yeoman Class 59s and BR’s Class 60s were still in their infancy and
the Class 56 and 58 fleets stood at their original totals of 135 and 50
locos respectively. Two decades later the material in this programme is
virtually all archive as only a fraction of the fleet (which then
numbered nearly 300 locos) remain in traffic. This programme recalls the
buoyant days of British Rail freight in the pre-Class 66 era and
contains many historical scenes and landmark workings during the period
1984 to 1993. The programme is introduced and narrated by the-then
Margam Area Engineer Andrew Skinner at Cardiff Canton depot. This 100
minute digitally re-mastered DVD includes the following loco classes...
CLASS 56 - these popular locos are seen on a wide variety of duties between
1985 and 1993 including 56101 with car transporters at Warrington, 56029
unloading coal at the now-closed Cockenzie power station, 56005+56052 on
Port Talbot-Llanwern iron ore, Dutch-liveried 56031 arriving at Windsor
& Eton Riverside, 56001 on the Chatham Docks waste....and 56064 on a
Transrail scrap metal service at Exeter.
CLASS 58 - among the many notable workings featured between 1984 and 1993
are 58047 working the Lawley Street-Southampton Freightliner, 50015 on a
Wolverhampton-Euston ‘drag’, 58006 on the Toton-Ashbury’s
Speedlink trip, 58039 at Kings Cross departing for Skegness, Class 58
test bed 47901 departing from Theale...and 58002’s legendary 1984 West
Country HST ‘drag’ from Bristol to Plymouth.
CLASS 59 - as well as featuring their aggregate workings, this DVD includes
a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the Foster Yeoman Class 59s at their
Merehead Quarry base. Also features 59003 and ARC’s 59104 undergoing
acceptance trials on the Midland Main Line, the famous Class 59 adhesion
trials on Savernake bank in February 1986....and the only footage of the
longest freight train ever run in Europe at the time. Hauled by 59005
(with 59001 powering in the middle of the train) it was 1 mile and 44
yards long!
CLASS 60 - includes official footage from Brush Traction
showing the locos under construction at their Loughborough workshops as
well as undergoing testing on the main line and on the Old Dalby test
track. Includes many of their regular workings during their early years
when all the entire fleet carried names and Trainload liveries. Some
locos are seen having been in traffic a matter of weeks!
As with most of our re-releases, the footage has been digitally
re-mastered so that the picture quality is significantly better than it
was on the original VHS version. This DVD also comes with an 8-page
booklet detailing each working featured in the programme.
