NEW:
add to order > Western Blues | DVD | £19.95
30 years have elapsed since the demise of the famous
‘Western’ class diesels in service with British Rail, and
we commemorate this anniversary with a very special
programme looking at their final four years in
traffic.
The programme looks at each of the
four years from 1974-1977, and with 50 different
locomotives appearing in the programme, we get the chance
to see most of our favourites in action once more.
The programme also features many of the special trains
operating in that period with D1010, D1013, D1023, D1051,
D1052 all appearing on railtour duties
Other
highlights include: Double headed over Dainton; The
summers of 1974 & 1975 at Dawlish; Reading platform
scenes; and a ride behind Western Ambassador!
Guaranteed to bring back glorious memories from that
wonderful era!
Running time approx 62
mins
---------------------------------------
---------------------
What the Press
say..........
“Hold on to your seats as we
are whisked back to the sunset of a golden era when the
Western Region’s iconic diesel-hydraulics were still to
be found on a variety of duties.
Many will remember
them in BR blue livery and as this thoughtfully compiled
programme features film from the period 1974 to 1977,
that is very much what you get.The title would amplify
that fact too, whilst hinting at the sadness that the
‘Thousands’ were being replaced by BR
Some of the
scenes here of 52s on passenger duties prove that their
drivers were not going to let their steeds go out with a
whimper and got the best from their machines.
It is
unlikely that drivers were ‘playing to the cameras’
either since much of the film is amateur, hand-held
footage – and thank goodness for it.
We all wish we
had recorded more ‘classic’ scenes at the time and
without those who actually went out and used their
precious film, archive presentations like this would not
be possible. There are also some wonderful quality
sequences which look like they could have been filmed
yesterday, and put us at the lineside at locations such
as Dawlish Warren as ‘Westerns’ whizz by with their rakes
of blue & grey coaches.
Busy scenes at Reading
will have viewers looking to see if they were amongst the
platform-enders enjoying the then everyday procession of
loco hauled workings.
Westbury is another location
visited, where we experience the class hard at work on
freight duties.
You can take a seat as we enjoy a
run behind D1051 Western Ambassador, or thrill to the
spectacle of double-headed Class 52 workings on
Dainton.
Memories of their final railtours are
revived and at least we now know there was a happy ending
for at least a few survivors of this Class.
Some 50
of the 74 ‘Westerns’ are to be found on this programme
which provides a fitting tribute to a great class of
locomotive.
Following hard on the heels of Globe’s
‘Regiments & Racehorses’ tribute to the ‘Deltics’,
this is another superb archive treat – lap it up!”
David Brown – Editor
TRACTION MAGAZINE
January 2008
And what our customers
say.....
I can't begin to tell you how enjoyable it
is to relive the days when trains were interesting, keep
up the great work!
AS, Cumbria
Download clip ( 2.68MB )