Steam Trains | Great British engines, railway journeys and steam enthusiasts
CHANNEL | BBC 2
FIRST BROADCAST | 02 December 1979
DURATION | 29 minutes 20 seconds
FIRSTBROADCAST
1979
The Dart Valley Railway was closed in the late 1950s as part of Dr Beeching's reorganisation of Britain's railway network, but it reopened in 1968 as a volunteer-run association to provide a commercially viable steam passenger service between Buckfastleigh and Totnes. This programme hears from some of those volunteers to find out why they're so determined to preserve their own treasures from the age of steam.
The poem recited in the middle of this programme ('Faster than faeries, faster than witches...') is 'From a Railway Carriage' by Robert Louis Stevenson.
The atmospheric sounds of railways and trains from a bygone era.
Steaming down to Eastbourne with a canine passenger on the footplate.
The Mallard's swansong on the line from Grantham to Peterborough.
A lyrical memorial to some of the stations closed by 'The Beeching Report'.
'Diesel engines are machines, steam locomotives are practically human.'
John Noakes gets his hands dirty on a trip from London to Brighton.
Non-stop from London to Edinburgh - can the Flying Scotsman do it again 40 years later?
Reminiscences about Birmingham Snow Hill station in the 1920s.

An affectionate look at the Dart Valley Railway.
Which hobby unites an airline pilot, a carpenter, a schoolboy, a diplomat and a science teacher?
Take a trip through the Yorkshire Dales on the Clan Line.
Join Michael Palin as he travels from London to the Highlands of Scotland.
A celebration of locomotion, from the Rocket to the APT.
Restoring the Green Knight at East Somerset Railway.
Travel on the footplate on the West Highland Line.
Visit the Cornish and Devon Riviera on the Great Western Railway.
A stunning journey from Fort William to Mallaig with a very contented train driver.
The story of the Isle of Man's Victorian steam railway.
Enthusiasts keep steam alive on Britain's tracks.
How the arrival of the rail networks changed the British countryside.
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