This programme sets out to offer a real feel of what it was like to observe the busy railway network of the Midlands in the last decade of steam operations. Not surprisingly, in an era renowned for its heavy industry, freight workings and the locomotives designed for heavy goods duties, play a prominent role in the proceedings. There is much coverage of the LNWR designed G2 class 0-8-0 tender engines, the last LNWR class to survive in any numbers. These engines are contrasted with their LMS built successors, the 8F 2-8-0s. Other types which feature in the films are Black 5s, Horwich Moguls, Fowler tanks, Jinties, Ivatt 2-6-0s and several of the British Railways Standard designs ranging from Britannia Pacifics to the Class 4 Moguls. These machines, often work stained and unkempt, are seen on a succession of coal and steel trains and long mixed freights, traffic flows which have either been shut down or nowadays go by road. Passenger traffic is not forgotten.

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