The early days of George Stephenson and the pioneering engineers are told with reference to museum and reproduction locomotives, whilst the developments of the successor railways to the Stockton and Darlington, the North Eastern Railway, the Great Northern, Great Eastern and Great Central are told through archive footage of their locomotives in the 1950s. Further footage from the 1950s and 1960s adds to this, whilst preserved locomotives such as the Flying Scotsman and Mallard take the story on to the present day, with Class 91s on the electrified East Coast Main Line. The archive footage includes film of locomotives such as Gresley's P1 2-8-2, North Eastern and Great Northern Atlantics and 4-4-0s and Great Eastern 'Hikers'.
The start of it all is illustrated by reference to museum reproductions of the locomotives which worked on the famous Liverpool and Manchester Railway including Rocket, Sans Pareil and Planet. The story carries on with particular emphasis on the LNWR and the locomotives of that great railway known as the 'Premier Line' with rare 1930s archive footage showing 'Super Ds', 'Claughtons', 'George V', 'Prince of Wales' and 'Precursors', as well as smaller 'Cauliflowers' and 2-4-2Ts. LMS standard types are seen also in the 1930s and on into the 1940s and 1950s, including a scene on the famous 1947 Exchange Trials of an LNER 'A4' at Rugby. The Midland and Lancashire & Yorkshire influences are seen and the story carries on into British Railway's days through the end of steam to today's electrified main lines.
The Great Western had a continuity of history that the other railways envied. We touch on the early days and the broad gauge as we set the scene using museum and reproduction locomotives and artifacts. Much of the GWR's continuity was underlined by its locomotive policy and we illustrate its growth with footage of the 1930s which shows many of the early locomotives still in use. Other footage takes us into the 1950s and 1960s and on into the present day. The Southern was built from three major systems. The earliest railway in the South, the Canterbury & Whitstable, is seen in the 1950s, but other parts of the story involve both black & white and full colour footage of the 1930s. The steam era is taken to its close whilst the Southern Electric takes us right up to today. Archive film includes such items as 'Stars', 'Metro Tanks', the rebuilding of Leamington Spa Station, 'Paddleboxes' and the 'Southern Belle'.
Archive footage of the 1930s shows the Scottish Railway variety with features on both Edinburgh's Waverley Station and Glasgow's St Enoch as well as the locomotive sheds at Inverness. The many rare views include a North British Atlantic and a GSWR 'Baltic' tank, as well as the many 4-4-0s which were so characteristic of the country. 1950s and 1960s footage extends the areas covered and all the major companies' stories are told; the Caledonian, North British, Glasgow and South Western, the Highland and the Great North of Scotland. Today's ScotRail brings the story up to date. In Wales the story is that of the LNWR in North Wales, the Cambrian in Central Wales, the narrow gauge lines of the mountains and the myriad small companies serving the famous coal valleys in the South. Again, 1930s footage is supplemented by 1950s archive including, as the opener to our story, the last days of the earliest of all, the Swansea & Mumbles Railway. The coal story takes us from the heyday through the 1950s and 1960s to the end in the early 1990s.