Locomotive Class Profiles

Ref: LP375D

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It is more than 15 years since we released two ground breaking documentaries detailing the dramatic run down and farewell programme of the British Rail Class 50 fleet. The two programmes – CLASS 50 FINALE and FALL & RISE OF THE 50s – were produced with the co-operation of Network South East and the management and staff at BR’s Laira depot at Plymouth and they detailed every aspect of how the 50 fleet was maintained and managed - from A exams to overhauls. These two programmes have now been merged into one 2 hour programme and cover the period from the summer of 1991 (when the last 12 locos were working the Waterloo-Exeter route) to the final railtours in March 1994. As well as featuring plenty of ‘behind the scenes’ footage at Laira there is also plenty of coverage of the Class 50s at work on the main line as they work a variety of service trains, railtours and specials. As well as featuring some classic Class 50 locations, the locos are also seen ‘off the beaten track’ on many ground-breaking routes.

Never before had the rundown of a BR locomotive class been filmed at such close quarters and Laira’s former Area Fleet Manager, Geoff Hudson, tells the story of what is now a chapter in railway history. Among the featured are – the last scheduled day of Class 50 haulage on the Waterloo-Exeter route, the adventures of ‘Valiant’ and ‘Thunderer’, convoys of withdrawn locos heading to the scrapyard, the return of ‘Sir Edward Elgar’, the remarkable story of ‘Glorious’, many of the Class 50 railtours from August 1991, the entire farewell railtour programme, A and B examinations …plus footage of 50 033 being restored for the National Railway Museum. Also covered are test runs, flashover damage assessment, removal and re-fitting of a power unit, bodywork preparation and re-painting, the fitting and removal of nameplates….and several performances of the famous ‘Laira Concerto’ as various Class 50s are fired-up in spectacular style on Laira depot! These were the last class of diesel locomotives to be withdrawn by BR – and this DVD recalls the story of how the class went out in fitting style.

Availability: AVAILABLE
Narrated by: Geoff Hudson, Area Fleet Manager, Plymouth
First published on DVD: 2010
Classification: Exempt
Number of discs: 1 DVD-R

Running Time: 120-mins (2hr 0min)

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Ref: LP370D

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The Class 37 has been one of the most succesful and popular diesel locomotives of its generation and their versatility and excellent route availability have seen them work just about every type of train and cover virtually the entire national rail network. Spanning 25 years and covering much of the country, this DVD features over 130 Class 37s at work on the main lines and branch lines of Britain. From the BR era of the 1980’s and 1990’s through privatisation to the present day, this programme features many of the celebrity locos, numerous liveries, all the sub-Class variations, an amazing variety of workings - and plenty of thrash! It’s not short on nostalgia either. Among the many locos and workings are....

37002 & 37106 on the Immingham-Scunthorpe iron ore, 37027 & 37040 with the Peak Forest-Hope Street limestone, 37214 on Speedlink coal to Neasden, 37175 and 37196 hauling Cornish china clay hoods, 37260 and 37262 on Scottish Speedlink’s, 37417 & 37420 on the Burngullow-Irvine ‘Silver Bullet’, 37906 in East Anglia on the Cardiff-Whitemoor metals service, 37026 & 37069 & 37083 triple-heading iron ore for Ravenscraig steelworks, 37244 at Lime Kiln Junction with coal empties for Oakdale colliery, 37099 & 37293 on the Margam-Dee Marsh steel, 37892 on the Dawlish sea wall with the Fawley-Tavistock Junction tanks, 37144+37218 on the Middleton Towers sand, 37605 hauling the last Swindon-Tilbury ‘Butterliner’, 37025 working the Bescot-Stud Farm ballast, 37029 single-handedly powering the Millbrook-Coatbridge Freightliner, 37116 with the Bescot-Brierly Hill trip, 37514+37516 working the Redmire-Redcar limestone, 37308 hauling the 1,200 tonne Eastleigh-Wembley ‘Enterprise’, 37503+37669 with pipes for Georgemas Junction, 37218 on the Thameshaven-Langley tanks, 37099+37293 performing a standing start from Abergavenny with 1,500 tonnes of hot steel coils for Dee Marsh, 37405+37425 on the Brentford-Appleford ‘Bins’, 37510+37667 with the Stockton-Sheerness scrap, 37223 on the 16.53 Weymouth-Bristol, 37113 working the 09.25 Stonehaven-Inverness, 37141 on a rare Waterloo-Exeter passenger service rescuing a failed 50 037, 37197 dragging a HST from Exeter to Paddington, 37109 working the VSOE, 37416 hauling the Royal Train, 37604+37608 on a North Pole-Waterloo ‘Eurostar’ ‘drag’, ex-Works 37350 on the ‘Coalville Cobbler’ in 1988 and then being named at York ten years later, Network Rail 97/3s in action...and Class 37s working abroad in France and Spain!

Narrated by: David Maxey

First published: 2011

Running time: 100-mins

Availability: AVAILABLE
Classification: Exempt
Number of discs: 1 DVD-R


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Ref: LP444D

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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 Locomaster's 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.

Narrated by:

First published: 1993 VHS, 2013 DVD

Availability: AVAILABLE
Narrated by: Andrew Skinner, Area Manager, Margam 1993.
First published on DVD: 1993 on VHS, 2013 on DVD.
Classification: Exempt
Number of discs: 1 DVD-R

Running Time: 80-mins (1hr 20min) , Colour
.

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Ref: LP517D

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This DVD combines the two VHS programmes FIFTIES AT WORK and 50s – THE FINAL YEARS into 100 minutes of Class 50 nostalgia, and covers the locos during their final years of regular service from 1987 to 1991. Not only has the footage been digitally re-mastered but the man responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the locos, Geoff Hudson, has narrated this re-issue. As BR’s former Area Fleet Manager at Plymouth, Geoff tells the fascinating story of how it all happened. As many Class 50 followers will know, it wasn’t all plain sailing!

At the start of sectorisation in 1987 the Class 50s were working front line passenger services for Inter City, Provincial and Network South East. As their Inter City and Provincial passenger duties gradually disappeared, some of the locomotives were put to use on DCWA departmental work before being withdrawn. By 1991 their last booked passenger duties were the NSE turns out of Paddington and on the Waterloo-Exeter route. This DVD covers that entire period and includes...

Thames & Chiltern and Inter City services out of Paddington, Waterloo-Exeter workings including Southampton diversions * summer Saturday loco-hauled services to Newquay, Class 50 workings over the Cotswold’s, Malvern’s and up the Lickey incline to Birmingham the last booked Class 50 over the Chilterns and the final day of booked ‘Fifty’ haulage from Paddington to Oxford, newspaper & parcels workings, DCWA Civil Engineers workings, 50 002 and 50 017 hauling the Bristol-Swindon Freightliner, experimental Railfreight loco 50 149 Defiance in action in Cornwall, the return of pioneer loco D400 on its first day back in traffic, Class 50s pounding the fearsome south Devon banks, 50 015 in Civil Engineers livery and 50 019 in Laira blue, 50 031 on its first working following a Large Logo repaint at Laira, railtours and specials including 50 008, 50 034 on ‘The Fellsman’, 50 026 & 50 032 on ‘The Malt & Hops’, 50 022 on ‘The Suffolkman’, 50 031 & 50 032 on the ‘Taw & Tour Tourer’ and 50 007 at the 1989 Windsor Rail Gala, 50 046 on a Bardon Aggregates working to Westbury and 50 028 hauling china clay CDAs on the Parkandillack branch, scenes of withdrawn Class 50s being put to the torch on the Old Oak Common turntable and last but not least, the programme features all 50 Class 50s!

Narrated by: Geoff Hudson, Area Fleet Manager, Pymouth

First published: 2015

Running time: 100-mins

Availability: AVAILABLE
Classification: Exempt
Number of discs: 1 DVD-R


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Ref: LP526D

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The Class 40s were one of the most successful diesel locomotive classes of British Railways’ 1955 modernisation plan. 200 of these 2,000 horsepower machines entered traffic between 1958 and 1962 and spent the next twenty years reliably employed on a wide variety of passenger and freight work. British Rail began phasing out the Forties in the late 1970s until the last survivors were withdrawn during January 1985. Pioneer loco D200 continued to fly the Class 40 flag for a further three years, while the surprise re-instatement of four locos for departmental use added another twist to an already fascinating story. And then came the preservation era. By the summer of 1988 six locos had been preserved while D200 had been secured for the national collection. In November 2002, 40145 triumphantly returned to the main line, followed sixteen years later by D213 Andania. This programme picks up the Class 40 story in 1979 and covers their rundown and eventual demise with BR before charting the rebirth of the preservation survivors.

THE BRITISH RAIL ERA (75 minutes of the programme) - FREIGHT turns include 40 035 shunting at Warrington, 40 152 on Peak Forest banking duties, 40 015 hauling UKF vans, 40 044 shunting on Wigan Springs Branch, 40 150 working the Amlwch tanks, 40009 on ballast, 40033 with a Speedlink service at Hereford, 40 060 on the Manchester ‘Binliner’, and 40012 at Stanlow refinery. PASSENGER workings include 40012 and 40150 on the Manchester-Skegness, 40056 and 40079 on West Coast drags and 40106 on a Heckmondwike to Morecambe excursion. RAILTOURS include the ‘Border City’, ‘Broadsman’, ‘Devon Quarryman’, and ‘Don & Fiddler’ charters. Also featured are the last operational 40s working during their last weeks of service in the bitterly cold January of 1985 including 40044’s penultimate working. THE RETURN OF D200 on S&C passenger work, the Warcop MoD trip, newspapers, a rare freightliner working and a selection of railtours, including the grey primer ‘Pennine Forty Farewell’ and the final run from Liverpool Street to York. There is also an interview with British Railway’s Board’s former Freight Engineer David Russell who explains how the D200 restoration project came about. DEPARTMENTAL 97s at Crewe station during the remodelling project and on other engineers trains...plus 97405 hauling a failed DMU to Chester. WITHDRAWN CLASS 40s at Crewe Works awaiting breaking, while 40013 and 40135 are used as LMR exhibition locos. Includes the 1987 visit of 40135 to the Didcot GWR centre where it hauled passenger trains.

THE PRESERVATION ERA (25 minutes of the programme) includes 40106 on the Great Central and Nene Valley, 40135 and 40145 on the East Lancs and Severn Valley, the return of 40012 Aureol including its re-naming at Longsight, its spectacular first time fire-up in preservation and its 1995 visit to the Mid Hants Railway, D200 visiting the North York Moors and East Lancs, and D213 Andania hauling its first train in 32 years at Swanage. Also featured are 40145 and D213 back on the main line at locations such as Holyhead, Kyle, London Euston, Ribblehead, Iver and Hadley Wood. The programme concludes with the hugely successful ‘40s at 60’ gala at the East Lancs Railway which featured six of the seven surviving locos.

Some of the footage in this programme appeared in ‘The Class 40 Story’ which was released on VHS in 1993. The picture quality on this DVD has been vastly improved thanks to digital technology.

Availability: AVAILABLE
Narrated by: David Maxey
Classification: Exempt
Number of discs: 1 DVD-R

Running Time: 100-mins (1hr 40min)

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