Marsden Rail 21 Dvd: Birmingham, Part 2

Description

Complementing No.8 in the Marsden Rail archive series, ‘Birmingham & the West Midlands’, the programme opens at a bustling Snow Hill station, with steam much in evidence, before leaving for Stourbridge Junction via Soho & Winson Green, Handsworth and West Smethwick.

Scenes at Stourbridge are followed by a return to the industrial Midlands, where trolleybuses still occupy the streets of Wolverhampton and Low Level station is host to Halls, Patriots and newly-built ‘Western’ diesels.

WCML traffic at Lichfield finds Duchesses, Jubilees and Britannias ‘under the wires’ in the company of blue electrics and the LMS-designed diesel No.10001, while to the north-west, scenes at Codsall, Shifnal and Shrewsbury are featured.

No programme of the Birmingham area would be complete without mention of the Lickey Incline and views at Bromsgrove emphasise the scale of the gradient and the challenge it posed to steam traction.

March 1965 saw many services between Stourbridge and Birmingham revert to steam haulage due to a shortage of diesel units and almost any type of ex-GWR loco was pushed into service!

This period is captured on film, in addition to superb views of the steam operated push-pull service to Stourbridge Town.

Between 1959 and 1968, railway enthusiast and cine-cameraman, Michael Marsden, recorded views and sounds of the rapidly changing face of Britain’s rail network.

For over twenty-five years after steam ended, he captivated audiences throughout the country with his unique film collection that captured steams’ last decade and the full emergence of the diesel locomotive.

The blending of this film and that of other cameramen with true sounds of the era, plus an informative narrative, has resulted in the creation of a superb range of railway programmes detailing the last decade of British mainline steam operations.

Approx. 60 mins.

Region 0/Region free. NTSC versions are available on request.

This dvd is being sold on behalf and with full permission of the copyright holder – Marsden Rail 2004.