Steam Age

I’ve finished Volume 49, The Cathedrals Explorer 2012. Michael Field’s footage fits very well alongside my own.

Work is well advanced on The Great Britain V. Looks like it will need two parts: Part 1 will cover days 1-4, Part 2 days 5-9.

(May 2012)
I have to put 2011 aside for the next few months, since I’ve promised to work on this year’s Great Britain and Cathedrals Explorer tours. I’ve just finished Vol. 49, The Cathedrals Explorer, which features  some footage from a new contributor. Michael Field has been one of TVP’s Scottish correspondants for a few years. I met him on a couple of rain-drenched Highland hillsides this spring and we agreed to swap footage. Hopefully, GB V will follow in a month or two.

(April 2012)
Already completed from 2011 are the two round-Britain tours and two regional albums:

• Vol 45, The Great Britain IV
• Vol 46, The Cathedrals Explorer (6th – 13th May)
• Vol. 47, GWR Locomotives
• Vol. 48, Southern Locomotives

We didn’t manage quite the same comprehensive coverage of GB IV as for previous Great Britain tours, but even so, we recorded something worth publishing on each day that they used steam haulage.

(November 2011)
2010 ended up producing 8 volumes:

• The Great Britain III – 2 parts
• GWR175 – 2 parts;
• Fells & Highlands (northern England and western Scotland in August and September)
• SR & GWR locos – Sir Lamiel, Clan Line, two winter GW tours with 6024 and 5043.
• BR & LNER locos – Oliver Cromwell, Duke Of Gloucester, Bittern, Tornado, Sir Nigel Gresley.
• LMS locos – Princess Elizabeth, Scots Guardsman, Duchess Of Sutherland, 48151 and rather a lot of Black Fives!

(June 2011)
GWR 175 is selling well. Part 1 (1 hour 15 minutes) covers February to June, including the record breaking recreation of The Bristolian in April, pannier tank 9600 banking 6201 Princess Elizabeth on the  Lickey Incline, and Steam Dreams’ 2-day Cornish Riviera Express in June. Part 2 (1 hour 25 minutes) covers July to October, featuring 9600’s trip to Princess Risborough and Chinnor, 9466 on the Looe branch and Earl Of Mount Edgcumbe storming over the Settle – Carlisle line.

(December 2010)
I’ve mentioned this before, I know, but The Great Britain III, during April 2010, produced some splendid sequences of which my colleagues and I are particularly proud. If you’ve not already done so, please have a look at the samples on my YouTube site.