Steam Video Issue 148

Arfon spent a week on the Great Central Railway finding out everything a trainee footplate member needs to know. Starting at the bottom, just as a real trainee would have done on BR, Arfon first becomes a cleaner then gradually progresses up the ladder with ex-Fireman Ray Martin teaching him the art of firing. Ex-BR Driver Bill Gwilt then takes over to explain how to oil and prepare the loco followed by how to drive. Arfon then takes the controls of Clun Castle in charge of a seven coach “express” running from Loughborough Central to Rothley. If you have ever wondered how a steam engine works or how they are maintained or driven, this best selling video is for you.

Part-fiction documentary into the New Silk Road. AAA Cargo traces the anticipation of infrastructure and trade on a planetary scale, following its distribution networks which are expanding across vast regions between China and Europe. Here, government efforts to speed up the movement of trade collide with more-than-human choreographies of sand, people and goods.

TGV Paris-Bordeaux, la ligne de tous les records

Celebrating 200 years of rail, Guy helps to rebuild, and learns to drive, the world’s most important train for a recreation of the journey that changed history: the Stockton to Darlington Railway

Nearly 200 years ago, the train revolutionized our lives. It redrew the maps of states and nations, and changed concepts of distance and time like no other invention before. What visionaries imagined the development of the railroad? How did we get from the first chugging locomotives to the smooth giants of speed we see today? How does France's extensive rail network keep running smoothly, 24/7?

Most movie fans know that the first filmmakers liked to shoot trains entering stations. This example by Sussex film pioneer George Albert Smith illustrates why. The train's rush towards the audience brings movement and visual drama. The flurry of human activity offers plenty for the audience to engage with - who are these people and where are they going? And the time pressure exerted by the fact that the train must soon depart adds narrative tension - will everyone get on and off in time?

Another volume of highlights from the 1950s and 1960s television series about the vanishing train lines. Here you have a chance to relive some of the great trains of the past, featuring a visit to Perth Shed and trains at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Another volume of highlights from the 1950s and 1960s television series about the vanishing train lines. Here a bevvy of beautiful locomotives take the enthusiast back in time, including a journey from Ryde to Ventnor and the chance to take a spin on the Cumbrian Coast Express.

This compilation of footage from the BBC television series 'Railway Roundabout' features archive material from the 1960s, supplied by the National Railway Museum, York. Railway artist Terence Cuneo is seen at work, and there is also film of the Talyllyn and Ffestioniog lines.

Climb aboard the illustrious Bernina Express for a festive ride through spectacular Alpine landscapes, taking in snow-covered peaks, architectural wonders, and majestic glaciers.

A light and somewhat satirical look at the problems and pleasures of Continental holiday travel. A passenger on the Hook Continental Express from Liverpool St. imagines the possible destinations of his fellow passengers.

La saga du rail

Take an epic overland train, boat and car journey through New Zealand’s breathtaking landscapes. The voyage begins in Auckland, but the city soon gives way to rolling pastures, volcanic extremes, tranquil waterways, the snowcapped grandeur of the Southern Alps and the beauty of Fiordland.

Another volume of highlights from the 1950s and 1960s television series. Here we see the best of French steam, the route from Helsinki to the Artic Circle, and the famous Orient Express from Paris to Athens.

A volume of additional footage from the 1950s and 1960s series. Highlights include an insider's view of York signal box, the new 'Midland Pullman', and steam over Shap in 1963.

Lyon-Turin : Le Dernier Tunnel XXL

First volume of highlights from the 1950s and 1960s television series about the vanishing train lines. Here you have a chance to see the Bristol line as it looked during 1958.

Another volume of highlights from the 1950s and 1960s television series about the vanishing train lines. Includes a journey from Bath to Evercreech Junction; the last train from Bala to Ffestiniog; the Lancashire and Yorkshire Special and the Severn and Wye in the Forest of Dean. Welsh narrow gauge highlights are also featured in addition to the locomotives of London Transport and Swindon.

In a mountainous region of Sichuan, best known for pandas and earthquakes, there are no roads, no cars, no buses. But there is … a train. This documentary tells the story of the last working narrow gauge steam railway in China.

In 1906, the Arlberg Railway, which connects the Austrian cities of Innsbruck and Bludenz, is the only east-west mountain railway in Austria. This 340-second "ghost railroad ride" shows the view from the back of a train, though I'm not sure if it's heading east or west. This kind of film, in vogue at the time, is an intermediate form of short reality, which often showed a train engaging in a bend, and a feature documentary. Its editing is live, linear and temporal, and the cuts are very apparent. Indeed, the choices of where to place the cuts seem to have avoided the less populated stretches. There are plenty of buildings to see, even when the train is not at the station.