The complete steam news magazine

Off the shelf: 14 April 2011

This month's DVD reviews by Heritage Railway.

From models to the real thing, you’ll find much to inspire you in our selection of good reads & DVDs.

If you have a title you'd like us to review, please drop the HR team a line from our contact page.

York to Newcastle, Marsden Rail 33 DVD

(Marsden Rail, PO Box 10 Birkenshaw, Bradford BD11 2BQ, 75 minutes, £19.95)

The Marsden Rail series of archive DVDs is well-known, much of the cine footage coming from Michael Marsden’s extensive travels in the 1960s, but supplemented by 1930s and 1940s black and white archive material.

The programme travels a bit beyond the East Coast Main Line itself with several branches to the west of Darlington and Northallerton being featured, so we see NELPG’s K1 No 62005 in railtour service and even steam over Stainmore and at Kirkby Stephen East.

The Pacifics on the ECML naturally feature prominently: A4 No 60004 even turns up at Bishop Auckland, and the smaller engines are not overlooked, the NER-liveried J72 station pilots shunting at Newcastle Central, and at Darlington we witness the large fleet of J94 Austerity 0-6-0STs going about their business.

Among the more exotic sights are a SR Schools and Midland 2P on the ECML, the latter apparently not having a current boiler certificate! Even the Newcastle trolleybuses get a look in.

The Missing Link; Porthmadog to Rhyd Ddu DVD

(DVD, Classic Traction, 53 Dayton Close, Townhill, Plymouth PL6 5DX, 67 minutes, £19.95)

The Welsh Highland Railway is now complete and trains run all the way from Porthmadog to Caernarvon. Having been opened in stages, the missing link was from Porthmadog to Hafod-y-Llyn, a passing loop south of the Aberglaslyn Pass.

This programme looks at the section from Rhyd Ddu near the summit of the line, southwards through Beddgelert and Aberglaslyn.

Most of the footage is from a series of photo charters utilising the new-build Lynton & Barnstaple 2-6-2T Lyd, resplendent in ‘might-have-been’ BR mixed traffic livery.

A classic engine, spectacular scenery and cold, clear winter weather combine to make this a unique record of the rebirth of a unique stretch of railway.