Steam Byways

Ref: RF608D

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The late 1950s and early 60s may well be considered the climax of British Railways’s steam operation. Pre-grouping locomotives were still at work alongside modern BR standard types; freight traffic of all varieties was still widespread, while branch lines, both rural and urban, were still plentiful in those days before the fateful Beeching closures.

Cine photography, however, was then the hobby of but a few. One of this small band was Wolverhampton schoolmaster Geoff Bannister, who, between 1957 and 1966, travelled widely over the railways of west and south west Britain with his camera, concentrating on the branch and rural scene but taking in parts of the mainline as well where the character of the railway appealed. His nostalgic record is of a scene and a way of life now changed beyond recognition or vanished entirely.

> This programme, the first of four volumes of Geoff Bannister’s archive, comprises a roughly circular tour through the West Midlands. Beginning on Geoff’s doorstep, on the short lived Oxley-Kingswinford line, we travel anticlockwise through the counties of Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire before returning to the Black Country. The following locations are covered: !!<

• Oxley - Kingswinford Jct.
• Wolverhampton - Shrewsbury mainline
• Wellington - Stafford
• Wellington - Coalport
• Buildwas - Bridgnorth - Bewdley
• Shrewsbury - Craven Arms (mainline)
• Clee Hill (including incline and quarries)
• Woofferton junction - Tenbury Wells
• Cleobury Mortimer - Ditton Priors
• Leominster - Bromyard
• Ledbury - Gloucester
• Ashchurch - Upton-on-Seven
• Broom Junction Midland/SMJR
• Lickey Incline (mainline)
• Birmingham area goods lines etc. 1962 railtour

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Cover photo: A coal train from Baggeridge Colliery at Bromley Halt, April 1963
Filmed by/when: Geoff Bannister
Classification: Exempt
Number of discs: 1 DVD-R
Media Format: DVD-R

Running Time: 63-mins (1hr 3min) , Colour and Black & White
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Ref: RF609D

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This programme, the second of four volumes of Geoff Bannister’s archive, traces a journey into Wales, beginning in the northern Marches, and following the Cambrian mainline to the Welsh coast before heading into Great Western territory further south and west.

The following lines and locations are covered

• Llyncls - Porthywaen - Nantmawr

• Llanymynech - Llanfyllin

• Ellesmere - Wrexham

• Whitchurch Buttington Jn. Talerddig - Machynlleth

• Machynlleth - Barmounth - Portmadoc

• Barmouth - Dolgelley - Bala Junction

• Bala Junction - Blaenau Ffestiniog

• Moat Lane junction. Three Cocks Junction

• Carmarthen - Aberystwyth

• Lampeter - Aberystwyth

• Lampeter - Aberayron

• Whitland- Cardigan

• Whitland - Neyland/Milford Haven

• Whitland - Pembroke Dock

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Cover photo: Geoff Bannister, Manor No.7827 "Odney Manor" on a Pwllheli to Shrewsbury train approaching Breidden, August 1964.
Filmed by/when: Geoff Bannister
Narrated by: Script by Neil Wooler. Directed by Nick Dodson
Classification: Exempt
Number of discs: 1 DVD-R
Media Format: DVD-R

Running Time: 63-mins (1hr 3min) , Colour and B & W
.

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Ref: RF610D

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This third volume of Geoff Bannister’s archive begins in the Cotswolds on the old Midland & South Western Junction Railway and terminates, one hour later, in the quiet backwaters of the Somerset & Dorset line to Highbridge and Burnham-on-Sea. In between, we visit many branches then operational in Gloucestershire, Somerset, Devon and Dorset, ranging back along the south coast as far as the delightful Hayling Island line in Hampshire

The following routes, which split roughly fifty-fifty between former Great Western and Southern lines (plus, of course, one or two LMS intrusions), are featured:

• Cheltenham - Andover

• Banbury - Cheltenham

• Fairford - Lechlade

• Kemble - Tetbury

• Chippenham - Calne

• Berkeley Road - Sharpness Coaley - Dursley

• Taunton - Minehead, Barnstaple

• Tiverton - Hemyock

• Bere Alston - Callington

• Halwill Junction - Torrington

• Wadebridge - Wenford Bridge

• Exeter - Barnstaple

• Axminster - Lyme Regis

• Weymouth Harbour

• Maiden Newton - Bridport

• Wareham - Swanage

• Poole- Brockenhurst

• Havant - Hayling Island

• Brockenhurst - Ringwood - Broadstone Jn.

• Bournemouth- Bath

• Evercreech Jn - Highbridge/Burnham-on-Sea

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Cover photo: Standard Class 5 No.73054 passes Broadstone, August 1964.
Published by: Railfilms
Filmed by/when: Geoff Bannister
Classification: Exempt
Number of discs: 1 DVD-R
Media Format: DVD-R

Running Time: 64-mins (1hr 4min) , Colour and B & W
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Ref: RF613D

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This fourth and final Volume of Geoff Bannister’s archive comprises a rich miscellany of railway scenes in those halcyon days ranging from the last train on the long closed and legendary Shropshire & Montgomeryshire line to the bustling Fort William - Mallaig Extension, still fully steam worked in the summer of 1960, and from the preserved Bluebell Railway in its earliest days, still working into Horsted Keynes BR station, to the Central Wales line with its Standard 5s, LMS8Fs and even an ex-LNWR Super D.

The full itinerary of this fascinating railtour, some on well known metals, some rather less so, is as follows:

Cheltenham to Andover
Banbury to Cheltenham
• Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Rly

• Cromford & High Peak

• Industrials: West Midlands miscellany

• Bluebell Railway 1961

• Oxted district - local scenes

• Foxfield - Coniston branch

• Scotland: Killin Jn. - Killin

• Ballachulish

• Fort William - Mallaig

• Shrewsbury - Swansea

• GW/Cambrian: Westbury - Talerddigg - Machynlleth - Towyn

• Talyllyn Railway 1961

• Ffestiniog Railway 1958, 1959

• Vale Rheidol Railway 1957

• Talyllyn Jn. Hay-on-Wye

• Oxley- Kingswinford

Availability: AVAILABLE

Cover photo: BR Standard Class 5 No.73026 passes Llangammarch Wells, May 1963.
Filmed by/when: Geoff Bannister
Screen aspect ratio: 4:3 SD
Classification: Exempt
Number of discs: 1 DVD-R
Media Format: DVD-R

Running Time: 63-mins (1hr 3min) , Colour & B& W
.

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