This film by filmmaker and railway enthusiast Chris Lawson looks at the early days of two main heritage railways, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. The opening view is in an urban setting as a Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) moves off into the distance around a gentle curve. The film cuts to another view of an approaching DMU.  A different type of railway follows where trucks carrying a white material travel down an incline railway using gravity....

This film by filmmaker and railway enthusiast Chris Lawson looks at the early days of two main heritage railways, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. The opening view is in an urban setting as a Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) moves off into the distance around a gentle curve. The film cuts to another view of an approaching DMU.  A different type of railway follows where trucks carrying a white material travel down an incline railway using gravity. These are high angle views taken from a bridge as the trucks are parked at a station. The next view is of a saddle tank engine pulling a brake van and some small flatbed wagons. Travelling between stone walls on a rural line, the engine is no. 68006 a class J94 Riddles 0-6-0 saddle tank. The film cuts to a trackside view showing a small train of good wagons. In a cloud of steam an engine pulls trucks along the track. Another view shows engine no. 68006 reversing pulling wagons. Then the engine crosses a small bridge, moving off into open country. A long view shows the saddle tank crossing open country, which is partially covered by snow, pulling a train of wagons. The film cuts to a water carrier 'Cromford' which was built to act as a water tanker for the Cromford and High Peak Railway [now the High Peak Trail] and to service small and remote settlements, where there was no mains water, along the line. It is thought to have been built around 1894 using a former LNWR Webb tender. A long view shows the saddle tank seen earlier on an embankment, in the middle of a train of empty wagons. The camera pans round to show snow on the landscape. The next view shows the saddle tank reversing along a stone viaduct or embankment, pulling a brake van. The film ends as camera follows its progress across the landscape.