This film by railway enthusiast and filmmaker Chris Lawson looks at railway traffic in the North East region in the early 1970s. Features in the film are two famous and familiar sights if the steam age, the Green Arrow locomotive and the distinctive streamlined shape of a class A4 Pacific locomotive. The latter part of the film looks at working colliery locomotives followed by a test run of a new high speed train. The film opens with a high angle view of a steam train coming through tree...

This film by railway enthusiast and filmmaker Chris Lawson looks at railway traffic in the North East region in the early 1970s. Features in the film are two famous and familiar sights if the steam age, the Green Arrow locomotive and the distinctive streamlined shape of a class A4 Pacific locomotive. The latter part of the film looks at working colliery locomotives followed by a test run of a new high speed train. The film opens with a high angle view of a steam train coming through tree lined hills. The polished green livery of engine 4771 Green Arrow appears through the trees, it goes along a cutting heading towards a small bridge. A trackside view shows the engine heading at speed towards the camera. It speeds past along with a number of passenger coaches. The film cuts to a riverside view taken from a field the camera pans right and an A4 Pacific appears on the nearby railway line and disappears as groups of trees obscure the view intermittently. A low angle view follows at the trackside as Green Arrow approaches and passes a diesel train travelling in the opposite direction. A high angle view follows into a wide cutting as Green Arrow speeds through on the middle of three lines. The picture then goes to black at this point. Next a goods yard where a number of wagons wait in sidings. A small saddle tank engine reverses with a number of coal trucks in tow. This 'austerity' saddle tank no. 9 worked out of Backworth colliery in south-east Northumberland. The locomotive continues on its way, past other parked wagons. A trackside view follows of a road bridge over a railway and an approaching high speed APT train. This train is the APT Test Train Power Unit. It continues on through the network of tracks at this junction.   A riverside view in Newcastle(?) follows which shows a track running along an embankment. The film ends as a diesel multiple unit (DMU) used in local services, approaches and goes past the camera.