This amateur film by Gateshead film-maker Stephen Gray records a trip on the Weardale Railway Steam Special from Darlington to Eastgate and Stanhope on Sunday, 28 March 1993, the start of a campaign to keep the line open with the formation of the Weardale Railway Preservation Society. A woman in a red coat waits on platform 4 at Darlington Bank Top Station. The station clock reads 2:30pm. The station sign for Darlington stands on a platform. An Intercity train pulled by a K1 engine arrives...

This amateur film by Gateshead film-maker Stephen Gray records a trip on the Weardale Railway Steam Special from Darlington to Eastgate and Stanhope on Sunday, 28 March 1993, the start of a campaign to keep the line open with the formation of the Weardale Railway Preservation Society. A woman in a red coat waits on platform 4 at Darlington Bank Top Station. The station clock reads 2:30pm. The station sign for Darlington stands on a platform. An Intercity train pulled by a K1 engine arrives at platform 4. A shot of the rail tracks from a moving train opens the next sequence. A very brief shot of the woman waiting on the platform [jump cut] is followed by a close-up of the train arrivals board announcing the 14:40 to Eastgate, a specially organised trip to mark the start of a campaign to keep open the Weardale Railway. Travelling shots from the train record the journey on a grey, overcast day. People are gathered beside the track to watch the train pass at Shildon, one of the scheduled stops. Gathering pace, the special train travels through rural Durham, trailing clouds of smoke and steam. The train crosses the River Wear where people stand on stepping stones to see it pass. Looking towards the K1 engine, a man watches the route from an open window on the train. Close-up of the ground from the moving train. The train passes fields, a lake and woods in the Durham countryside. There's a brief shot of some of the passengers in a carriage. People are standing in a field along the line to watch, a camera set up on a tripod to record it. A car races along a track beside the railway line at one point, the car's sun roof open to enable a man to film the train's progress.  The train passes a camping and caravan site beside the tracks. A single man stands on the stony beach of a section of the River Wear as the train follows the River Wear westwards on its route towards Eastgate. Note: "The Weardale Railway, situated in County Durham, was a mothballed branch line from Bishop Auckland following the River Wear westwards to Eastgate-in-Weardale. The line was originally built by the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1847 to transport limestone to the ironwork of Teesside, and by 1895 had been extended to its final terminus of Wearhead. Although the passenger service was withdrawn in 1953 (apart from a limited summer Sunday service between 1988 and 1992), the line was retained for freight use transporting bulk cement from the Blue Circle works at Eastgate. This use also ceased in 1993, so the line was mothballed and threatened with lifting. With support from Wear Valley District Council, 1993 saw the formation of The Weardale Railway Preservation Society...." (Weardale Railway Trust)