This amateur film looks at the Bowes railway near Gateshead, originally a colliery railway built to carry coal mainly from pits in north west Durham to the Tyne at Jarrow. Title:  A Train Presents An opening view shows a marble plaque, which reads: 'This Plaque Was Unveiled By Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother on 1st July 1976. To Inaugurate the Preservation of the Bowes Railway on the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of its Opening.' Enthusiasts gather on a platform...

This amateur film looks at the Bowes railway near Gateshead, originally a colliery railway built to carry coal mainly from pits in north west Durham to the Tyne at Jarrow. Title:  A Train Presents An opening view shows a marble plaque, which reads: 'This Plaque Was Unveiled By Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother on 1st July 1976. To Inaugurate the Preservation of the Bowes Railway on the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of its Opening.' Enthusiasts gather on a platform to take pictures of a small steam engine pushing a brake van and wagon up the incline of the Bowes railway. A closer view follows of the saddle tank engine pushing the rolling stock. One of the crew polishes the engine. Close-ups of  the boiler fire and the engine controls in the driver's cabin. Steam appears from under the engine. A  steam whistle sits on top of the boiler. The engine reverses, pulling the open flat bed trucks, now filled with seated passengers, and the brake van down the line. In a more wintry scene, an engine and coal trucks are parked in sidings. The replica of Locomotion travels along the line. A shot follows from the flat bed truck seen earlier. The steam engine is clearly seen behind the passengers. From a platform view,  the steam train with passengers pulls into the small halt. Workers are next to the track. They appear to be pulling at a cable and trying to place it on a pulley wheel mounted on a metal frame. A workman runs alongside the track. On the track, the steam shunting engine seen earlier  pushes a train of coal trucks up the incline. The steam engine then reverses down the incline. The line of trucks moves on slightly. A workman uses a metal rod(?) to lever something on one of the truck wheels, possibly a brake. Next, workmen attach a chain to one of the trucks. Ageneral view of the train of trucks follows. Another workman oils some of the points along the line, a crossing seen in the distance. Visitors stand alongside the line waiting for the trucks to move. Slowly they move down the incline, a cable attached to the back of the last truck. Vistors with cameras take pictures. A close up shows the cable running over pulley wheels placed between the rails. The trucks come to a halt. Another close up follows of the track with the steel cable running over a pulley wheel. General view looking down the incline. This time the trucks are hauled up the incline by cable. Visitors watch as the heavy trucks are hauled up. The train of wagons stop and are then pulled further up the line by steam engine. The film ends with a very brief view of a train of trucks coming the opposite way. Title: The End - An A Train Production [Stephen Fairbrother and his father William made films featuring heritage railways and industrial heritage in the North East England. The earliest section of the Bowes Railway was designed by George Stephenson and opened on 17 January 1826, making it one of the world’s first modern railways. It was 15 miles long when completed in 1855. Each end was locomotive worked; the six mile middle section consisting of rope worked inclines with very steep gradients.]