Heritage DMUs on North Eastern Lines DVD

Heritage DMUs on North Eastern Lines DVD In the 1960s Britain's rail network was contracting at an unprecedented rate, particularly rural areas. Even where routes were not under threat of closure it was inevitable that much of the Victorian infrastructure & architecture would be swept away in an effort to modernise Britain's railways & reduce costs. Yorkshire-based amateur cameraman, Frank Dean, felt it was important that a visual record of these lines & structures should be made before they disappeared forever & using his privileged position as a senior British Rail engineer, spent much of the 1960s & '70s filming rural lines in the North East of England. By then, passenger services on such lines were handled almost entirely by diesel multiple units & in filming the numerous wayside stations, Frank Dean secured a unique record of the various 'First-Generation' DMU types in use at the time. Firstly following the 54-mile route from Hull to Scarborough, with its numerous intermediate stations. Filmed between 1967 & 1969 from regular service trains, & from the lineside, many of the stations still retained their original architectural features, with manually-operated level crossing gates & ex-NER board signals still an everyday sight. Next, the busy junction station at Church Fenton on the Leeds-York line, with a variety of first-generation DMUs at work in the early 1980s. Finally, the ex-North Eastern Railway branch to Alston, which diverged from the Carlisle to Newcastle line at Haltwhistle. The branch first came under threat of closure in 1959 but survived a further 17 years, finally closing in May 1976, giving it the dubious distinction of being the last branch line to close in rural North East England. Film taken in summer & winter shows the picturesque 13-mile branch in detail, inc. the last-day workings which attracted thousands of enthusiasts.