Railway Heritage - Steam In The Midlands (DVD)

...was recorded at the Chasewater Railway in Staffordshire. This was interesting, as it gave a rare opportunity to look at a wide-ranging collection of industrial locomotives and goods trucks, etc., which reside in the collection there.

The next scene is recorded at the Midlands Steam Centre, in Derbyshire. I am afraid that by now, this programme is becoming somewhat tedious. We are informed what one steam locomotive is, but the rest? ...
...we visit the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire. There are some nice, general shots of the station and yards. But perhaps too many? .

At this point, the narration is once again subsumed by the background noise. Why? I believe that the sound was recorded direct tape to tape, using microphones fixed to the cameras. This meant that very passing cough, whisper or other extraneous sounds really were picked up and not dealt with during ... more

Oh, dear. This is going to have to be a rather negative review, I am afraid. When the extremely blocky titles came up (not like something you'd see on a Spectrum computer, more like something you see on a ZX81 computer!) I realised that perhaps this video would not be one of the most professionally produced ones I had ever seen.

The introduction (in a rich and warm West Midland accent (I felt quite at home!) starts well, but unfortunately when the first scene of footage is shown, the voice vanishes, being replaced by the noise of a powerful diesel locomotive idling at a station. It was then with irritation that I realised that the narrator's voice was still there, but so feint and indistinct that it could not be heard above the noise of the train and general platform chatter.

This was a pity, because I gathered from the few fragmentary scraps of commentary that I was able to make out over the extraneous noises that the narrator may very well have had something interesting to say about the trains. A pity, as I will never be able to find out.

However, later the voice of the narrator does become a little more clear at points of the programme, but is still not loud enough or clear enough to be heard over the general ambient noise. A pity, as this did detract from my overall enjoyment of the programme.

However, a number of interesting steam locomotives are seen in the programme (including an example of a preserved US steam locomotive brought to Britain during the war and never sent back home with the rest of the troops! This loco is named after American President, Franklin D, Roosevelt.

At this point, for some bizarre reason, the running commentary somehow seems to stop running and just comes to an unceremonious halt. You are shown steam trains (where are they? What are they?) but you are given no details about their location, what they are used for, etc., which was, I thought, very disappointing.

Various steam locomotives in stages of dishabille, obviously ready for maintenance work, were seen waiting. But where? It is clearly a preserved line, but if we were told, it was when the commentary was beaten by a combination of various noises off. The titles revealed that it was a preserved line in Gloucestershire. Interestingly, we are also shown a collection if preserved diesel locomotives.

The next scene was recorded at the Chasewater Railway in Staffordshire. This was interesting, as it gave a rare opportunity to look at a wide-ranging collection of industrial locomotives and goods trucks, etc., which reside in the collection there.

The next scene is recorded at the Midlands Steam Centre, in Derbyshire. I am afraid that by now, this programme is becoming somewhat tedious. We are informed what one steam locomotive is, but the rest? For some reason the rest are ignored to the detriment of the overall programme it must be said.

Then we visit the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire. There are some nice, general shots of the station and yards. But perhaps too many? .

At this point, the narration is once again subsumed by the background noise. Why? I believe that the sound was recorded direct tape to tape, using microphones fixed to the cameras. This meant that very passing cough, whisper or other extraneous sounds really were picked up and not dealt with during the mixing stage.

There was also parts of an interview with ex-engine driver Albert Rowse. The interview with Albert is fascinating and goes someway to redeeming the problems on this video, but I do feel there could have been more location footage.

There is also a problem on the video, with spangling on the bottom of the screen, which was noticeable on a computer using Windows Media Player and also a standard DVD player.

In closing, I can't really recommend this video to anyone who is not a serious fanatic. Though as I say, the interview with Albert is worth watching.
 

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