Steam engines being worked to their limit. Astley Green and Walkden Railway # 9
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- čas přidán 7. 05. 2021
- Last of the great steam railway systems in Manchester. Dramatic footage of Austerity steam engine being thrashed to the limit on the Astley Green and Walkden Railway system.
Nostalgia! I was working in the coal mines of the Somerset coalfield in the 1960s and this brings back many memories.
Noel
I used to bunk off school to visit Kilmersdon, and whithrinton, all steam in 69, took a trip to the incline with Bert, great day out and that was a history lesson I will never forget..!!
I've said it before, but it stands saying again- solid gold, this. Preservation is OK, but it can't hold a candle to this. Proper steam, with its working clothes on, earning its keep. Notice the opening shot of Harry, with his 'bullshit blower' blasting away! Nice one, thanks so much for uploading. Cheers!
Sadly as you say preservation can only ever give us a taste of this. Owners of the rolling stock and locos understandably want to keep them in prestige condition and modern H&S applies which means if you have a derailment as shown in this sequence the whole thing gets shut down while we have a enquiry and even on the mainline they are limited to 75 mph and don't have that workaday look that they had when in service. However all that said we should be grateful that we have so much preserved steam and that so much was saved albeit by accident and that the heritage railways which in normal times run most of the year with a published timetable. I live in France where the heritage railways which are mostly meter gauge only run on odd weekends and there is very little standard gauge steam either on heritage lines or on the mainline. So I take your point that preservation can never replicate this but let's be grateful for the amount and diversity of preserved steam we have in the UK.
So well captured, and in the right place at the right moment too for a derailment! Superb!
I appreciate your choice to shoot in color for your films
I am so grateful that you were there to record it and here to share it with us! 🙏
I really appreciate your footage, I live in astley and the history of local collieries fascinate me. I would love to see more of your footage. Seen the rest of them and was super happy to see you uploaded a part 9! 😀
Just to add to what others have already said: Absolutely brilliant footage and with such great commentary, including then and now images. You sir are star, and thank you for going to the effort of converting the footage and uploading so that we can all appreciate it.
Much appreciated!
I could not agree more very interesting you should make a full lengthy video
I love your old footage of trains. That’s so cool to have documented history!
The shunter in a suit is great
A quick get away to railway club is planned!
Brilliant presentation so good to hear the engines speak for themselves without cheesy music.
Great film! Great history!
Super film Jonathan. You can see the ring around Harrys chimney quite clearly. It released jets of steam to hide the black smoke and stop complaints. One of the wagons overran the tipplers at Boothstown and ended up in the canal. It was rescued and is now at Astley Green Colliery Museum.
Thank you for sharing these fantastic films, brings back lots of good memories, most of the engines I have seen, they ran at the bottom of my grandma’s garden near Dixon green sidings, an many a ride on the footplate, days I will never forget, thanks again.
If I had had anything to do with it, that engine shed would have been a grade 1 listed building. Unfortunately, I didn't....
At least you had the sense and enthusiasm to record the remaining system for posterity.
Many, many, thanks and blessings.
Just viewed this video for the the first time.What can I add? Wonderful, amazing, delightful.Thank you so much.
Somehow CZcams recommended this video to me just a couple of days after I visited the Lancashire Mining Museum at Astley Green. Fascinating seeing how it once was!
As always on this series a fantastic insight into the way things use to be. It’s also great to see Warrior in steam. This locomotive is owned by my local heritage line and is currently being restored.
I stumbled across its old boiler in the corner of their car park with the name chalked on the side the other day.
Hopefully it’ll be back in steam again soon.
Amazing film. This grimy day to day activity is far more interesting than a main line loco at pulling out of a station or at speed. A lost world now, thanks for uploading it
That NSR tank at the end was a cop & a half, especially in 1969. Great footage as always & huge thanks for recording these poignant reminders of English industrial heritage.
Glad you had sound. So many similar films are silent and the sounds in your films are fantastic. ❤
Absolutely magical footage remember those trains heading up towards Ashton field colliery in the late 60s.
Probably the best footage of industrial steam I've seen. Great camera work, excellent narrative and the use of Google maps to show how it all is now is great. Thanks for uploading.
Thank you for showing us this footage. It’s amazing to see what it looked like in those days. Thanks
Thanks for a great piece of industrial steam history. A super presentation.
I have seriously enjoyed all your old railway movies because of just how immersive they are - The sound, the close-up views of things aside from just locomotives, and the virtuals tours of where the locations were filmed is a wonderfully complete presentation. The Astley Green series has really been a joy to watch, with all the working industrial line atmosphere. Interesting to see how quickly they rerailed that wagon - I suppose it'd be fairly common to have them jump off on rough colliery track.
Thanks for your comment.
I remember watching both steam & diesel locos battling with filthy, tired wagons, mainly of steel construction, but also with a few ancient wooden examples, just like in your footage, during the early 1970s at Merthyr Vale, Tower & Treharris collieries. Those little locos certainly worked hard.
Love seeing locomotives from different countries.
Best railway film ever. Always wish I could find more photos or film of the Paddy Train for Waterloo colliery in Leeds.
Always look forward to your NCB videos. My dad was a fitter at Walkden yard and an uncle was a regular driver on Respite, Warspite, Renowned and North Staff no 1. Thanks again Johnathan.
A really interesting look at the way things were. Thank you for posting.
You have a great artistic talent in your filming, a real treasure trove of history and a joy to watch. I remember the anticipation of having films both still and moving arrive back after processing. I love our digital instant photography world now but miss that feeling of a film arriving home. I still occasionally take our a 35mm camera and have a selection of 8 and super 8mm cameras.
I really enjoyed your presentation mate, thankyou for sharing this excellent footage. Seeing these engines being worked close up gives a new appreciation of the people involved. Hard yakka indeed.
Thanks. Duly subscribed. That's a very pleasing transfer from 8mm to digital. I'd forgotten that the NCB had fitted so many of their Austerities with Giesl ejectors.
What an absolutely fantastic bit of history! Very well put together, I am in complete ore of it all. I friend once said that movies are the only kind of time travel we have. Thank you for taking me to 1968. 👌👌👌👌👌
Fantastic and so rare to have footage from this era with live sound. Steam buffs all owe you a great debt for capturing this!
Fantastic engine the Austerity saddle tank, as evidenced by the fact they still kept building new ones through the 1950's, such was the demand. What an Austerity couldn't pull, wasn't going to be pulled. We saw then still in use when the new HAA hopper wagons came in, the latest thing for the modern merry-go-round trains in the 70's and 80's - the HAA hoppers were 47 tonnes loaded, at least 50% heavier than the old box wagons, but the Austerities still romped around with them with ease. It's nice to see a good number have been preserved, although I think not so many are active as more "main line" engines have completed restoration.
My favourite place to see an Austerity working hard is at the Kent and East Sussex Railway, she makes a great bark pulling hard up the 1 in 40 of Tenterden bank with five mark one coaches! Almost like being back at "proper" work!
Also your commentary is great.
Marion
Brilliant footage all gone but never forgotten
Greetings from Sacramento Ca. Another great train town. Just came across your channel. Really enjoyable, thanks. When humans can travel again, and you’re ever in Cal. Visit our train museum.
Hi Martin, I've heard great things about your museum there.
Fantastic operational footage from the end of the steam era thanks for sharing this Footage I have not seen to many videos of UK steam. Amazing how much the lay of the land has changed
Another great episode Jonathan. I have really enjoyed this series of videos so far. It always amazes me how this vast industries we once had have completely gone with very little trace left behind.
Hi Simon, I couldn't agree more.
Evening Buddy. Oh happy days. I’ve mentioned before that I was in a children’s home in Boothstown callAlderwood. Mosley common pit and the coal tipplers on the Bridge water canal was our playground hehe 😀 We saw a lot of the steam trains on the line and at Walkden shed when we walked up the line. I got moved to Trafford drive in Little Hulton and again played on the line that ran between the houses and to the old colliery. We sat in the demolition crane with his steel ball bashing the place to bits. We always got into trouble as we when home filthy lol 😆 Hope you’ve more of theses fantastic memories. Cheers Stevie.
I have only just found these little gems,, we owe you and others like you a debt of gratitude, a wonderful time vault many thanks
born 1970 and raised in mosley common the pits had already closed, but it makes the land scapes and topography make sense now .used to ride bike all around the canal and to swim in it especialy the basin . at astley and boothstown i remember seeing street lamps in the strangest of places now realising it was on the old colliery rail system, as seen in your film .also didnt realise how big these pit complexis were at astley and mosley common .my father was a pit man and even he never got across what they were like .good film
Back in the early 40's my father was "out west" in California and Arizona. He told me a story of hopping a freight with 3 big steam locomotives roaring away for all they were worth, something I was to never see........
The bit were the trucks derailed reminded me of the really naughty trucks from Thomas The Tank haha. Great video from a time gone by.
for such a old video it is very clear very nice video
“As Harry was was shunting the trucks into place, the troublesome trucks begin to giggle and one knocked itself off the line. Bother said Harry, these troublesome trucks are a nuisance”
A work of art indeed. A marvellous tribute to a bygone era. Collieries, steam haulage and canal boats to take the coal away. It hardly seems credible nowadays, but your film shows it was and within my lifetime.
This is fantastic. I'm a Kearsley lad. I used to play all along the disused railways from blackleach all the way down to the main line at unity Brook just outside Kearsley power station. There was no tracks but hints at the past. The stretch along stoneclough Road to the Kearsley signal box fascinated me. You could feel history. Thankyou for these recordings.
I watched this and part 10 really well filmed with great positioning
This is amazing, not just what you captured but how you did it; it looks and sounds great. Really appreciated the narration and the modern day maps giving context
Yeah, excellent ! Couldn't agree more. At 71 now, it seems like yesterday. What a valuable piece of social and idustrial history...... WoW !
A very nice film, thanks.
Great video. Thank you for having the foresight, even as a young chap, to document this operation.
Excellent presentation. I was born in 1952, so I did a similar thing going around and watching the steam locomotives. Thanks.
Thank you so much !I worked near Tyldesley in the mid 1970s for a chap who show jumped. I was aware by the amount of coal spoil underfoot when exercising the horses that coal mining had been a huge part of the local economy, I hadn't realised it had stopped so close to when I was there . Cheers for a brilliant film and an evocation of industrial rail.
Fantastic film! Thank you for uploading it!
Yaaaaaaayyyyyyy!!!! You're back!! Another great film. You do probably one of the best jobs I've come across at dubbing sound to old silent films! Hope all is well and you're getting to play with your steam over there. Think maybe you'll visit some preserved railways and post some videos ? I'm sure you'll be taking those in soon enough!?!? Thanks for the upload very enjoyable.👍👍👍
Love the before and now format ,great work .
Brilliant.
Thanks for the vision you had to document it.
What wonderful modelling information is in these videos.
Industrial railways are so fascinating think
Fantastic. Thank you for sharing this wonderful historical footage. 1968 - the year I was born. Glad I was around when steam was still in service.
Another superb video Thanks for sharing !
Thanks for uploading these. I find myself transposed whenever I'm watching them. So interesting.
Fantastic videos love the sound of j94 loco 😀😀
Very well done! Your knowledge of 50+ years ago and how the area is now, is amazing! I saw your video featured on my CZcams home page and thought I'd take a look, so now I have and subscribed. I look forward to seeing more of your efforts!
Thanks ever so much for this , thank goodness you recorded it for us to see all these years later
What a great record of our industrial past - and what great vision you had to record these moments, as all we have now are re-enactments of real events. Thanks for sharing your archives, really appreciated.
I have been enjoying these videos very much. Such an important series of films. Excellent work
Goodness me! thank you so much for sharing this, my dad was a deputy in Astey Green, (Ghastly Green, I seem to recall...). We lived in Abram, but, it seemed that most people either worked in the pit, Tyldsley, (Mosley Common) or Golborne or the CO-OP Glassworks... I remember the old pits, Junction in Bickershaw Lane and the endless rhythm of shunting at night. Lovely xx
Hi Emma, I appreciate you comment. I remember going to sleep to the sound of steam engine as a kid.
This is an incredible piece of footage. Thank you for posting this.
This is priceless footage
Great narrating 👍👍
This is brilliant Jon. I expect people will pay thousands for quality tape videos like these. Absolutely stunning.
This is one special video. I haven't stumbled upon much home video of working steam from this late in time. I know it isn't exactly uncommon to find footage, but the way this is organized with the google maps references makes this very well done and unique.
Excellent video. Thank you for showing this.
Amazing and wonderful images from the disappearing steam age.
Good film born in 1970 tyldesley on jig brow moved to mosley common in 72 due to the fact the jig was being demolished. Never worked down the pit myself due to the fact it was a outgoing industry at the start of my working age 1986..but my father did as did his father. Coming from Wales originally .it was all they knew. mi dad worked dow,nt nook and parsonage " and they can tell you ,describe to you this kind of life! but your film even though on the topside of the pit puts what they said into some kind of context heavy rough industry. I know these old railway paths well I ride them on my push bike, but I now look at them differently .cheers for film "good work "
I was brought up in the northern part of Derby, in the steam era, and there were working railways and goods depots on 3 sides of our area. All day long, and all through the night (all through the year) we constantly heard the crash and clatter of buffers, the snatch of couplings, the hoot of loco whistles, and the squeal of flanges on rails in tight curves. This video took me back, and like some of the comments say, although it's a (very) good thing, preservation can't really hold a candle to those days.
I've been waiting for this, great camera work......... I hope there's more of your old films to come, thank you.
Hello, thanks for this and the Edge Hill videos, brought back a lot of great memories. I didn't work in this area during my time on steam, but similar circumstances.
I'm in the US, but enjoying your old films. Back in 1968 my pals and I in New Jersey were taking still photos, railfanning the Jersey Central, Pennsy, and Erie Lackwanna. Looks like UK needs that coal now, eh
You're absolutely spot on. What a shame they closed all those collieries and lost all that production.
Very enjoyable video!
Thank You for sharing those footage with us. Greeting from East Belgium.
I love the Astley Green and Walkden series, it’s amazing seeing colliery steam at work in colour with sound.
Great video, I’d love to see more!
Beautiful and very interesting! Thank you!
Thanks for sharingvyour archive
wow its amazing to see this old stuff
Fantastic video! I really enjoyed it. Thank you very much
Not only is the footage great, but so is the sound that goes with it along with your narration and location ID
What valuable historical records these are.
Thank god for people like you capturing this beautifull crazy footage that steam engine is a tank wow !! Thankyou
It's like a time travel, marvelous footage nicely prepared.
that was genuinely interesting. especially the now and then comparason. You have a very good voice for this too.
Excellent video 🤠. The quality is superb and even with original (?) Sound
geat to see you back . films are geart reminder thanks
Brilliant ,golden footage cheers 👌😎
Harry, Warrior and Stanley are some dignifying names for two Hudswell Clarke locomotives, i'm thinking about writing a story about them
thanks for your film ,im retired75 fitter/machineist i do work for4f project Barry wreck onAvon Valley Railway they have one ofthese j94s it allways seems very powerfull ttfn&tu
Attest piece of history you have captured, thanks for sharing
Fantastic footage as always.
Many thanks for sharing.
Lovely video, it really shows that a steam engine is not just a machine, but a living, breathing creature. Also the derailment reminds me of my model railway.