Western Region Memories London & Home Counties

WESTERN REGION MEMORIES – LONDON AND HOME COUNTIES

This DVD covers services from Paddington since 1975, when loco haulage was the norm. There are scenes of the last days of operation of the 'Western' class diesel hydraulics, and a proliferation of class 31's, 47's and 50's. Suburban class 117 and 122 DMU's are also much in evidence, as well as class 128 and loco hauled parcels trains. The change to HST's on principal services is covered. Services along the main lines as far as Newbury and Didcot are featured, as well as services to Birmingham via High Wycombe. The Greenford, Windsor and Marlow branches are seen, as well as the 'Royalty and Railways Exhibition' at Windsor.The 'Paddington 125' celebrations included a steam run to Didcot behind 'King George V'. There are two visits to the Southall Railway Centre, when industrial steam was in operation, and a run along the Brentford branch on the 'Brentford Coupler', comprising a pair of class 122 'Bubble Cars'. The class 210 DEMU prototype is seen on a number of occasions. Steam specials with 'King Edward I' are included, as well as the 'Mince Pie' steam specials via the Greenford loop in December 1994, hauled by British Rail tank loco 80079 and class 2MT 46521. A special visit to the Foster Yeoman quarry at Merehead behind 47500 'Great Western', also shows their American-built switcher shunting aggregate wagons. Construction work in connection with the 'Heathrow Express' is shown, together with trains using the temporary 'Heathrow Junction' station, as well as first-day scenes at Paddington and the Airport Terminals. Steam is seen at the Didcot Railway Centre during the Millenium celebrations, and at the Old Oak Common open day of the same year, together with a variety of preserved diesels associated with the Western Region. Bringing the story up to date, we see various livery changes resulting from privatisation, and class 180 'Adalente's'.