Steam engines being worked to their limit. Astley Green and Walkden Railway # 9
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- 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.
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.
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..!!
So well captured, and in the right place at the right moment too for a derailment! Superb!
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! 😀
I appreciate your choice to shoot in color for your films
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!
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 am so grateful that you were there to record it and here to share it with us! 🙏
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.
Thank you for showing us this footage. It’s amazing to see what it looked like in those days. Thanks
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.
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.
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.
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.
I love these little Austerity tanks! Little hard workers. Brings me a bit of melancholy seeing these.
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.
Absolutely magical footage remember those trains heading up towards Ashton field colliery in the late 60s.
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.
“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”
Wonderful footage😊 Diesels can't take punishment like that. One old steam driver was amazed when his 'Warship' diesel hydraulic failed due to his having spilled sugary tea on the control desk. Fitters took ages to find an electrical short.
What did the crew think of the Giesel Ejector?
Great film! Great history!
Brilliant , when men knew stuff and did a proper job . all that knowledge lost for ever ! Reminds me as a child in the sixties watching coal shunting on Whitehaven docks . Firm trying to re-open coal mining in this area get knocked back by to many do-gooders !
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.
A really interesting look at the way things were. Thank you for posting.
Brilliant presentation so good to hear the engines speak for themselves without cheesy music.
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.👍👍👍
0:55 the "shunter" in the suit. That's my grandad Sidney Simmons, the last Forman of the Boothsbank tippler before closure. Perhaps his Forman status explains the suit. He did use the line to get to & from work and also later worked on it after the tippler closure.
Thanks for the information. It's always great to identify the people in the film.
This is priceless footage
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.
Truly sensational footage. Did you get an footage of the winding engines at the colliery ?
I did seek into the winding engine when it was working and got a series of stills with the man operating it. He was happy to chat and shoe me how it worked but I never got his name.
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
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 !
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.
Very well done! Your knowledge of 50+ years ago and how the area is now, is amazing! I saw your video featured on my RUclips home page and thought I'd take a look, so now I have and subscribed. I look forward to seeing more of your efforts!
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.
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........
Well done: then and now.
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.
Just viewed this video for the the first time.What can I add? Wonderful, amazing, delightful.Thank you so much.
for such a old video it is very clear very nice video
Great narrating 👍👍
Very enjoyable video!
Fantastic videos love the sound of j94 loco 😀😀
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.
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.
My dad drove Harry
Brilliant.
Thanks for the vision you had to document it.
What wonderful modelling information is in these videos.
Industrial railways are so fascinating think
Great stuff makes you wish you had a tardis can watch this over again....thanks black 5 0....
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
Brilliant footage all gone but never forgotten
Love seeing locomotives from different countries.
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
Harry, Warrior and Stanley are some dignifying names for two Hudswell Clarke locomotives, i'm thinking about writing a story about them
Guy looks like a cross between Steve Martin and Andy Warhol with bigger lips and an accent. Lol.
Somehow RUclips 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!
Wow just discovered your channel. well crafted, and presumably the sound was recorded at the time! On 8 mm!
Best railway film ever. Always wish I could find more photos or film of the Paddy Train for Waterloo colliery in Leeds.
very good record video with some artistic shots includedbeauty in the eye of the beholder rxcellent
Did you ever capture the unique Kerr Stuart ‘Frances’ at Walkden?
Hi James, I might have got a still of it in the scrap line but no movie. It was only worked by Austerities by the time I got there.
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.
Another superb video Thanks for sharing !
I watched this and part 10 really well filmed with great positioning
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
That could be tugboat Fred at the beginning with a 2 cylinder Gardner popping away. Would love to see any more canal footage you might have around the Astley pit.
Thanks for a great piece of industrial steam history. A super presentation.
its amazing watching these steam engines working for their living back went steam coal still being dug in Great Britain
it must must have been amazing watching these steam engines working for their living back when steam coal was still being dug in Great Britain. something that will sadly end next year if any new planning permisson is not given
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.
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.
Amazing and wonderful images from the disappearing steam age.
might be a bit of a dumb question buts why do the locos have curtains on the cab doors?
The wind would blow unheeded across Chat Moss and into the cabs of the engines so the curtains were an attempt the protect the crew from it.
@@GandyDancerProductions cheers =)
Love the before and now format ,great work .
What valuable historical records these are.
Have you dubbed the videos with custom sound or is that the actual sound recording?
Absolutely brilliant & such a shame at the same time thank you
Fantastic film! Thank you for uploading it!
wow its amazing to see this old stuff
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.
geat to see you back . films are geart reminder thanks
A very nice film, thanks.
Thanks it reminded me of how it was in Wales
Thanks for sharingvyour archive
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.
Thanks ever so much for this , thank goodness you recorded it for us to see all these years later
Love this - fantastic story
Man that thing makes a ton of noise for its size.
Fantastic footage as always.
North American Here :)
What a magnificent film !! Really captured a bit of fast disappearing history . Is the sound original ? Some cameras didn't capture sound in these days did they ?
Hi Sam, you're right the camera didn't capture sound then. I explain my methods of putting sound to the film in Railway Mania # 25. Check it out.
@
Gandy Dancer Productions
I fell into your videos after being gifted a book about Industrial railways in Manchester. Absolutely superb set of videos. Is the audio original? It really adds to your films. Many thanks.
Hi, I describe the process of making these films in Railway Mania 25: ruclips.net/video/ysuxBFtIILY/видео.html
Fantastic, I grew up in the terraces on Newearth road backing onto the railway and your film is the next best thing to a time machine for transporting me back. I now volunteer at the colliery museum at Astley Green and have a particular interest in underground locomotives. Please can I ask if you ever saw any of the underground locos on the surface during any of your visits to Astley Green, Mosley Common or Walkden yard? In your film I can see a stack of mine cars they would have hauled behind the loco shed at Astley Green. Thanks again for posting this series of films.
Hi David, thanks for your comment. I don't remember seeing any underground locos around the colliery or Walkden Shops but I'm sure they were there I was just too interested in the steamers to notice.
The mining museum at Astley Green now has a resident steam loco on loan. I have posted a short clip off it in action yesterday bringing a train of empty mine cars back to the colliery. I thought you might enjoy the return of steam to the pit after 51 years, if on a somewhat smaller scale.
@@davidpritchard686 hello David hope you are alright the tubs that would have seen where three ton mine cars used for coal which was wound up No 1 pit two mine cars per deck which equals 6 tons per wind these would have gone through the tippler and where brought out when the pit shut for scrap No2 pit was skipping from the worsley 4ft. also do you know there was an explosion in 1968 in the cromboke one of my mate's was there and saw it. it got hushed up or the NCB would have closed gastley astley even sooner regards chris ps saw the tipplers working at parkside when a super driveage was being developed a phenomenal piece of equipment
@@chrispritchard3775 thanks for your comments. I have been a volunteer at Astley Green for a long time and it's great to get additional information about the pit. I have a collection of underground diesel locos at Astley, of the same type that the pit originally used. Sadly I believe the pits own locos were never salvaged, due to the automatic pumps failing over the pit holidays in July 1970. Apparently they had to come out slung under the cage?
Hello David yes that's correct the locos are still at the pit bottom waiting to be slung under the cage 51 years later the pumps at nook pit was knocked off by an electrical fault and there was a big argument about overtime pay and so astley green flooded just under half way of the shaft depth at that time, the other thing that springs to mind is one of full 3 ton mine cars came loose as it was coming up pit and ended up half in half out until it hit the tubbing and badly damaged it (the tubbing) and this will give you a good idea how powerful the engine is at astley it didn't even jar or jolt this would have been in about late 1968 or early 1969 some of the men transferred over to parkside for a few months (L11) lower Florida two face teams I think but could be wrong and then back to gastley astley for just a bit longer. at parkside on No2 horizon we still had battery locos that came from Mosley common in 68 /69 the tea room at gastley astley that's was Billy monks office the manager (not a nice bloke) he came to astley after he shut woodend down and when you walked through to the other room at the back now that was the control room a very busy place nerve centre of the pit ie where's T20s cutter how much have they done how's C10 doing what's W3 doing what's W4s upto how much r o m have we done so far today as well as have you got the time or picking the phone up to be told your a w€÷+¥er just gives you a good idea what was happening in the tea room (mostly the red carpet n tea n biscuits) regards
Austerities in action :)
Wonderful footage. Such a pity about the adverts, especially in a female American accent, perhaps the ugliest sound on this planet.
Agree 100% with your thoughts on female US accents.Thought it was just ME! BBC Radio4 awash with them.
Brilliant ,golden footage cheers 👌😎
Just Superb !!!!!
Looks like me playing train sim
this is really cool
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. 👌👌👌👌👌
Top job that man 👍
wow that is some serious wheel slip