Paul Blissett – How I developed my interest in ‘On-Train’ videos

I have been a steam railway enthusiast ever since the age of 11 when, along with many other lads of my age, I purchased my first ‘Ian Allan’ spotters book.

However, my interest waned as steam was phased out in the late 60’s but was rekindled when the preservation movement began to grow and in particular when ‘Steam Charters’ became a regular feature on the main line.

I bought a camcorder in 1994 and began to record the journeys that I made. At first it was pretty amateurish stuff filmed from my seat in the train but I soon realised that an early start and securing a vestibule window was the key to making a successful video of a steam special.

One of my early recordings was the mould breaking re-run of the ‘Royal Scot’ from Euston to Glasgow on November 30^th 1996 when driver ‘Les Jackson’ and fireman ‘Frank Santrian’ took over 46229 at Crewe and matched the schedule of the ‘Caledonian’ in B.R. days from ‘Barton loop to Carlisle with the equivalent of 15 coaches instead of the ‘Caledonian’s’ regular loading of 8 vehicles.

The climb of ‘Grayrigg’ was phenomenal – 66mph passing ‘Oxenholme with well over 500 tons behind the drawbar! This was followed by a magnificent climb of ‘Shap’ which produced one of the best sound recordings of a ‘Duchess’ that I have ever made as the light began to fade.

The heroics continued past ‘Shap Summit’ and the section from ‘Penrith to Carlisle’ has become part of steam folklore!! I managed to film this section although the light had almost gone but to see the catenary posts flashing by as speed approached record levels was quite something. A 20 minutes late start from ‘Barton Loop’ had been transformed into an on-time arrival at ‘Carlisle’ despite the heavy load.

It was a unique record of an outstanding example of steam locomotive performance which was comparable with anything from B.R. days!

There have been many more superb runs that I have been lucky enough to film including ‘Blue Peter’ topping ‘Beattock’ at 54mph – double headed ‘Castles’ over the ‘Devon Banks’ and runs over ’Copy Pit’ to mention just a few.

Picture quality on the early charters was limited by the equipment that I had but once I moved on to a digital 8 camera then the video side was excellent. Sound quality is usually very good when accelerating away from stations or signals and often can be heard loud and clear as the locomotive is worked hard up the big banks. However, sound has always been a bit of a lottery when filming from the train due to wind direction and line speed. It tends to be on one side of the train or the other and once speed goes beyond 50mph some wind noise is almost inevitable. However, if you would like a record of a particular journey ‘live’ then I am sure that you would enjoy re-living the experience with one of my recordings. Also, if you were not on the train, you could get a taste of the atmosphere and locomotive performance on the day.