SPECIAL 3 HOUR EDITION
The Big Freight series reaches No.25! To mark the occasion this is a special three-hour edition and it includes the best of the freight action from 2021. Produced in conjunction with Freightmaster, a vast amount of trains are featured with new flows, diversions, freight-only lines all wrapped up in a blaze of different liveries!
Peak District stone trains: Peak Forest is a well known location and back in 2010 about 10 or 12 stone trains would pass through on a typical day. Come 2018 and new GBRf flows and it was up to 25 or 30. Now, in the year 2021 - post-lockdown - in a countrywide frenzy of construction, on a good day - FIFTY trains now pass through! The Big Freight cameras return to this picturesque part of the Peak District National Park for an extended feature not only on Peak Forest, but all the quarries, Hope Cement works and the Hope Valley line. With 9 signal boxes and mostly traditional signalling, 11 tunnels plus viaducts, steep gradients, deep cuttings and heavy stone trains, this is a magnificent section of railway. This first part looks at the Hope Valley line, with the Class 60, 66 and 70 hauled trains feeding in and out via Sheffield or Manchester to Chinley, over the curved viaducts and onto Dove Holes and Tunstead Quarries. Includes 20168 at Earles Sidings and stunning aerial footage.
South and West Wales: Robeston in West Wales may not be the best known freight location in the UK but on most days two Class 60-hauled 2800-ton oil trains depart for Westerleigh. These are featured here plus the Class 60 hauled trains to Trostre Steel Works, the Class 56 hauled Baglan to Chirk logs, 37800 takes a Class 317 for scrap on Newport docks plus an extended feature on the once-weekly coal train to Onllwyn Colliery. (The last in Wales)? Footage comes from the overgrown and rarely seen Onllwyn branch and a visit to the colliery itself with the train loading up and departing.
Derby Days: Continuing the theme from Big Freight No.24 - that Derby and the four-freight only lines south of it are probably now the best in the UK for traction and freight flow variation - we continue our look at this hotspot with a brilliant day from May with 37240 on an IM working; 37402+407 on a flask train; 37884 with 89001; 66731 with 92020; 66587 in pink 'ONE' livery; Royal Scotsman 66746 on containers and the usual clutch of 60, 66 and 70 hauled trains plus a visit in October with 56081, 66794 and 9 Class 37s!
56 Run Round: More than 40-years since they were first introduced did you know that on summer evenings in 2021, there were Colas Class 56 workings at Crewe and Chester about two hours apart? And both locos ran round their trains! The newly returned 56051 'Survival', and 56078 are featured here.
Plus: Ballast trains on the restored Okehampton line, DCR Class 60s, new Class 90 liveries; Drone Day 1; WCML freight at Searchlight Lane and much more.
• All sections are introduced with full commentary and maps.
• Includes aerial footage.
• So much more than just train after train running past the camera!
• This is all brand new footage, filmed in 2020/21 – GUARANTEED.
Produced by - Train Crazy
Running time - 180 minutes
Format - 16:9 widescreen
Blu-ray and DVD
Released - November 2021