60009 Union of South Africa was purchased from British Railways by Scottish farmer John Cameron in 1966. At first, he planned to run it on his private ‘Lochty Railway’ but in 1973 it was moved back on to the national network to begin a second main line career that was to last 47 years, almost twice as long as it ran for the LNER and BR combined.
Contents:
Part One
1960’s archive footage of the loco on the ECML and Aberdeen line. A brief look at two early runs in 1980 and then 1984.Overhaul at the Severn Valley Railway in 1989. Runs in the 1990’s include the Forth Bridge Centennial celebrations, Settle & Carlisle Railway, North Wales coast, Perth to Carlisle, a footplate ride on the SVR in 1992, Glasgow-Edinburgh 150 celebration train running as 60004 William Whitelaw, Carlisle to Stirling in May 1992 seen at Thornhill, Aberdeen-Edinburgh in November 1992, the first run since 1966 out of Kings Cross in October 1994, the Welsh Marches, the Southern main line, Bishops Stortford Ely Shuttles in 1995, The epic climb of Old Hill Bank in 1996 when the loco almost stalled plus the Midland main line. After another overhaul we continue in 2002 with more action and see the loco on the S&C with fourteen on and a wide variety of routes including the Lickey Incline, East Anglia, Cotswold route, Shap, Welsh Marches, South Wales, Stoke Bank, Western main line from Bristol to Paddington, South Devon Banks, Honiton Bank and the Ely-Norwich line before modernisation removed the semaphores and telegraph poles.
Part Two
Trains covered in the second part include Paddington to Stratford with the climb of Saunderton Bank, Alton to Barrow Hill via the Midland ML, Kings Cross to Darlington via the ECML, The Great Britain Railtour in 2007 when the loco double headed with John’s other loco K4 61994 The Great Marquess, Cleethorpes to Chester and The North Britain Railtour, when the loco double headed with Black Five 45407 from Perth to Inverness and return. After being overhauled at Crewe Works in 2010 we continue with a footplate and lineside sequence on the line from Blackburn to Appleby. There are numerous other runs featuring the Scarborough line and ECML before another run over Shap and the S&C. We return to the Aberdeen-Edinbugh-York lines in 2013 with coverage of the Great Britain VI. The Great Britain VII featured the loco working from Edinburgh to Inverness via Aberdeen and return. In June 2013 we see No 9 on the Royal Duchy trip from Bristol to Par and return. On 15th October 2015 the loco was the first steam engine to work over the new ‘Borders Railway’ from Edinbugh to Tweedbank and we had cameras on the loco, footplate and at the lineside. In 2017 and 2018 the loco was based in the south and covered numerous routes including the Cotswold line and Sapperton Bank. The Devon Banks are featured once more in December 2018 and just one week later we saw 60009 crossing the Border Bridge at Berwick upon Tweed. In April 2019 we see the loco double heading with Black Five 44871 over both Shap and Beattock banks on the Great Britain XII railtour. The railtour also featured the loco on its last run from Edinburgh to Aberdeen and return. Finally, we see the loco's final tours early in 2020.
All action, no commentary. Features captions to identify locations and relevant information.
Produced by - PSOV
Running time - 4 hours 27 mins approx (2 discs)
DVD only
Released - June 2020