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The New Age of Steam on Video

Welcome to the home of Steam Age Pictures. I've been taking video of steam trains around Great Britain (and, occasionally, abroad) since 1990, and in that time I have built up quite an archive of material. Now I have decided to put together some programmes of the best shots, and offer them to fellow enthusiasts and the general public, to raise money for the three railway societies that I am a member of.

I'd like to say "thank you" to the many people who have given donations to the Mid-Hants RPS, Merchant Navy LPS and Eastleigh RPS in return for one of my videos. Your generosity is very much appreciated. Cheers! I must also thank my friends who have contributed "additional material" - they got me out of a hole several times...

I am strictly an amateur. Having said that, the quality ranges from not bad to remarkably good (even if I say so myself!) I started with Super VHS, progressed to a 3-chip Canon XM1 digital camera in 2000, and to a Canon XH-A1 high-definition camera in 2007. I use a powerful video editing package on my computer (Liquid Edition by Avid/Pinnacle) to select and compile the programmes, add sub-titles and so on. I (almost) always use a tripod (so no sea-sickness pills required) and an external microphone (so you can hear what's going on quite clearly). Basic details of locomotives and locations are given in unobtrusive captions. There's no banal commentary, no distracting music (except perhaps for the opening and closing titles), and no ham-fisted attempts to disguise these scenes as other than what they are: dramatic, contemporary records of steam locomotives that continue to defy the scrap yard!

Programmes are offered on DVD-R, or VHS or Super-VHS tapes by special arrangement.


 

Work In Progress

The Eastleigh Railway Preservation Society held its AGM at the end of October, and I hurridly put together my video of Lord Nelson taken this year, which came to 25 minutes. This raised a lot of interest, and so have just completed an expanded programme, called The Hero's Return, with additional material from TWR Video and "Linesider". We have just over an hour between us, including 850's visits to the West Somerset and East Lancs railways, the test run from Carnforth, and eight mainline tours. All proceeds will go to Eastleigh Railway Preservation Society.

My next project is Main Line 2007. A quick review suggests there is enough material for at least two volumes this year. I hope it will be ready by the end of January 2008.

What's Planned?

Three series are planned: Main Line Albums, Branch Line Specials and Locomotive Profiles;

Main Line Albums

One volume (two in a good year!) for each year since 1990, covering some of the best steam hauled trains on British main-line railways during the year.

Branch Line Specials

The format of these programmes will vary, but will normally concentrate on a particular line or special event. There will be several programmes from the Watercress Line (where I am a volunteer signalman), the Severn Valley Railway, and the Swanage Railway, since I am a frequent visitor to these lines. You can also expect programmes covering the Bluebell, North York Moors, East Lancs., Gloucestershire Warwickshire, Bodmin & Wenford, and various Welsh narrow gauge railways ... in the fullness of time! Programme lengths will vary from 5 minutes to one hour.

Locomotive Profiles

A whole programme devoted to a single locomotive or class of locos. The first three of these, featuring ERPS's S15, no. E828, the NRM's City of Truro in the Early 1990's, and 35028 Clan Line are already available on Volumes 2, 5 and 7 respectively. A study of 850 Lord Nelson is in preparation and I hope to add M7 no. 30053 in the near future, with others to be decided.

How To Order

Programmes are available on DVD. I can still produce tapes, VHS or Super-VHS, by special arrangement. More than one volume can be recorded onto a single VHS tape, if you supply a suitable tape.

These programmes (except Vol 15 - see that page for details) are available in return for a donation, in the form of a cheque (in Sterling drawn on a UK bank) or UK Postal Order, or via PayPal, to one of the following railway preservation groups:

I suggest a donation of at least £10 per volume, preferably more!
 

Ordering Programmes on DVD:

Please send a cheque (in Sterling drawn on a UK bank) or UK Postal Order for £3 payable to Mark Fry, as well as your donation, to cover the cost of media and P&P.

Send your cheque/PO and a clear list of the programmes that you want, to this address:

Steam Age Pictures
40 St Giles
Bletchingdon
KIDLINGTON
Oxon
OX5 3BX
NB: Don't forget to include your name and address, so that I can send you the programmes, and a phone number or e-mail address, so that I can contact you if necessary.
 

Ordering Programmes on Tape:

Please get in touch by post or e-mail.
 

A Note About Recordable DVDs

My computer writes to DVD-R. These discs are compatible with about 85% of DVD players. (It's mostly the older ones that cause problems.) I test all discs that I produce in a Philips DVD player / recorder before despatch. If you find that one of my discs will not play in your DVD player, please return it within 28 days*; I can offer three alternatives:
  1. the same programmes on a DVD+R disc (but without the full menus);
  2. the same programmes on VHS tape (or Super-VHS, if you supply the tape);
  3. a refund of your donation* and the price of the disc;
DVD+R discs are also compatible with about 85% of DVD players, but because the technology is slightly different they will often play in machines that reject DVD-R discs, and vice versa. Because I write DVD+R discs on a separate machine, not on the computer, I cannot add the full menus, and it takes quite a lot longer, so I will only do this when a DVD-R disc is known to be incompatible.

* Please note that I will forward all donations 28 days after posting your disc. Donations cannot be returned after that time.

This is not a commercial service and no guarantees express or implicit are offered

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Useful Links

Here are some links to web sites that I find particularly useful. I make no warranties about the contents, but I've not been disappointed so far...

Railways

Video and DVDs Pinnacle Liquid Edition, and its successor Avid Liquid, are very powerful and can be a joy to use, but very demanding of the host PC. It can be difficult to get them working correctly. These discussion boards, run by users for users, are invaluable for getting the best from this mercurial software: If you are not a computer specialist (and even if you are) it's great to have a PC built and supported by people who are both computer experts and video experts. For this reason, I bought my latest machine from these people:


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this page updated 30/11/2007