Produced in 1955 by British Transport Films, this documentary directed by Kenneth Fairbairn is a firsthand account of a British Railways team sent to free a train stuck that became stuck in a snowdrift on the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway at Bleath Gill in the Pennies (also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills). The circumstances behind the film were these: steam locomotive No. 78018 BR Standard Class 2 2-6-0 was hauling eight 20-ton wagons of limestone and minerals when at 5am she became stuck at Bleath Gill just north of the Barras railway station near Stainmore Summit. At 1,370 feet, this was (at the time) the highest point on any railway line in England. The rescue operations first involved digging the engine out of the snowdrift during the night. In the morning, wedge plows were used to clear the railroad. Since the engine’s boiler had melted the snow and then cooled it to ice, the crew then had to cover moving parts with paraffin-soaked rags setting fire to them thawing the ice and freeing their motion. The engine was then successfully able to be moved onward with the help of other rescue engines, and thereafter the wagons also. Note: The film crew was summoned to make the film on short notice and were not prepared, not even having brought anything to eat and had to rely on the generosity of the workmen.
(0:06) Snowy landscape, camera panning to snow-covered inundated BR Standard Class 2 2-6-0 No. 78018 locomotive. (0:32) Title sequence with interior locomotive gauges in background. A BTF production: Snowdrift at Bleath Gill. Production credits. (0:58) Overlay of map with stencil tracing route and spot of incident of 4:20am goods train which was stuck in heavy snow drift. (1:15) Engineers discussing. (1:29) Stopped railway wedge plow. (1:40) Men embarking on wedge plow cars and locomotive. (1:56) Stainmore Summit sign, followed by backing up of plow train with mass of white smoke billowing out of engine. (2:24) Crew operating engine, footage of train shadow and looking down from railway bridge. (2:47) At nighttime, crew arrive to scene of stuck locomotive and begin shoveling snow, lighting the night with Tilley lamps. (4:39) Daytime footage of wedge plow barreling through snow drift. Another plowing up to front of stuck locomotive. (5:40) Snow and ice-covered driving mechanism of locomotive. (6:15) Men shoveling snow in blowing wind. (6:56) Men stuffing and soaking paraffin-soaked rags into moving parts of train, lighting them afire to thaw snow and ice, as well as blowing steam from steam jets from rescue engine into other moving parts. (7:39) Hitching up rescue engine to stuck engine to move her. (8:40) Men digging out and using rescue engine to move train wagons at night. (9:30) Train moving on clear tracks unlike wintertime. (9:45) Engineers driving train, looking out window. The End.
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