New video - Uphill and Down Dale - review

I’ve just watched a near-perfect steam video. It’s called “Uphill and Down Dale: Northwest Mainline Steam, 2007-2011”, produced by Linesider Video. It’s a wonderful collection of material from the past five years, focusing on the West Coast Mainline between Clydesdale and Crewe, the Settle-Carlisle, the Cumbrian Coast and Copy Pit, with one excursion “out of area” to Buxton. We see steam at work in high summer and deep mid-winter, in sun, rain and snow. Of course, anyone who has seen Linesider’s postings on YouTube will not be surprised to learn that their DVD is very, very good.

The image quality is excellent, despite squeezing 2 hours 13 minutes onto a single, single-layer disc. I watched it on a 32” HDTV which usually shows up the imperfections of MPEG compression, especially material down-sized from high definition cameras to standard definition DVD, but didn’t see anything more than the occasional “shimmer” from corrugated iron roofs. Put it this way, it’s considerably better than the last DVD I saw from PSOV.

The editing is spot-on, the commentary (I’m no fan of commentaries) is concise, informative and well-delivered, and even the title music is rather good (I suspect this may be composed and performed by the producers, though there’s no credit). It’s a cut above the machine-generated “Smart Sound” rubbish that some producers are content with.

Of course, all this technical quality and fine presentation is as naught unless the raw material is up to snuff. There’s no need to worry on that score. The camera work and choice of locations are of equally high standard. Pans and zooms are used sparingly and are always smooth and deliberate: no wobbles, no hesitations, no changes of mind part-way through, the subject always perfectly framed. Classically lit front three-quarter views are contrasted with contra-jour lighting, and lineside-fence shots are counter-balanced by long views from distant hill-tops. As much care has been taken over recording the sound, too. The microphones are kept out of the wind and rain yet still record every detail. I didn’t detect any overloading, and no interference from overhead lines – remarkable, given the number of shots on the WCML.

I said at the beginning that the disc is near-perfect, and there are a few small details that could be improved. There are a couple of shots that I wouldn’t have included, such as a short view of 46115 at Barton that appears to be a duplicate of an earlier, better lit shot. There are a couple of hard cuts from one camera position to another that might have been better as quick cross-fades. Nothing of any real importance.

There are some interesting omissions. I’m surprised that neither of 5043’s northern tours, over Shap in ’09 nor the S&C in ’10, are included, and that the regular Scarborough Flyer trips are ignored. What about 70013 Oliver Cromwell or 60009 Union Of South Africa? Never mind, maybe they’ll be on the next volume?

In conclusion, it’s a rare bargain at £18 including p&p. I don’t know how many have been printed, but get your order in quick, in case they sell out!

(BTW, in case you’re wondering – no, I’m not benefiting from this, not even a free review copy. By rights, I should be furious about this disc. It’s exactly what I’ve been attempting to produce myself for the last 8 year!)

 

Wow - many thanks for the review Steamage. A nice surprise!

As anyone who's known me through the forum or YT may know, I've been threatening to produce a DVD for years, and this is the result.

I've uploaded a trailer/advert to YouTube at: Uphill & Down Dale: Northwest Mainline Steam 2007-2011 - YouTube

For more info., all the details are on the website DVD page: DVDs

Oh and 5043, 60009 and 70013 will all feature on the forthcoming dedicated S&C release

 

I've uploaded a further sample for this DVD, available at the following for anyone why may be interested: 46115 Scots Guardsman: Mainline Star Performer - YouTube