It's 1985 and a train leaves Gateshead, speeding west through gritty urban Tyneside before the greener terrain of rural Northumberland takes over to become the backdrop of the journey.
Train Journey From Gateshead To Hexham, o ur latest offering from the North East Film Archive (NEFA), takes us back 37 years. The amateur footage captured by schoolboy John Briggs was shot in time-lapse format and condenses the 45-minute train journey into six-and-a-half minutes.
You can watch the first two-and-a-half minutes here, and the full version on NEFA's website. The film was made to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Blaydon to Hexham section of the Tyne Valley Line.
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It was shot on Super 8 cine camera from the back of a Class 101 Diesel Multiple Unit train, and the duration of the journey was captured in a single take. Along the route, as the railway tracks and urban landmarks whizz behind us, we pass Dunston station, the soon-to-be-opened Metrocentre shopping complex, Blaydon station, and Stella power station which was still operational in 1985.
In the longer version of the film, we see people gathered at Wylam, Prudhoe, Stocksfield, and Riding Mill stations to catch a glimpse of a steam train heading in the opposite direction to mark the line's 150th anniversary. The film ends at Hexham station with the train ready to travel back to Newcastle.
If you would like to watch more archive footage like this, but in DVD form, Newcastle On Film has been specially produced by NEFA. Presented and narrated by Pam Royle - latterly of ITV Tyne Tees News fame - it pays homage to life on Tyneside and features lots of wonderful archive film footage.
The DVD 'Newcastle On Film' is priced at £12 (including postage and packing), and all profits from the sale go back into the valuable work of the North East Film Archive. Buy it here. See more from the North East Film Archive at www.yfanefa.com
