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Pakistan Steam
Edwardian BESA steam locomotives survived on active service in Pakistan until the 1990s. Lacking the modern post-Independence
Indian designs, Pakistan continued to use locos from as far back as 1905. It also had 1925 IRS designs and the
wartime 2-8-2s of North American build. Early diesels abounded.
This production tours Pakistan Railways, visiting the Bolan (in deep snow and bitter cold)and Khyber Passes , and
sees the surviving BESA 4-4-0s and 0-6-0s at work on the plains. XAs, HGS, AWD/CWD 2-8-2s, and diesels are also
seen in action. The footage was captured before motorcading of railways of the Indian subcontinent was generally
feasible. As a result, most is on-train or near stations; there is less lineside coverage than in most RAILSTUFF
videos. We trust that the intrinsic interest of these rare views will more than compensate.
All sound used in this video was recorded on location. Voice-overs are confined to stills and diagrams. Any music
was recorded on site, as background. But the technical limitations of 1970s Super-8 cameras mean that not all sound
is of first quality.
This material was filmed by Graham Watkins in early 1982, on Super-8 (movie) film. It has been professionally transferred
to video. Some stills are from slides shot later the same year. All footage has been digitally edited. Correction
and processing while editing has been minimised in order to preserve image quality; however some nasty blobs have
been removed and some sequences stabilised. This DVD production is identical to the previous VHS version. 56 mins.
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The following thumbnails lead to stills taken directly
from the video. Just click on the thumbnail to see the full picture. The stills have been slightly compressed for
faster loading, with possible minor loss of definition in some cases.
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