'Steam Railways of the South Maitland Coalfields' - Documentary Film made during 1981-83
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ส.ค. 2024
- 'Steam Railways of the South Maitland Coalfields' - the little documentary that set off my professional career in film and television, way back in the early '80s. Pretty scary thought considering how far we've come today!
Shot in 'reversal' Kodachrome and Ektachrome using a state of the art Beaulieu 6008S Super 8 camera, (which suffered constant battery and back focus issues) edited with 'splicing tape' in a caravan, voiced and music mixed in real time on a Beaulieu EL Stereo projector then finally Telecined to 1" video at VideoLab in Sydney on their Rank Cintel MkIII, (same one used by the Leyland Brothers) this short film was originally offered for sale on VHS and Betamax and more recently, on DVD.
I 'roadshowed' this film around the Hunter Region with my projector and portable screen during the early 80s and picked up some very interesting film contracts including 14 day shoot to Frazer Island with a 4WD Tour operator until NBN Channel 3 in Newcastle hired me as a Commercial Director then sentenced me to 10 years penal servitude in Papua New Guinea from which I never recovered. HaHa!
Today, I'm guiding a series of small group, narrow gauge rail tours to Taiwan and Japan. Highlights of our Taiwan tour is a visit to the spectacular Alishan Forest Railway which climbs from sea level to 2.200m in just 75 kilometers and on special occasions, still operates a Shay geared locomotive!
A great piece of history... I love those mighty 10 class locos.
I enjoyed this , Really great to see as late as 1983!
Thank you for sharing this with us.👍. I was holding the banner with my brother at East Greta Junction with 22 steaming through to close out steam operations on the line. I have had the privilege to fire 24,25 and 30 at Richmond Vale Railway museum with my father driving. Happy times. And thanks again.
Awesome footage Craig. My father was a fettler for SMR for 20y+. was hoping to catch a glimpse of him in there somewhere.
Really interesting, thanks very much.
Huge super 8 fan this is great thanks for sharing!
my pleasure!
Well Done. It's a time capsule, the subject and the method of capture. Both lost.
16:04 The narrator states the date for when State Government Rail took over from SMR Steam locos as 10th June, 1983. If this documentary was made in 1981, the narrator would most certainly *NOT* have had that precise knowledge. Thus, the date of this production would have to le late 1983 or early 1984, depending on how much work was involved in the production of this documentary.
From memory, Coal & Allied gave me permission to access to all areas of the SMR and RVR in 1981 and production commenced soon after. Filming progressed on a part time basis but there was no hurry to complete the work until the SMR suddenly ceased operations. Script writing & Post Production was complex so the final edit and release of the film on VHS & Betamax may not have been until 1983.
@@CraigMarshall_HDvideo4K Betamax? Geez, I'll bet the cassettes in that format were slow to shift of shelves!
@@neilforbes416 Not really. Betamax offered a higher picture & sound quality than VHS at the time so it remained a popular format among video enthusiasts but I did sell two VHS for every Betamax.
What happened to the steam tourist railway idea?
The last coal train happened early last year. But now the 10 classes that are still there are being rebuilt for heritage trains.