Green Arrow Goes West

Overview

In what is believed to be the most intensive coverage of a single steam railtour, a team of professional TV cameramen follow “Green Arrow” to the West Country. But it was a railtour that Green Arrow was never scheduled to make. The original plan was to take a Gresley A4 to Plymouth. Filming had already started aboard 60007 “Sir Nigel Gresley” when mechanical faults ruled the engine out. As luck would have it, the only survivor of the V2 class, “Green Arrow”, had just come back from major surgery and she came to the rescue in spectacular fashion. No-one could have imagined the volcanic efforts the big 2-6-2 engine would have to produce, particularly on the infamous Devon banks, in order to reach Plymouth. This brilliant programme reveals the drama of steam traction at its most volcanic.