Island railways have a particular fascination, none more so than those on the Isle of Wight. In this programme, produced from films made by railway enthusiasts who visited the island from the 1950s to the present day, we present aspects of the changing face of the island’s railways over the last forty years.

We begin with John Laird’s 1964 films of the steam railway in all its glory with the coverage of the lines to Ventnor and Cowes. This is contrasted with the scene in the 1950s as portrayed in rare colour films made in 1953 on the soon to be closed lines from Brading to Bembridge, Sandown to Merstone and Newport and from Newport to Freshwater. The final steam sequences filmed by Geoff Todd and Derek Norman show the last years of steam operation on the island and the preparations for electrification.

The Isle of Wight’s ‘new’ tube trains are shown at first on trial on the mainland, looking quite incongruous at locations such as Clapham Junction. The era of the first generation tube trains in their all-blue livery is then covered and the story is brought up to date with their 1990s replacements, the new station at Smallbrook Junction and scenes recorded in 1994 showing the wonderful atmosphere of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.