The subjects of this "Steam Classics" are some of the popular mixed traffic British Railways Standard Class 4 2-6-4 tank engines built in the mid 1950s. They were part of a 155-strong class of go-anywhere locomotives which were the final development of a type which can trace its origins back through LMS designs to its early days. A number of them have survived into the preservation era and are operated over both Railtrack and private lines today. 

This programme concentrates on the three which have worked on the main lines in the 1990s, numbers 80079, 80080 and 80098.