By Brian ( Danny) Neilson.

I have been interested trains ever since I can remember, no doubt due to the fact that home from 1941 to 1956 was next to the railway line about a mile west of Wynyard, where there was an constant parade of steam just fifty yards from the back door. My first films of trains were taken in the days of the steam specials with H2 that ran along the coast, and of course the centenary of the Tasmanian Government Railways in 1971 also used up quite a few reels, all naturally without sound. But the thing that makes a train film is the noise; a steam engine blasting up a hill or a diesel struggling with a load might be a pretty picture but only with sound is the picture complete. When video cameras became available I could see that sound would no longer be a problem and after doing some filming with a borrowed camera the news that MA2 was to return to the mainline on the north west coast provided the incentive to get a video camera of my own. So my video collection of trains started in 1986. In early 1988 I had a phone call from Hedley Charles, an E.B.R. employee who also had an interest in videoing trains. He considered that the return of steam to Rosebery in 1988 was such an important event that it needed recording with as wide a coverage of the train as was possible. He asked me if I would be interested in participating with him in doing this, naturally I was quite keen. As Hedley was also an E.B.R. driver, he knew of many good filming locations, so on a weekend before the specials ran, we made our way to the west coast to inspect the track. We made a video of the Boco trains; but we were never totally happy with the result; a lot of the problem was simply that our equipment was not up to the job. During 1989 I started on the never ending spiral of updating equipment as by then news of the Burnie Steam Festival was out and we busied ourselves preparing for this steam bonanza. For this we enlisted the help of Greg Moyle of Wynyard and Bryan Lucas of Burnie along with Tony Love of Melbourne. Others who offered help were Jim Kelty who was travelling on the train, and Geoff Love. A week or two later when I gathered all the tapes together we found we had about seven hours of tape to choose from, Jim Kelty alone contributing over three hours of film, most of it taken from the train, including cab rides. Then the task of editing began and much midnight oil was burnt by Hedley and I. We were able to have the video ready for release by Christmas '89 and we were simply astounded by the response. We quickly replaced the black and white cover with colour, and the video has sold in New Zealand, England and of course all over Australia. We would like to thank everyone who helped with this and subsequent videos and special thanks goes to the Don River Railway, who have supported us from the outset and who have also been our biggest outlet for the product. We have been pleased to be able to help in the raising of revenue for the organisation. Since these humble beginnings much water has flowed under the bridge and now the latest digital video cameras have improved the quality so much. And of course computers have made the editing process so much easier. We have also branched out and do quite a bit of corporate work, along with the occassional wedding for friends and/or family. All editing is now computerised, using Canopus capture cards and Premiere 6. Most of the filming is done with a three chip Sony digital camera although we also use the digital 8 system at times. With the big changes that have occurred on the Tasmanian railway scene there has always been something of interest for us to film, and there are several projects in the pipeline at the moment, none the least is keeping up with the relentless march towards DVDs.

( Originally written in 1990, and updated Mar 2002)

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