'A Full Head of Steam'

2000 A Full Head of Steam

This is another 'various artists' compilation, and, as the front cover proclaims, it consists of:

'15 songs about trains from the birthplace of railways celebrating the 175th anniversary of the first passenger steam train from Stockton to Darlington in 1825... All by North East of England artists.'

It is a firmly folk-orientated album, on which Rod (on slide guitar and mandolin), with Marty Craggs (on vocals and harmonica), chipped in with a version of the ubiquitous Train in G Major. Although only Rod and Marty took part in the recording, the song, as track 11, is credited on the sleeve notes to Lindisfarne. In this version, it is four minutes and twenty-four seconds long.

Derek Walmsley recalls:

'The CD was possibly the only successful event of an aborted Millennium Cavalcade of Steam which was scheduled for August Bank Holiday 2000 at Shildon. The organisers went into liquidation, preventing a re-run of the highly successful Shildon 150 cavalcade in 1975.'

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