Meeting at the wonderful Bury Transport Museum, we received a warm welcome from the museum and East Lancashire Railway staff. It was suggested to us as an ideal location as it would be a great backdrop for the shots, but this didn’t prepare us for the majesty that was LNER BR Class A4 Union of South Africa. What better way to show off Steam in the 1950s than having it standing proudly in front of such an iconic locomotive.

Once the team from the BBC had arrived Phil set to work interviewing JD and Jamie from the Railfan TV team. He gained a great insight into what it was like to drive powerful steam locomotives through some of the most famous locations in the Northwest of England, and with some guidance from Jamie took control of the locomotive himself. Phil got the hang of it quickly and used this opportunity to ask Jamie a few more questions, they discussed the way the game played and some of the processes we used to recreate this famous route.

Enthusiastically demonstrating Spirit of Steam to the East Lancs Railway staff, Jamie took Dave Reynolds through the game. Dave has been a volunteer driver at the East Lancs Railway for at least 20 years, and has 51 years of experience working on locomotives such as this. The perfect person to ask their thoughts on our simulation of something they are very familiar with. Speaking to Phil about his experience with Spirit of Steam, Dave seemed to really enjoy himself, and was impressed with how the game looked and sounded.

Once we had wrapped things up with the BBC, we took the opportunity to look around the museum, and were kindly invited to East Lancs Railway (which is conveniently just across the road from the museum) for a tour and trip along the line. To find out more about this bit of our trip you will need to check out our next weeks article!

Make sure you check out the Bury Transport Museum and East Lancs Railway, they were such gracious hosts, and we would implore railfans to visit this beautifully restored collection of railway and transport history situated only a few miles away from the City of Manchester.

Find out more about Bury Museum HERE!

Find out more about East Lancs Railway HERE!

If you happened to have missed Phil’s Spirit of Steam piece on BBC North West Tonight, check it out HERE!

Spirit of Steam: Liverpool Lime Street to Crewe is available now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Epic, and Steam!

Steam Store | PlayStation (Europe) | PlayStation (US) | Xbox | Epic

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