A film about railways and railwaymen. 'I was one of those youngsters who felt I'd like to play with toy trains and I've continued playing with them ever since. You know the old saying that you get sawdust in your veins when you are working on a circus - it's the same for the railway.' - A passenger-train guard. There are 280,000 railwaymen in Great Britain. This film looks at a handful of these men - men who work or used to work on two lines in the north of England: the former Great Central route from Sheffield to Manchester, via the notorious Woodhead tunnel (a recent BBC2 play Men of Iron retold the story of its building), and the former Midland route from Birmingham to Sheffield via Derby and Ambergate. They are men who have railways in the blood and bone and who look at their changing industry with affection, humour and, occasionally, dismay. Narrated by Roger Snowdon, commentary written by Terry Coleman & produced by Malcolm Brown.