Description

The London Midland and Scottish Railway Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 locomotives were affectionately nicknamed ‘Black Fives’.

These popular workhorses were designed by William Stanier, with a total of 842 locos being built between 1934 and 1951.

In regular daily use the Black Five was a mixed-traffic locomotive, a reliable “do-anything go-anywhere” class found on both freight and passenger duties.

Using rare original archive film, this informative programme traces the history of the Black Fives and the various class variations, highlighting services that the Stanier Class 5s worked.

There’s also a detailed look at the locos saved for preservation, including Black Fives running the ‘Jacobite’ service in Scotland, as well as many other regular mainline and heritage railway runs.