The definitive archive film-led history of \'The Big Four of the New Railway Era\' – The Great Western Railway, the Southern Railway, the London Midland & Scottish Railway and the London & North Eastern Railway. The Railway Act of 1921 was conceived to stem the losses being made by many of the country\'s 120 railway companies through unnecessary competition and to retain some of the benefits which the country had derived from a government-controlled railway during the First World War. The story of this \'golden age\' is told through the original archive cinema newsreel reports of the time and evidence the diversity of locomotive types across the companies: LMS Royal Scot Class, LNER B17 Class, LMS Patriot Class, LMS Black 5 Class and the \'Streamlined\' Locomotives of the GWR, LNER and LMS among many, many more!