About Steam2Music

Background

Steam to Music is an entirely non-profit-making activity, aimed at establishing a collection of home movies made by Ian Jenkins between 1966 and 1992, showing and distributing them to friends and other people interested in life in the days of steam and in films generally.

All the films are stored in digital form allowing them eventually to be included in more general digital archives. This web site is intended to provide a searchable source of information about the films, helping people to find items of particular interest. We would welcome suggestions for establishing links to other archives with similar interests so that access is broadened further.

The film-maker

Ian Jenkins is a member of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers. Born in 1948 his boyhood years were spent close to the East Coast main line in north London, his imagination being sparked by the sight and sound of the express steam-hauled trains climbing past, towards distant and mysterious worlds with exotic names such as York, Edinburgh, Dundee and Fort William. He soon started exploring the world - first northern England, then Scotland, Europe, Africa and Asia. His experiences of world travel helped him to develop a career as an independent transport economist with an international reputation.

He bought his first cine camera in 1966, impelled by the desire to record images of steam operations before they disappeared. Developing music soundtracks became an immediate priority in order to drown out the noise of the projector so he started editing the films to sync to music being playing back on a tape recorder. The development of digital synthesizers and music software in the early 1980's gave Ian the opportunity to make use of his years of piano lessons and experience in a guitar group to develop more adaptable sound tracks.

Links

The following organisations have interests related to the films in the archive:

If you are interested in the films and would like to know more, please get in touch through the contact form.

Views expressed by contributors to these webpages do not necessarily reflect the views of Steam2Music.