Back in the middle of the last century, before Video Tapes, listening to the Sounds of Steam was a popular activity even on 78s and mono LPs. Stereo came along and its popularity increased. Of course steam hauled trains were the norm all over every country and recording enthusiasts, like the legendary Peter Hanford, could easily find quiet places to put their mics at the track side and have long sequences.

Nowadays, thanks to the great number of preserved lines, it is still possible to see and capture the sounds of a great variety of the preserved inheritance. Mike Skeet became hooked on the idea of using his Binaural Dummy Head recording system to visit fourteen of the UK 's preserved lines and also Steam on the Met in the 1990's and create the Steam Train Label of which there are currently four CDs.

Why Binaural Recordings? Simply the system is very much less prone to handling noise and wind interference than any other microphone system in outdoor situations. Also, trains do progress very much from one side of you to the other and Binaural playback on decent open back headphones just reproduces
that aspect so wonderfully. It has been known for listeners to turn to 'see' if a train was actually coming!

STL101, 102, 103 & 104
STEAM TRAINS IN THE 1990s Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4.

Most are British Steam Engines! with modern Digital recordings, albeit with foreign made microphones and recorders, for that is the way things have gone since the original British Industrial Revolution! However the Recording Engineer was British born and you follow him all over the UK where he captures the glorious Sounds of Steam in Binaural Stereo Sound. This particularly suits quality open back headphone listening - you are there! – Binaural Stereo Recordings

The CD's track notes help paint a picture to aid the aural scene.
The engines involved are identified by their wheel allocations, their numbers & their names, if they were that famous!
 

STL101 Covers the Avon Valley Railway, the Bristol Harbour Railway, the Dean Valley Railway, the South Devon Railway and the Nene Valley Railway.
STL102 Covers the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, the Mid Hants Railway, the Llangollen Railway in Wales , the Severn Valley Railway and Steam on the Met 1995.
STL103 Covers the Kent & East Sussex , the Steam on the Met 1996 and the Great Central Railway.
STL104 Covers the Bluebell Railway, the North Norfolk Railway and the East Somerset Railway including their 21st Anniversary Flypast of Lancaster, Spitfire, Flying Fortress and Hercules aircraft!