Throughout the 1990s, the bi-monthly/quarterly publication Locomotives Illustrated showcased the railway art of George Heiron (1929-2001). Issue No. 103 of 1995 carried a particularly dramatic cover, featuring the LMS West Coast Postal Night Mail ascending Beattock Bank just over the border into Scotland, hauled by a Royal Scot 4-6-0 in its 1936 condition. In that very year, the GPO Film Unit produced a stunning documentary film of the Night Mail as it progressed on its northbound journey from London Euston to Glasgow Central. It was filmed in geographic sequence. Allegedly, there was only GBP36 left in the budget by the time the film unit reached Carlisle. That money was spent to commission two unknown talents - poet W.H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten - to compose the verse commentary and accompanying music for the final run into Glasgow. That sequence is universally acknowledged to be a masterpiece of documentary cinema.
