Newton Heath locomotive sheds, Manchester, a cold winter morning. A train worker oversees a steam engine on a turntable while other workers relax in between shifts. Two men are despatched to clean and prepare the engine, clearing the spent coal from the furnace.

In the canteen, staff eat their breakfast and discuss their work. In the office, drivers gather and prepare to join their engines. As workers clean and oil the engines, they talk about their pride in the railways, and their regret at the passing of the steam age. But they are resigned to modernisation and the necessary replacement of dirty old steam with new cleaner diesel engines.

With preparation complete, the first engine pulls away from the sheds in a fog of steam, passing under a bridge and out of sight.