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Some simply magnificent images in that programme (Those trial runs in black livery through the snow.... ). Probably better watched with the sound down (rather naff voiceover) and some suitable music booming ... *
Yes, an excellent programme, with some superb camera work. I especially liked the shot looking up from between the rails, and the shots inside the cab, not obtainable to the average amateur.
Some people apparently whinging that it isn't really the Flying Scotsman at all as only 3% of the original remains - no doubt they also think York Minster should have been left without a roof after the fire !
The same can be said of so many older creations. I take the opposite view and would like to see Scarborough Castle restored to its former glory.
But as for the Flying Scotsman, it's spending a glorious week on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. This was taken at 3.44 p.m. today at Goathland (aka Aidensfield) Railway Station (N.B. not "train" station):-
in about 1966 I was about seventeen years old and had a functioning car, which was more than my two best friends, Nick and Graham, did. So they said, you must drive us to north Lancashire to view the last week of steam in the UK. Er yes, but my car may be roadworthworthy, but its a Flying Standard Ten Horsepower and its top speed is forty mph and its a long way to Lancashire from Surrey and I dont give a s**t for steam trains. But somehow, we did it. All the way from Guildford to Carnforth, and there, on the most remote hillface in the middle of nowhere I knew, the external oil pipe fractured. The local garage towed me downhill twelve miles and there is a story, the brakes were glowing red hot by the time we arrived. i went home by train and a week later went back by the same conveyance to collect the car.
But somehow, we saw the last steam train on a commercial run in the UK. As it came to rest a crowd of men (entirely, I do not recall one lady) rushed up and scraped soot off the metalwork into little glass bottles. No doubt, they are now available on Ebay for lots of optimistic money.
Train enthusiasts are very weird people, believe me. If you meet one, try changing the subject to anything they might hate, like motorways, for example ...
I heard the chap on R4 this morning saying how they had replaced more or less everything to restore it
SO the broom handle and head springs to mind
but nowt wrong with a bit of steam enginarry and i'm sure the folks on the Ned End at Donny were happy today
Train enthusiasts are very weird people, believe me. If you meet one, try changing the subject to anything they might hate, like motorways, for example ...
We are no more weird than fishermen, golfers, or people that go to football matches. Just because you don't understand us, chum, it doesn't make us weird. So there!
Money can't buy you happiness............but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery - Spike Milligan
The view from the driving seat as Flying Scotsman travels the Severn Valley Railway.
Billed as so called ' Slow TV ' ie just naturally occurring sounds and lack of background music and commentary - in reality there was clearly some film editing of the journey and commentary from the crew, but this was minimal and by way of explanation at appropriate points.
Most enjoyable and all the better for the lack of intrusive background music in particular.
I'm neither a steambuff nor a train spotter(although I do have a heritage line running along the bottom of my garden....) , but I did enjoy this programme, not least because the snippets of commentary were informative and added to the whole. For me one of the joys of such a film is that you don't need to know anything about the subject, just relax and watch the scenery and listen to the (real) sounds.Much needed time out from a fractious world.
It has reminded me that my late mother had some shares in the Railway, which the solicitors handling her affairs said were not worth bothering with as the railway didn't exist anymore! I doubted that but didn't investigate at the time. I need to dig out the paperwork and decide what to do with them.
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