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Great American Rairoad Journeys series 2


melmerby
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Hi all

 

Following on from the Great British Railway Journeys which starts next Monday 2nd Jan, Michael Portillo will be back in America for the second of his journeys around America.

 

BBC2 as usual

 

Cheers

 

Keith

 

 

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Thanks for posting that - I almost missed last year's series as I had iplayer set to add great British to my favourites, but as the series then became great American it thought I wouldn't at all be interested in those so I had no idea it was even on...

 

David

He will be going West in the new series following on from his East Coast travels last time.

 

Keith

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A bit of video license in the first episode.

Michael is shown boarding a helicopter for an overview of St Louis & the Mississipi and the first aerial footage shows the McArthur Bridge, complete with a full road deck above the railroad.

However, the road had long been abandoned and by 2014 there was no road deck left, even by 2007 only the western 30% survived.

Looking at 2015 & 2016 street views confirms this fact.

 

Either Mr P. has been making this programme for a very long time or the aerial footage from the chopper was not while he was on it!

 

Otherwise another interesting programme.

 

Keith

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The sequence shot in the Chicago hump yard reminded me why if good RTR OO had not emerged, I would have had nearly equal enjoyment from researching and developing an HO 'Chicago area' layout set in the late 1940s.

 

The Chicago Chit Pond Project was impressive too.

If the UK hadn't virtually abandoned wagon load freight some time back we would have still have our hump yards.

 

Keith

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A bit of video license in the first episode.

Michael is shown boarding a helicopter for an overview of St Louis & the Mississipi and the first aerial footage shows the McArthur Bridge, complete with a full road deck above the railroad.

However, the road had long been abandoned and by 2014 there was no road deck left, even by 2007 only the western 30% survived.

Looking at 2015 & 2016 street views confirms this fact.

 

Either Mr P. has been making this programme for a very long time or the aerial footage from the chopper was not while he was on it!

 

Otherwise another interesting programme.

 

Keith

I haven't yet seen this, although I certainly intend to when opportunity offers; but the British Rail Journeys series included historical footage and images at times. The whole series was based on following a 19th century guidebook, after all. I dare say there was some context for obsolete footage? Edited by rockershovel
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I'm catching up with this on iPlayer, I'm really enjoying the 'social history' side of the programs and it's definitely improving my education on the USA. The trains are good to see, especially the freight in the background and some of the vintage stock he's seen, but Michael's made the point that some segments of the route are sadly not viable by train anymore. Big contrast to here in the UK. I don't have too much issue with the 'historical' footage, it's still all relevant and matches with the subject (which is more than can be said for Mr Tarrant's new channel 5 series).

There's been a few humorous comments on his dress code too, particularly when giving him a clown costume for the segment about circus trains with the comment that there wasn't much difference with what he was wearing!  ;)

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This series is being rebroadcast starting Tuesday 4th Aprill at 1900 on BBC2

 

It is listed as a "New Series" in the Radio Times, which it quite clearly isnt!

However it is being broadcast as 10 x 1 hour episodes rather than 20 x 30 minute episodes

 

Keith

Edited by melmerby
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