"Full Steam Ahead" - BBC2 21st July

[Sidecar Racer]

I noticed that on the trailer - and it was a very 'modern' loco too.  They wouldn't use a 1950's car would they so why use a 1950's train?

 

 

 

 Possibly because there are no , or few 1886 locos in working order along with the

appropriate rolling stock .

[rab]

Staff and ticket working.

I knew there had to be a simple answer.

As my old boss used to say,

"It's so simple it hurts"!

[The Stationmaster]

Quite bit of gravity train footage on Youtube:

 

Thanks for sharing those clips.

One of the subtitles on the first clip highlighted

something I'd never thought of before though.

So on the basis that there's no such thing as

a silly question on RMweb and at the risk of

dragging this thread off topic:

If the token comes down with the train,

how do they get the loco down?

 

I don't know about the current staff section (the FR uses miniature electric train staffs - or used to) but once the train is out of the section and the staff given up another one can be withdrawn.  The only slightly naughty bit is that the train divided in a staff section so technically the section was still occupied once the wagons had cleared it but no doubt some sort of Special Instruction is used to cover such an arrangement.

[wombatofludham]

Fun little programme, but Philip's pronunciation of Llechwedd and Blaenau was like dragging a rusty nail down a blackboard for me.  I've always enjoyed the presenters in their previous programmes and I think Ruth is an enthusiastic and genuine presenter.  However, comparing it to Trainspotting Live is pointless, they are two completely different beasts.  For what it's worth I felt TL was a good first attempt at the genre and hopefully it will learn from the mistakes and come back for a second attempt.  "Full Steam Ahead" is carrying on from previous programmes of this genre with an experienced team, and therefore was bound to be well polished.

 

​Nice to see Phil Bach from Gwibdaith Hen Fran explaining the horrors of the slate industry!

[ben racey]

It was a fun show, especially the gravity train. Very well portrayed....

 

Not so sure about the 86 on the front of the open university booklet, 'our railways'. Much as I rate an 86, it's a pretty fundamental error for the OU to make......

 

Cheers for now.

 

Richard

[Captain Kernow]

I seriously don't want to be picky ( no really I don't ) however, whilst watching the BBC Victorian drama The Secret Agent last night, which featured some railway scenes, I'm sure I saw a lion and wheel totem on a loco tender as it pulled into a station.

#speccysavertimetravel )

You told everyone that you were asleep on the sofa and dreamed it all!

[bgman]

You told everyone that you were asleep on the sofa and dreamed it all!

Partly true CK, due mainly to the bad TV reception in the surrounding area !

 

 

Yours

H.A.Mock

[Nelson Jackson]

No comments about today's episode?

 

I personally liked it and it kept me interested throughout, looking forward to next weeks episode.

[melmerby]

No comments about today's episode?

 

I personally liked it and it kept me interested throughout, looking forward to next weeks episode.

Plenty of shots of the Bluebell's teak coaches!

I thought it was good, as was the first episode.

 

Keith

[Hroth]

I missed the first 15 minutes last night, and dozed through the rest, so my impressions of the programme were, well, impressionistic!

 

What glued itself into my sleep-fogged mind was the discussion of the practicalities of long distance travel in non-corridor coaches with reference to Victorian "personal urinals" for male and female use (under clothes, apparently) and that picnic basket.....

 

Luckily I had recorded the episode so I'll catch up over the weekend.

[PhilJ W]

I've watched both programs with the added bonus this week of it being preceded by Michael Portillo's 'Great American Railroad Journeys'.

[Pacific231G]

I watched episode two last night and enjoyed it. I've kept both episodes on my Tivo which is always a good sign. There were a couple of minor howlers, such as the implication that wooden sleepers were made obsolete from the 1940s by the introduction of concrete sleepers, but a lot of stuff I didn't know or hadn't thought of such as the increase in domestic workload produced by moving from wood to coal. 

The gravity train was fascinating (though I wouldn't fancy doing the risk assessment for that filming- how far did they actually go?) . What I'm really enjoying about the series is the way the presenters are prepared to get stuck into aspects of the impact of railways that normally get skated over such as what navvie camps were really like. I've long known about pinning down brakes on unfitted goods trains before a descent but I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually demonstrate it before.

[luckymucklebackit]

Regarding sleepers, I can't remember them mentioning that the earlier railways did not use wooden sleepers, using stone blocks instead.

 

Jim

[Pacific231G]

There's too many dramatic productions (TV and film) that have the attitude that its a steam train so anything goes, even if it ends up with (in automotive terms) Queen Victoria leaving Windsor Castle in a Bugatti Veyron.  Personally I gave up worrying about it years ago. (Another example:, one of the "Murder on the Orient Express" films starts out with the train leaving the station drawn by a small German 4-6-0...)

 

 

Producers are limited by what is available (or affordable- you can do almost anything with CGI) and very often the choice of trains and other things is designed to create an appropriate atmosphere for the audience so I agree with you about not worrying about it.

Do I worry whether the train that Dougray Scott alights from at "Bletchley" at the beginning of Enigma is actually made up from authentic LMS carriages or Mk. 1s? No, so long as the overall atmosphere feels right but if I see "the Blue Train" supposedly leaving Calais Mariitme departing from a high British platform under British semaphore signals I find that totally unconvincing.   

Watching Murder on the Orient Express I know that the loco is French (230G353 was SNCF's one and only steam loco for years and appeared in many films) and the shed in Paris they used bore little resemblance to Istanbul-Sirkeci but I can still suspend disbelief and feel that I'm seeing the Orient Express starting its run.  

[sharris]

 

The gravity train wouldn't have been much fun in the depths of a Welsh winter, but if we see a bit of sun, I can imagine the FR ticket sales will see an uplift.

 

It would certainly provide some interesting competition for the zip wire they've installed over the slate mine! 

[Ohmisterporter]

I can't begin to imagine what the insurance premiums would be for public gravity trains. 

[Londontram]

I can't begin to imagine what the insurance premiums would be for public gravity trains. 

Where I live in Great Yarmouth they call it a roller coaster.

[sigtech]

Thought the second episode was as interesting and as well made as the first, - the consistency is a good sign, and I'm looking forward to the next one - it covers among other things moving livestock by rail..

Regards

SIGTECH(Steve).

[BlackRat]

That woman has one wicked laugh.......

[caradoc]

I thoroughly enjoyed episode 2. The enthusiasm and good humour of the three presenters made the programme a pleasure to watch.

[jamesg]

It was a fun show, especially the gravity train. Very well portrayed....

 

Not so sure about the 86 on the front of the open university booklet, 'our railways'. Much as I rate an 86, it's a pretty fundamental error for the OU to make......

 

Cheers for now.

 

Richard

Is that the class 86 known as a 'Übergangskriegslokomotive', commonly abbreviated to 'UK'?  So it may well be a UK steam locomotive.

 

I enjoyed the second episode, especially the bits about building the permanent way.  It is a very well put together programme.

[RJS1977]

I can't begin to imagine what the insurance premiums would be for public gravity trains. 

 

I think the Corris ran one in their Gala recently, though of course that's a much shorter run.

[PaulRhB]

I can't begin to imagine what the insurance premiums would be for public gravity trains.

Well a few people I know have ridden it, I think they made a decent donation and became temp members signing a waiver sort of thing. They don't run it at the higher speed with guests so it's well within what they know is safe. They only ran it on the programme from Dduallt to Tan-y-Bwlch too so a fairly short run.

[Ian J.]

I watched the second episode last night and it was entertaining, but it did feel a little lost at times. While the team is getting their information across there appears to be a bit of 'higgledy-piggledy' about the way they're covering the subject. I wonder if they're trying to avoid being too linear with the format's narrative because that might seem boring?

[The Stationmaster]

I watched the second episode last night and it was entertaining, but it did feel a little lost at times. While the team is getting their information across there appears to be a bit of 'higgledy-piggledy' about the way they're covering the subject. I wonder if they're trying to avoid being too linear with the format's narrative because that might seem boring?

 

It does seem to dodge about a bit but I suppose that in some respects that is inevitable given the vast range they are trying to cover.  There are also inevitably going to be some occasional inaccuracies and anachronisms - like the way they leapt quickly from coaches with oil lamp lighting to electric lighting instead of mentioning years of gas lighting - but within the overall context I don't think that is too serious an error although it would help if they got even the 'broad' date information right.

 I've long known about pinning down brakes on unfitted goods trains before a descent but I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually demonstrate it before.

 

Again a point of picky detail but it's a pity they didn't get it absolutely right.  I would think they probably filmed all of it (assuming the 'demonstrators were doing it correctly of course) but it was then cut to what was seen as the essentials in order to keep the programme within overall length requirements.

(What wasn't made clear is that sufficient brakes are pinned down to hold the train with the engine and brakevan brakes 'off' - the engine has therefore to start and pull the train against the brakes, the theory being that if the engine stops pulling and brakes then the train will stop.  And I did say 'the theory')