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Blue Pullman Video


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Just seen this British Transport Film of the Blue Pullman on a Paddington - Birmingham run.

Is that engine sound for real or is it the sound effects department, hard up for cash, using a hairdryer?

Hearing the dodgy sounding clunk of the signal dropping, does make me wonder if it is all sound effects.

 

A sad story about the driver but the uniform does bring to mind an Express Dairies delivery!

 

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There are quite a few of these high speed films about. Can't someone slow them down so we can watch them in real time?

 

If you grab the frames as stills on the original BTF DVD, you'll find that there's a lot missing. It's like a snapshot every 5 or 10 coach lengths at speed, probably a slow speed camera was used in the cab, no doubt taking frames every few seconds...

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Ah "Lets go to Birmingham"

With that uniform the kids used to call the drivers "stop me and buy ones" as they looked like ice cream salesmen.

This footage was also used (in black and white) for a film called "Red Hot Railway" which had parts of the BTF film "Rush Hour" spliced in and footage of people on the station concourse who were doing about 60mph.

 

Kind of makes you want to go for a ride on the train doesn't it? Even if they have all been scrapped... :(

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Just seen this British Transport Film of the Blue Pullman on a Paddington - Birmingham run.

Is that engine sound for real or is it the sound effects department, hard up for cash, using a hairdryer?

Hearing the dodgy sounding clunk of the signal dropping, does make me wonder if it is all sound effects.

 

A sad story about the driver but the uniform does bring to mind an Express Dairies delivery!

 

Bits of the film, e.g. stewards etc are from BTF's own "Blue Pullman" which majored on the Midland Pullman. I do agree the sound is weird, but then to run at those speeds a jet/hair-drier is a reasonable sort of effect. I don't think any diesel yet manufactured can get up to that sort of speed, whatever the gearing! At about 2m54secs there is a shot of the train entering a tunnel - 6-cars. But weren't the WR units 8-cars? 6-car units ran on the MML....

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Bits of the film, e.g. stewards etc are from BTF's own "Blue Pullman" which majored on the Midland Pullman. I do agree the sound is weird, but then to run at those speeds a jet/hair-drier is a reasonable sort of effect. I don't think any diesel yet manufactured can get up to that sort of speed, whatever the gearing! At about 2m54secs there is a shot of the train entering a tunnel - 6-cars. But weren't the WR units 8-cars? 6-car units ran on the MML....

 

Some of the exterior shots - like the one you mention Ian - are also from 'Blue Pullman' or some other BTF film. Notwithstanding their excellent reputation it is not at all unusual to find bits of footage from another of their films spliced into many of the BT films which centred on railway subjects (for non railway consumption); 'Elizabethan' includes a little bit from elsewhere, 'Snow' includes snips from at least two other films (probably more) and it was, I believe an award winner - despite including some few seconds of footage that were from the 1930s!

 

And the film unit weren't above errors in traing filmsalthough most of their stuff in that area is excellent. But the film they made (on the S&DJR as it happens) about single line working was quickly greeted with howls of laughter at its first showings to staff who really knew their way around Rules 189 to 208 and the film was withdrawn for a major re-edit.

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The BP Driver's uniform was referred to as 'the ice-cream salesman' at Old Oak.

 

And (fortunately) Eurostars are considerably better riding any sort of speed than the BP ever was - the best ride was in the power cars and that was the place we always tried to get a seat when coming back up from Cardiff on Fridays after a week lodging down there on nefarious duites. And once nicely settled they did tremendous steak sandwiches although the ride there was somewhat noisirer than elsewhere in the train.

 

The Driver got a pretty good ride too although I only ever had one cab ride on one; Cardiff -Paddington - and 8 minutes early over Wootton Bassett so we got in front of the Bristol and stayed there all the way to Padd.

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