We all remember the Steadfast class of locomotive don't we? Come on, you know, that all-encompassing brand name given to the class 60s, used by BR and enthusiasts alike, and still used to this day? Well, this video gives that impression.
In reality it is training material for the drivers conversion course onto the new locos, but it is interspersed with an unspecified Rory McGrath alike giving some corporate spiel about the new 'Steadfasts'. Interestingly, the class are described as having an ability to move mountains of 'coal, steel and general freight', so pretty much all the industries that Thatcher had put into decline, going someway to explain why only a handful of the hundred built are ever required for traffic.
The video starts with a Western style stand off (the sort between a cowboy and an Indian, not between hydraulic and electric transmission) between a driver and his new steed. The loco is then introduced with powerful footage of tug 2 on a rake of TEA wagons, although the effect is somewhat ruined by the spoon glimpsed at the rear of the consist. There is then some description of the road haulage competitors, nicely illustrated with some copywrite free 1970s footage of the M1.
We then move on to the meat of the video, as the production team try and convince us that the 200ft of demonstration line at Brush works is really open main line. Various failure modes are recreated, all to the backdrop of the same bit of Leicestershire scrubland. They are obviously very proud of the diagnostics panel, as it seems to feature at every opportunity.
The video concludes with a rousing toast to Steadfast; "the workhorse of the future", obviously unaware of the thoroughbred that GM were developing.
6 сен 2024
