This is about 6 minutes of Sound Super-8 cine film that I managed to shoot back in the 1980s when APT-P was, for a while, used in public service. I was very lucky to get 3 or 4 rides on the train and it was extremely impressive each time. Of course the media had to take part in the UK sport of BR-bashing and would only report if anything went wrong; but given the huge technical advance that was being attempted, on basically a shoestring budget, teething issues were to be expected. The issues were ironed out, including the much over-reported 'sea sickness', but it was too late and we ended up throwing APT away and buying tilting trains from Italy, which used much of the same technology.
The film transfer quality isn't brilliant but it's ok - it's quite hard to find a professional transfer company that will handle sound film and the cost can be prohibitive - especially as I've got about 18,000 feet to do. For now I'm doing it myself using a projector, DSLR and a Crystal Sync unit.
There will be more extracts of other long lost motive power to follow, after I've finished the digitising process.
16 сен 2024
