Great video, shame about the overlaid noise. As least I know where the mute button is, but it would be so much better to hear the engine and other 'real' sounds.
What’s worse the music or the sounds of the IEP and cab sounds. Maybe the music doesn’t bother some people and others would like the real sounds. Each to there own
I have recently found out that the noise of the train in the cab is pretty much nothing as there are no nearby traction motors cooling systems or diesel engines to make a noise. Drivers report that it's like gliding out of Paddington because it's so silent, the main cab noise being the cab air con.
Agree with many other comments, we want live sound, not canned music,, if we wanted that we'd ride in a lift. I suppose maybe the crew were singing and that was worse? LOL
Just to add to all the comments about the lower limits since the Ladbroke Grove accident, the Working Timetable schedule (start to stop) for HSTs in 1982 was 22mins.
I must admit I turned the music off before we got to the end of the platform at Paddington. Otherwise interesting to get the cab view having travelled on the blessed thing more times than I can to remember
Come on, GWR, what are you doiiiiing??? You're producing a viideo which most likely to be watched by enthusiasts and removing sounds of the train? these are sounds which we die for..! How dumb!
Yes you've got the right expression sir at last found it , sounds that we would die for , which is your favourite sir if I may ask , for me it's both EMD 645E3 in motion , and Ge dash 7 particularly those old ones under 2000 hp , hope to hear from you and all the folks which are theirs ??
Worth pointing out that if we still had British Rail the line would have been electrified by 1997 and the trains would be doing 140 mph. Privatisation ended the advanced plans for electrification, signalling modifications and new electric trains would would have come into service about 25 years ago. Worth adding that in the last 10 years or so, the UK government has provided over three times the amount of money to UK railways than was given to British Rail in the 1980s (adjusted for inflation).
And on the day when Virgin East Coast is re-nationalised, note that the class 91 and Mk4 coaches still used on that line, were designed 30 years ago to run at 140 mph. Replacement will be by slower Hitachi IET trains. Now there's progress.
Worth pointing you are living in a dream world, one who has forgotten what travel was like under British Rail. Under British rail, I'd still be traveling to Waterloo with slam door 4 VEPS
So 40 years later and no improvement in speed or journey times and, nothing planned - the legacy of privatisation, oh but improved acceleration when compared with 30+ year old Class 91s.
It's clear from the majority of comments that the maker of this video, sadly like so many others, has deemed it necessary to put music over the top of the action, and we really don't like it. Yes, you can turn it down or off, but then, the video would lose its realism. Please don't add music again. Making aggressive comments about it doesn't make it right.
WOW, what a thrilling ride. The first passenger aircraft I flew in, mid '50s, a DH Rapide, couldn't reach 100 mph unless it had a galeforce 9 tailwind pushing it.
So far I’ve travelled in and out of PAD 15 times on your new inter-city trains and they’ve absolutely crawled through slough (or slow as I call it) and then thy crawl through Hayes and Harlington and they almost never leave Reading on time!
If you run this at 1.5 times speed, not only do you get to see what it would look like if they allowed higher speeds, but the music sounds more like a steam loco!
Looks like a timing of just over 21 mins could be achieved with 6%G braking from 125 to 95mph and then 95mph to rest. Unless some time savings could be made between Paddington and Twyford - then somewhere between 9 and 10%G braking would be needed to beat the 20 min 46 sec record. Drivers might needs some practice and a dry rail.
I worked as a second man on this route back in the 70s, between my driver and I we took turns driving...He drove one way and I the other, coming back from Bristol one day I got a class 52 loco "Western Crusader" I think ? up to 114 MPH through Slough ...The road as we called it dropped slightly and this gave me the extra speed...Needless to say I caught up the time as we left late...
I've actually been on a record run in an HST set. way back in the early 80's I believe. I paid for a ticket for my Brother and me to take the record run from Bristol to London and back. we were given a tie. a folder. special ticket in a wallet and the tannoy informed us along the way of our speed. when we got to Paddington we were informed of the time and average speed. on the way back we broke our own record. and I remember everyone cheering in the coach I was in. Out time was something like 68 minutes but coming back we exceeded an average speed of 102mph. i maybe a tiny bit hazy on exact time but I'm pretty sure it was very close to that. So unless they do something about the track and get the trains to really make use of its acceleration and top speed it ain't gonna be much of an improvement over an HST
The GWML, a prestigious, historically interesting main line that runs through some of England's most beautiful countryside.... Now forever marred by some of the worlds ugliest and most intrusive OLE. What a travesty! The IETs certainly go, but they are also less smooth, less quiet and less comfortable than the HSTs. Electrification is good when done right, but this whole scheme has so far been an object lesson in how NOT to do it IMO (and that's to say nothing of the astonishing cost and schedule overruns).
It was provided by a Swiss company, Furrer and Frey, who have provided the OHLE for the Swiss rail industry, it was meant to be cheaper to install than the existing BR mark III, It's certainly les elegant.
The Paddington-Ladbroke speed limit is to maximise signal reading time for drivers, especially because they are arranged in rows across the six lines and drivers must 'count across' to make absolutely certain that they are reading the correct signals for their train. The 95 limit approaching Reading is determined by signal spacing which leaves inadequate braking distance for higher speed.
I did it regularly in the early/mid '90s. The background deep resonant thrum of the HSTs at Paddington made the place feel more alive than it does now.
For anyone who has made it to the end without worrying about the music, at 7:05 mins the train passes the Southall Depot, used by steam tour company West Coast Railways. There is a loco getting preped in the Yard. Any idea what loco it might be? Just for interest.
I think it's a black 5? If you pause the video at about that point you can use the dot (full stop, period if you're American) or comma keys to step forward and back frame by frame. Using that facility as best I can see it's a black 5 but it's too shrouded in its own steam to be 100% sure.
People who want to watch these videos are rail enthusiasts and they want to hear the sounds of the trains - not music. If one wants to listen to music, they search for music tracks.
Travelling to and from London countless times down the years I've done the Paddington- Reading every time. Honestly if i had to listen to that music id rather walk. Awful.
They go all the way to Camarthen. They run on electricity as far as Didcot Parkway, when they switch to diesel and vice versa when returning to London. If it's stopping at Didcot, they will switch whilst stopped. If passing didcot non-stop, they tend to switch just east of the junction to the Oxford branch. No IETs are currently running to Devon/Cornwall as the 800s currently in service aren't powerful enough to deal with the steep gradients, and the 802s are still being tested and aren't ready to go into service yet
Enjoyed the ride great video and I understand you have to respect privacy buy muting the sound but this music is incredibly monotonous and irritating, you should change it as I guarantee it will put a lot of people off in the first few minutes.
Too bad it takes three or four minutes before it hits the point where it can do more than plod along at 50 MPH. Oh and a bit of irony. Around the 4:00 mark, you pass by the depot where the Azuma (ECML version of the 800 series) is parked. They're STILL not in revenue service while GWR is slowly adding their 800 series units into public operation.
The track layout and speed limits were designed for the acceleration profile of the HST and, in this video the driver was driving to the timetable. These trains can accelerate faster as you point out. Timetable improvements are planned probably for December 2019 now and future plans will almost certainly include improving the line speed around Old Oak Common (the depot) although there are quite a few points around there.
I recall that back in the late 1970s that the original HST scheduled journey time for London P to Reading was 22 minutes. So this IET with all the signals set to green in its favour has shaved about a minute off the original timetable. I invite viewers as old as I am to back me up here, as I have long since lost the original timetable.
I've got a BR Passenger Timetable from 1982/83 so not quite 70's but as an example: Departs Paddington at 8.10am Arrives in Reading at 8.34am Arrives in Bristol Parkway at 9.21am Arrives in Swansea at 10.56am Just to give another comparison from way back, here are times from a 1902 GWR timetable: Departs Paddington at 10.30am Arrives in Reading at 11.38am Arrives in Swindon at 12.35pm
Can you please confirm the date and time of this train and the set numbers please? Was this a service train? If so - whicg service? Or was this a specially rigged record attempt? I do agree with others that the music was really annoying. Sorry.
Ladbroke Grove disaster of 1999, as a HST was travelling near to 125mph on the approach to Paddington when a local train which passed a red light crashed into it, causing one of the biggest accidents on UK railways
