Interesting to see the MML in the days before Meridians, and before British trains were banished from the great train shed at St Pancras, and forced to make do with a giant oversized bus shelter! My favourite bit is when the train accelerates away from a signal check, after being held up by a slow running Thameslink train, and we hear the Valenta's screaming away on the rising gradient! Incidentally, the power car this DEV was filmed aboard, No 43048, is still working on the MML, under East Midlands Train's auspices.
The Valenta smacks of raw power. I know what you mean about East Midlands Trains' HSTs, better than all the rest for sound but as you say there is nothing like the original to get the hairs on the back of the neck standing up. Video 125 was lucky enough to record the Valentas on at least SIX separate Driver's eye views, and we have kept all the rushes.
I miss National Express Midland Mainline. It was the first privatised railway operator, as such as: GNER, Midland Mainline, Virgin (Cross Country and West Coast), Central Trains, Silverlink, Connex (Thameslink, Southern, etc.), SPL, Arriva, Stagecoach (Southwest Trains and Virgin), First (Great Western Railway, Northwestern, Hull, etc.), and so-fourth; that we all remember them like yesteryear and worship them till’ the day that we all die.
Before the modernised St Pancras with the Eurostar, it only used to be for the East Midlands Railway. And the High Speed Southeastern didn’t existed at the time
