Worked on those old 63's for years, and the old CEP's too, faithful old things. Only ever failed once with a flashover in the line switch. Happy days. Still miss them now, and the old motors growling then singing along as you went faster.
Weren't the CEP's the most powerful of all the SR units once the Portsmouth express units were broken up? I remember my father telling me of the old GRI's etc which were demolished at Hoo Junc yard and the traction motors used for the BIG's and REP's for the express Bournemouths. Me old man was lifelong SR signalman who worked much of his life on lines where the CEP did roam. I remember being in a cab on a Dover express and the driver telling me the best setup was the 12 CEP plus one MLV as the formation was 13 coaches but the power including the MLV was for 16 cars making the trains very sprightly on the pullaway and up hills.
The original is a wonderful piece of history now, Stanley Holloway and all! We used to use it at LT's training centre as part of driver training - and a bit of light relief. I would love to find it.
Well so is this one really, there's no more MK EMU sets running alas. Takes me back to my time working on them. Only had one breakdown in 25 years, when the line switch on an early CIG went bang !
If you get in touch with someone in the safety section at Northern Rail then they will help - we have just used the original version on our Drivers off train safety brief and also on our instructors course. That's if you haven't already found the original!
Only have to look down the line of the coaches to tell if a cord been pulled, those "butterflies" are the telltales to show which coach has distress that are on each coach.
Whilst I admire Bernard Cribbins and although this is by no means a bad update I'm afraid that I don't think that it's anywhere near as good as the original ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pLRnuG5LVSw.html ). Ken wrote the rhyming monologue for Stanley Holloway and 'Sam' was a real locomotive driver (as is the updated 'Sam'). It was never released so it won no awards.
