This film sums up quite a lot of me life, born in '67, to a BR dad, in the eighties I was the lad that came up and changed the lamps on the Exeter expresses as seen at 4:17 and today having left south London I live almost next door to Gillingham station served by those selfsame Exeter trains. It kinda hit home how long ago that was as one of the guards on a train to Salisbury pulls me aside and asked me if I was the young lad who did all that back then and I was really flattered he remembered me, he like me are old 'uns now, he was back then a newly qualified chap and we had a good ol' chat about halcyon times and some mirth on how I got sacked by BR.
BR phased out breakfasts and dinners sometime in the late seventies, replaced by scolding microwaved burgers etc. VEPs were always cozy and warm, fast even... comfortable, and one could smoke away!
I recall the full restaurant car service on the VEP's on the Bournemouth route. As all 1st class accommodation was compartments, unusually on this route the restaurant service was at tables in a 2nd class open coach.
I did Folkestone to London as a commute for 6 months in 2002 before the high speed link. That was an easy 3 hours total a day just on trains and that was on a good day.
VEPs certainly did their job well, and were cozy in winter, cool in summer (open enough windows!) Also I noticed briefly a Class 25? in green....ahh, the good ol' days. Dunno if the young folk would be listening to Herp Albert in those days, eh!!
BR(SR) painted its long-distance EMUs in plain Corporate Blue instead of the InterCity Blue/Grey livery due to, legend has it, misunderstanding the instructions about the new livery.
RIP to anybody in this film with gray hair. It was probably filled 55 years ago, a different era indeed. I wonder what a passenger from back then would think of our rail service today (good and bad?)
Narrator? Blast they opened the soft drinks cans and we didn't see them doing that. At the time a punch would be used that cut a triangular hole in the top of the can.
The white- jacketed buffet car attendant would have done that for them. I remember the Pullman steward on the Brighton Belle doing the same for me, around this time, even though I was only about 9 or10. Loved it!
Oh how I miss those coach corridors and the compartments with sliding doors, slid back by a bow tied white jacketed steward. " Tea and coffee now being served " Or a brief encounter with an attractive member of the opposite sex in the narrow corridor - which way will she turn to let you pass?
Anyone remember the old post office building in the background @ 02:12 ? And when they demolished it about 97/98 the whole are there was covered in red brick dust? The street canopy the Morris 1100 drove under by then was long gone!
At 8.05 the commentator refers to London airport and then there was a shot of a mini coach with London airport on the rear. Gatwick was opened in 1958 . Was Heathrow still called London airport at that time?
The tone reminds me a bit of The Prisoner. I suppose that was Patrick McGoohan's observation of the age of social science when we thought rational technology would be the savior of our post empire world.
The LSWR started electrifying lines around London around 1910 with 3rd rail, the LB&SCR started slightly earlier, but with a different system. After grouping in 1923 the Southern Railway standardised on 3rd rail. The line in this video was one of the last Southern main lines to be electrified in 1967. The part from Bournemouth to Weymouth was only electrified in the late 1980s, and on the cheap!
Yes, they were often used! Especially when it was sunny! The compartments also had blinds on the corridor too, so you could completely isolate yourself! These trains had curtains in them until they were withdrawn in the late 80s/early 90s. Although by the end some had been changed to white curtains.
Got rid of utterly unsustainable branch lines to tiny villages (or more like it, empty stations about a mile and a half from the village it was meant to serve)
@@bobtudbury8505 The Tories initiated the Beeching report etc. and the first wave of closures. Barbara Castle aka Labour Witch carried on with the closures when Harold Wilson was PM later 1960s.
@@CA-ee1et Partly true however there were many examples of line closures that were totally wrong and two examples being the Great Central Line (European Loading Gauge) and the Barnstaple to Ilfracombe line. The Beeching cuts were necessary but went way too far.
Railways were far better in the 50s and 60s up until the end of steam. Freight on railways much safer than on over crowded road. Modernisation was a 100% fail.
Commuting 25 miles into Birmingham and from Birmingham - London regularly from 1958 - 1968. No way to go back to steam. Diesels were a massive improvement and then Electrification meant journey times down 25% and far more and cleaner trains. The whole vintage rail movement is very laudable but in no way reflects the reality. Mr Perks was never on a platform near me.
@@VictorGate i think he refers to how up until the 60's and the end of steam, freight was mostly moved by rail and after its shifted towards lorries, which is clearly the wrong move when we look at it with retrospect, both in terms of safety and also in regards to the enviromental impact of lorries. steam trains are a wonderful thing in very small amounts, the future however must be electric freight and passenger carriage, both long distance via train and last mile via public transport or electric lorries.
Note how thay failed to mention the problems with reliability Ann the over price fears untidy and damp and darkened dinghy rolling stock not to mention the poor consumer service but hey thay have to sell the crap so lie to you if thay must
I remember when these trains were introduced- they seemed so clean and smart, after the grimy, bumpy old 4-LAVs. And oh, for the days of a real buffet car. Don't even get a bloody trolley anymore.