BTF Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill c1962

[EASYTIGER10]

I'm sure Ted was a milkman actually. If you listen carefully between 0:20 and 0:25, you can hear the milk-crates being loaded onto the train.

[STILLAVRIL1]

I'm joking!

[STILLAVRIL1]

What is a milkman?

But seriously. He wasn't called Ted!

He was Alf, and steadfastly remained 61 years old all through my childhood.

So there.

[01276]

"What is a milkman?"

tell me your joking...

[formidable38]

That driver looks like he should be selling ice cream!!

[LeamingtonSteve]

so nice to see the lines into birmingham as quadruple track and the through lines at Wycombe in place! Shame all the semaphores have now gone except at Banbury

[hughrobertwright]

yes, ironically now there are so many trains on that line that the quadruple track which went from Dorridge into Birmingham would be very useful!

[Isidore98]

Ah remember the time when all BR drivers looked as if they were exactly 62 years old. Certainly all were called Ted. A nice touch in this film is the signal wait outside Snow Hill. Why is the driver (Ted) dressed as a milkman?

[65twin]

that's cause you had to be about 62 by the time they'd let you drive - start at cleaner and work the way to the top.

Now you can apply to become a driver straight away which I think is pretty daft considering the responsibility.

[RobinCarmody]

The Blue Pullman: possibly *the* design classic of the Macmillan era.

[railenthusiastduncan]

Remember this from the Going Loco series back in 1990. Thanks for posting.

[01276]

thats where i got it from :]

[bluesgunner]

So do I! I was 4 at the time, and this was one of the things I watched often as a small child, haha!

[hughrobertwright]

I remember it from then as well, have still got the VHS videos with the other programmes on somewhere. By the way does anyone know what the music is that plays once the train leaves? I remember it was supposed to be a Pullman trip to Birmingham at the speed of Strauss!

[Roger8396]

Appropriately it is Perpetuum Mobile (Perpetual Motion) by Johann Straus

[edwardianeccentric]

Incredibly I still have a full video of the going loco series.

[01276]

planning to upload any of it? :)

[edwardianeccentric]

Could do (though it'd take a while, me being about 200 miles at the moment from my computer wizardry)...which bits would you like?

[01276]

i was only 1 at the time of it being on so cant really remember it .... all the bits my dad recorded i have uploaded, but well, whats the good parts?

[edwardianeccentric]

I always enjoyed the short clip of 60009 crossing the Forth bridge...seen that?

[01276]

nope..

[nostromoau]

Thanks 01276

[nostromoau]

What class of loco was that?

[01276]

Class 251 D.E.M.U.

[kiyran]

ramrodtrike is ryt. the drivers always reminded me of milkmen

[bobandclunk]

Virgin could never beat five minutes!

[ramrodtrike]

seems odd there is so little traffic the other way.

Why is a milkman driving the train?

[SteffanLlwyd]

Zactly what I thought. 'Magine how scared the United Dairies man must have been when he put the pedal to the metal and got dis!

[Northernlightshow]

How Virgin Cross Country must shame when they see the service on this film. Where as "1st class" now you can get free (non-alcoholic drinks) and a plastic box of various processed food, the service shown on this Pullman is a tribute to a bygone age and the BR staff in it.

[badoitcontrex]

Sadly the driver was killed on Aug 15th 1963 in the collision at Knowle And Dorridge.

[SteffanLlwyd]

Oh hell. When I travelled the route as a kid I noticed that for about three miles the sleepers were marked by wheel indentations (derailed wheelset?) I have a dim recall that a railwayman had been killed. Was this an unrelated event? Saw the Blue Pullman at Leamington Spa and hated it 'cos it meant the end of steam.

[SteffanLlwyd]

Oh yes and we were 'wrong line working', going down the Up line because the marked sleepers were out of the left-hand window...I remember.

[badoitcontrex]

It was a down loco hauled Pullman set which ran into a goods train of car carriers which the signalman had forgotten about. The loco was a Western and the cab was demolished. Three railwaymen were killed.

[redrover2]

The first of many more I hope! Some of the early ones will now be out of copyright anyway I should think!