Your order:
NEW:
add to order > Cab Ride Compendium - the Western Way | DVD | £16.95
We have been asked many times to produce a cab-ride
programme and here it is!
Rather than concentrate
on just one journey we have put together a fantastic
compilation of no less than SIX trips on the footplate
spanning a period of 30 years.
Chapter 1:
Exeter St Davids on 23 June 1991 and we climb up front
in the cab of 50018 RESOLUTION as far as Salisbury as it
departs with a Waterloo service. Not only that but we
have 50049 DEFIANCE coupled behind so with more than 5000
bhp on the rails we won't be hanging about.
Chapter 2:
Network South-East liveried Brush type 4
No 47573 is our steed as we depart from Plymouth for
Newton Abbot on 18 December 1988.
Chapter
3:
ABSOLUTELY CLASSIC Western Region traction is
evident in this section as we travel the whole route from
Bury to Rawtenstall on the East Lancs Railway in the cab
of D832 ONSLAUGHT.
Chapter 4:
As a
comparison we take a short ride in the cab of D1013
WESTERN RANGER as it tackles Eardington bank on the
Severn Valley Railway.
Chapter 5:
Ride
is in the cab of the Blue Pullman on the Bristol to Bath
section in the 1970s.
Chapter 6:
Finally, double-headed Cromptons feature, as we ride from
Exeter Riverside with 33108 (paired with 33114) on 7V84
Eastleigh to Meldon Quarry consisting of 20 spoil wagons
on 14 September 1990.
Total Running
time 105 mins
--------------------------------------------------
What the press say........
Making a
splendid follow-up to Globe’s ‘Western Blues’ archive DVD
programme reviewed in last month’s issue, here is an
entertaining mix of footage taken from the
Cab.
Featured are six different sequences ranging from 3
minutes to 31 minutes each, four
Of which were
recorded on the BR network, and the remaining two in more
recent years on preserved lines.
The earliest
scenes feature ‘Blue Pullman’ sets, seen from the
lineside in the two main livery variations, and brief
edited film shot in the cab between Bristol Temple Meads
and Bath Spa.
The first of two sequences from the
NSE era puts us in the cab of 47573 The London Standard
climbing the Devon banks between Plymouth and Newton
Abbot in December 1988.
The second sequence from
this era features a brace of Class 50s, No 50018
Resolution + 50049 Defiance working in multiple forming
the 1622 Exeter St Davids-Waterloo during June 1991, in
what can only be described as an enthusiastic run! They
obviously had no trouble climbing the steep grade between
Exeter St Davids and Exeter Central stations then, once
past Exmouth Junction, you feel the need to hold onto
your seat while the pair power towards the capital. By
the time you reach Salisbury, where our filmed journey
ends as No 50018 is removed to be stabled in the bay, you
feel ready to stretch your legs! On the way you can but
despair of the short-sighted decision to ‘rationalise’
the former L&SWR line when the WR took control of
this route.
Making a change from these passenger
operations, how about a run from Exeter Riverside up to
Meldon Quarry with a pair of ‘Cromptons’? Nos.
33108+33114 have charge of 7V84 Eastleigh-Meldon
comprising 20 empty spoil wagons in September 1990. The
33s rattle along the Barnstaple branch to Crediton, where
the two routes diverge, at first running parallel, before
out train climbs up the former L&SWR main line
through closed stations which form part of today’s
heritage route centred on Okehampton station.
More
recent footage has an all-too brief burst with D1013
Western Ranger at Eardington on the Severn Valley
Railway, and a full trip from Bury Bolton Street to
Rawtenstall on the East Lancashire Railway in the cab of
D832 Onslaught. The latter obviously features far better
camerawork than the archive sequences, though personally
I must admit to really enjoying the amateur footage
offering a welcome insight into the former BR operations
and how it used to be.
David Brown, Editor,
Traction Magazine February 2008
Download clip ( 2.42MB )