"The InterCity 125: The Age of the Train" BBC Four 9pm 13/09/2012

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

I was a bit saddened by the absence of lots of engineering bits and pieces, but enjoyed it. Sir Peter Parker (I have a brother-in-law of the same name, who only managed a CBE) did a grand job, in the circumstances. IIRC^▸ ('if I recall/remember/read correctly'), he annoyed managers, not just unions, by walking past the welcoming committees that formed wherever he went, to talk to the people actually doing the work. His biggest success was in seeing the Serpell report kicked into the  long grass in 1982. Had that not happened, we would have been looking at a much smaller rail network today.

I had forgotten completely that Prue Leith was a member of the BRB^▸ (British Railways Board, or 'be right back', depending on context). Presumably, she was not hired for her engineering skills. I enjoy cooking, and her Cookery Bible is the first point of call for anything new. But is catering still done in-house on the railways?

[IndustryInsider]

An interesting programme, which was well worth a watch - though I agree with the comments on the APT^▸ (Advanced Passenger Train) being portrayed as the bad (hopeless) guy!

"Originaly all seats were at tables"
And people wonder why I whinge so much about both existing and proposed new trains !

I travelled in a carriage today which had all seats at tables, except for 4 airline seats at the end and all of the seats aligned perfectly with the windows.  Can't have been a modern train surely?!  Well, it was Coach 'D' on a Virgin Trains Voyager!  All of their 221s have that carriage in their 5-car sets, so if you're obsessed with tables that's the place to head!

Mind you, at only 52 seats that's much less than the 64 or so seats you could fit in a similar space elsewhere within the train: http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/assets/pdf/global/seating-plan.pdf

[JayMac]

I also remember a number of folk going to see it pass through Chippenham but it took the badminton line I think

Looking at it's arrival into Temple Meads it came from the Filton direction, so would indeed have gone via Badminton.

[bobm]

Yes it did. I had never travelled that way before into Bristol.

[Wilf19]

Now where is my copy of "2 miles a minute"by O S Nick?!

on my bookshelf I think, if you mean the one by O.S Nock that is!

An interesting program, I wonder how many of the Voyagers (my most hated train) will last anywhere near as long?

[eightf48544]

Remember Top of the Pops got the local kids onto our garge roof to watch it go by Taplow.

But wasn't it only 4/5 coaches so no wonder it went like the clappers.

[bobm]

It was certainly short. Think it was five.

[JayMac]

Looking at those video clips I linked to earlier in the thread, it was a 2+5. Approaching Temple Meads from Filton you can clearly see five carriages. In the introduction by DJ Richard Skinner he says there are three 1st Class and one 2nd Class carriages. The fifth carriage was a Buffet/Restaurant as can be seen when the train pulls out of Paddington. Despite the poor vision mixing you do just catch a glimpse of the red band along the cantrail of one carriage.

As an aside, if you turn up the volume on the second clip as the HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) approaches Temple Meads you can hear Simon Bates berating the, I assume, kids around him, telling them to stand back from the edge. Obviously no 'Mic Live/On Air' light as he's used to in the radio studio.