Thank you, Infoman, for your daily diary of rail related broadcasts

[whole diary]

[BBM]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) 2 Wales
21:00 Britannia's Burning: Fire on The Bridge

This film marks 50 years since the fire that ravaged the Britannia railway bridge over the treacherous Menai Straits to Anglesey. It includes remarkable archive and moving eyewitness accounts of the destruction and rebirth of a British engineering masterpiece. Using a wealth of footage from the time, stunning photography and first-hand testimonies from the men who risked their lives fighting the flames, this is the vivid story of the Britannia Bridge from its building in the Victorian Age to its resurrection in the 1970s.

The bridge was the work of engineering genius Robert Stephenson - son of railway pioneer George Stephenson and a contemporary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. This film shows how a child naively lit a piece of paper, leading to a raging inferno that caused multi-million pound damage to the rail crossing that connected London and Dublin for 120 years. It charts the building of the original bridge, through the disastrous fire and the tragic deaths involved in its rebuilding as a modern road bridge. A fitting tribute to both the original engineers and the fire fighters who put everything on the line to save an iconic piece of British history. This is the story of the night people exclaimed in horror that “Britannia’s Burning.”

This is a repeat from BBC 1 Wales on Sunday evening - it can be viewed now thoughout the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) on iPlayer at the link below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jljp

[infoman]

Yesterday on channel 25

11:00am impossible railways (Switzerland)
16:00pm trains that changed the world     

Channel five
18:35pm Tony Robinson
19:0pm Bressington steam railway
20:00pm fare dodgers on London transport
21:00pm PADDINGTON PADDINGTON
22:00pm London underground

[grahame]

19:0pm Bressington steam railway

One of my treasured books from school days was Alan Bloom's book all about Bressingham; I've bookmarked this to watch - thanks for the alert. No "spoilers" here - I may post further afterwards.

[BBM]

19:0pm Bressington steam railway

One of my treasured books from school days was Alan Bloom's book all about Bressingham; I've bookmarked this to watch - thanks for the alert. No "spoilers" here - I may post further afterwards.

I visited Bressingham on a family trip back in 1976 when I travelled on a narrow-gauge train driven by the man himself so I'll be watching too!

[grahame]

19:0pm Bressington steam railway

One of my treasured books from school days was Alan Bloom's book all about Bressingham; I've bookmarked this to watch - thanks for the alert. No "spoilers" here - I may post further afterwards.

Enjoyed the show ... though I felt a slight sadness of former glory painted, it has to be said, though Alan Bloom's book.  I recall it from the days of Oliver Cromwell coming there days after she pulled the last BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) steam special in 1968, and last night's show was a bit of a shocker showing the scramble to get even a single standard gauge locomotive into steam for a special day.

I visited once - in passing, with family on our way to Norwich by road.  Thinking about that, it must have been a few years BL (Before Lisa), so with my previous wife and it would have been with kids in tow.   As the only one of the group of 4 with interest in the traction engines and railways, and with the visit being on a typical rather than "feature" day, the visit was not a long one and featured the nursery strongly in our itinerary.

Perhaps a place to go back to next year?   Plans to rove around this year have been kiboshed ... next year's list is open.


Edit - a correction of a memory

[infoman]

Brittania class 700-13 Oliver Cromwell,I wonder why?

[infoman]

Yesterday on channel 25

11:00am trains that changed the world     
16:00pm trains that changed the world     

Channel five
18:35pm Tony Robinson around the world by train
20:00pm Scenic railways(France?)

[infoman]

Yesterday channel 25
at 09:00am it says train truckers but it might be low loader lorries

BBC2 at 20:30pm Asia railways Malasia

Film 4 channel channel 14
at 21:00pm the railway man fiilm with Colin Firth

[Marlburian]

Yesterday on channel 25

11:00am impossible railways (Switzerland)
16:00pm trains that changed the world     

Channel five
18:35pm Tony Robinson
19:0pm Bressington steam railway
20:00pm fare dodgers on London transport
21:00pm PADDINGTON PADDINGTON
22:00pm London underground

The Sunday Times "Culture" listings didn't say the Paddington programme was a repeat, and it took me only a couple of minutes of viewing the first episode last week to realise that it was. Since the original screening last year the series has become historical - how long will it be before we see such crowds again? Bizarrely they've retained the original commercials offering a package of travel and overnight stays. (Might be a competition - I fast forwarded through my recording.)

I find the "fare dodgers" series a bit annoying, with the same longish preamble of incidents at the start of each episode and a "taster" before each commercial break of what's coming up after it.

Of minor railway interest, yesterday afternoon BBC2 showed "Some Like It Hot", with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon fleeing a gang in 1929 dressed in drag and joining an all-girl orchestra where Marilyn Monroe is the singer. There's a couple of exterior shots of the train the band takes to Florida and some scenes inside the sleeping car. I mention the film because c1962 it was screened at the end of term at my boys-only boarding school. The lust of several hundred adolescents when Marilyn was on screen was palpable. The railroad passenger car that was used in the film is now at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

[infoman]

CCXTV channel 23 at 18:00pm till 19:00pm Steaming around Britain

Talking pictures channel 81 at 20:20pm till 21:00pm BFI Terminus about London Waterloo

Sony Movies channel 32 at 22:50pm till 01:05am Transsiberian a film(2008) about travelling from China to Russia 

yeserday channel 25 very late sunday night into monday morning
00:00am Metropolitan railway and Great Malvern

[stuving]

And, for something a bit different, tonight on Radio Three at 23:30:

The Flying Scotsman
23:30     BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Radio 3

Slow Radio   
We take a journey back in time to recreate the golden age of steam, travelling on the Flying Scotsman from Manchester to Carlisle. We have privileged access to the footplate of this iconic engine which weighs 100 tonnes and is nearly 100 years old. We hear coal being shovelled from the tender into the crackling fire, and the driver operating the train as it speeds along the track at up to 60 miles an hour. The train stops for water and we hear the chatter of the crew. We take a take an almost cinematic journey inside the moving train from carriage to carriage with snatches of the voices of passengers as we go. And we follow a waitress as she collects plates from diners on the train and takes them to the galley kitchen where fine food is prepared. We end our journey in Carlisle where our driver signs off before handing over to another driver for the return journey.

And it's only half an hour! Which suggests it's been edited down, while I thought the original idea of "slow ..." programmes was that they were broadcast full length unedited.

[didcotdean]

Channel 5 have a habit of taking a documentary, re-narrating it (typically switching a male voice for female or vice versa) and including a couple of extra scenes or alternative takes so it can be called 'new'. This is the treatment given to the Paddington programme.

[infoman]

Yesterday on channel 25

11:00am trains that changed the world
20:00pm gold hunters on the trans-pyrennes railway

together on channel 88
18:00pm London underground
18:30pm second porogramme about London underground

Channel five
18:35pm Tony Robinson around the world by train
19:00pm Scenic railways(France?) la ligne de cevenne near montpelier

quest on channel 12 at
20:00pm salvage hunters at Dartmouth steam railway

[infoman]

BBC2 at 08:00am repairing a model train

Channel 5 at 18:35pm Tony Robinson

Quest channel 12 at 20:00pm Salvage hunters steam train/engine in an Oxfordshire garden

Yesyerday channel 25 at 20:00pm  architecture the railways built

[infoman]

Dave channel 19 13:00pm Top gear about Clarkeson trying to out run a Japanese Bullet train

Channel five
18:35pm Tony Robinson around the World by train
19:00pm Cape Town to Zimbawe
20:00pm Brunel

Select5 channel 54 at 21:00pm walking britains lost railways in Scotland S2 EP4