FGW: Watch BBC2 at 1830 tonight (January 18th)

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website promoting Michael Portillo's next Great British Railway Journey running this week from Swindon-Penzance.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4669

[ChrisB]

And my BT Vision box went down at the weekend!

I'd got this set up to record....I'll never get home at that time either.

[IndustryInsider]

It'll be on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) iPlayer soon...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv/bbc_two

[ChrisB]

Only for 7 days.....and they can't send an engineer until February....Grrrr

[Btline]

Only for 7 days.....and they can't send an engineer until February....Grrrr

Bad luck if they give you the new V box - apparently it's not as good.

[willc]

Good job you don't live in Norway and your box died just before an epic documentary that NRK (local BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) equivalent) showed to mark the 100th anniversary of the Oslo-Bergen line  last November.

It ran for... seven hours, 16 minutes, the end-to-end timing of the train they filmed on. They reckon that 1.2 million Norwegians watched all or part of it. That's out of a population of 4.7 million.

There's a bit about it in English and a taster from the high mountain section of the line around Finse here http://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-eng/
along with a link for a torrent download with a slightly reduced running time. Pretty much the ultimate cab ride.

The programme is also broken into segments here http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/581966 (seem to be rather temperamental and not very Mac-friendly, I'm afraid). NB, the commentary is in Norwegian.

I'm not sure if they are planning to produce an English version. I'll post details if I hear anything. I am awaiting delivery of a DVD version to put my very very rusty Norwegian to the test.

And if you think our railway staff had it tough in recent weeks, there's also a short NRK documentary about the snowplough and track crews on the mountain section of the Bergensbanen and Flamsbana here http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/482192
Again all in Norwegian but the pictures speak for themselves.

[willc]

PS: If you have missed any Great Railway Journeys, the recorder didn't work, etc, they are being repeated in the wee small hours on BBC1 (no set time by the look of it), running a few days behind the BBC2 broadcasts. Tomorrow (ie Weds) at 3.40am it's the Settle to Garsdale one.

[Tim]

I'm not sure if they are planning to produce an English version. I'll post details if I hear anything. I am awaiting delivery of a DVD version to put my very very rusty Norwegian to the test.

Thanks for posting this.  My wife and I had our honeymoon on the Bergensbana and Flamsbana.  She has been an avid consumer of British Transport Films DVDs, but as they appear to have stopped releasing any more of those for the moment, a DVD of Norwegian trains might be just the thing for her next Birthday.  Where did you order your DVD from?

[moonrakerz]

Perhaps everyone watched Great British Railway Journeys yesterday and couldn't wait to travel to/from Yatton? 

They obviously wanted to experience seeing an HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) arrive on their platform, it transform into a (150 ?) DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit)  for them to board, then into what looked like Mk 2 coaches, for departure. I was waiting for it to do the same as the steam loco at the end of Back to the Future III - perhaps tonight !

[eightf48544]

Tonight was he pulled by a 2-8-0 tank or a King from Paignton to Kingswear.

Anyone notice the deliberate mistake by the driver of the 52XX when he was on the footplate.

[moonrakerz]

Tonight was he pulled by a 2-8-0 tank or a King from Paignton to Kingswear.

....and, very briefly, double headed !

I recorded it, last night, to watch today. The scene where the train is reversing out of Kingswear Station (filmed from the helicopter) looked a bit "odd", so I ran it through several times nice and slowly - very, very odd indeed !
The smoke and steam from the King is being sucked back INTO the funnel and, even better, all the cars are driving backwards !!!

This is actually quite a good series, but I find I spend more and more time looking for the mistakes in the truly appalling editing.   

I would love to see Match of The Day edited by this bunch; Arsenal V Man Utd V Chelsea V W Ham V Man City V Everton.................V Saracens  

[devon_metro]

Well it was very nice to learn about my local area 

I'm impressed he got the names of Hookhills & Broadsands viaducts correct! Another amusing thing - he arrived in Kingswear, and transferred across to Dartmouth, however the Salmon fishing section was filmed from the quay at Stoke Gabriel which is on the Kingswear side of the river. Whoops 

[Brucey]

....and, very briefly, double headed !

I recorded it, last night, to watch today. The scene where the train is reversing out of Kingswear Station (filmed from the helicopter) looked a bit "odd", so I ran it through several times nice and slowly - very, very odd indeed !
The smoke and steam from the King is being sucked back INTO the funnel and, even better, all the cars are driving backwards !!!

Just watched it again on the Iplayer in HD.  It happens around 13 minutes.  The car is absolutely hilarious.

If you watch carefully (on HD) the clip immediately before this, you can actually see that the camera's lens is dirty!

[old original]

Up to now I've been quite interested, but tonights (thursdays) programme was dull!!!!
Good if you're a fisherman or gardener but otherwise, yawn time

I think the production company were struggling to fill a full weeks programmes on the western route.

[Brucey]

Up to now I've been quite interested, but tonights (thursdays) programme was dull!!!!
Good if you're a fisherman or gardener but otherwise, yawn time

I agree - even had to fast forward through some parts.

Not too many irregularities today.  No cars driving backwards, although the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Intercity 125 did occasionally turn into a Class 150 and then into a XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) train (think this was also an HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units))).