Sunday, August 16, 2020

Diesel Trainride (1959): When DMUs were sexy

Diesel Trainride, made in 1959 by British Transport Films, shows the railways and society in transition.

So people still dress in their best clothes to travel, but diesel multiple units are presented as excitingly modern.

By the 1970s the ones from this era were showing their age, but I still miss the possibility of travelling in the front coach and seeing what the driver sees.

The film's geography is a nonsense - our journey starts in East Anglia, only to take in the Newcastle to Carlisle line and end up in the Lake Distract - but there is much of interest to be seen along the way.

You will soon tire of the children, probably voiced by adult actresses, and their cute questions, but treat them as interesting examples of what children were meant to be like in 1959 and they become more tolerable.

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