Birmingham to London in 5 minutes.

A sped up cab ride from Birmingham New Street to London Euston.
Shown in the late 1980s.
Enjoy!

[@RealCristiano]

This seems like the only cab ride that captures the Up Rugby side during the 1980s to late 1990s

[@angeltransportpjects]

Booked Stops at Birmingham International / Coventry / Rugby / Milton Keynes Central and Watford Junction on Peak Time duties on the Birmingham New Street to London Euston run. Maximum running speed was 100 MPH with Mk2E and Mk2F stock making up most of the Brum to Eustons with a Mk3A Diner and in this video a Mk1 Full Brake NHA (or 'Ganger' - for gangway) both of which could be operated at 110 MPH max included. Class 86/2s and 86/4s the staple diet with 100 MPH top speeds when this was filmed in an era of proper trains as seen around this proper train in itself. Those (EXCEPT the Tonka Phone at 4:10!) were the days ... Now it's all 'Wham Bam Tram' like variations on a theme everywhere!

[@bahnspotterEU]

Finally a speed run that's not boring!! I can't get this tune out of my head!

[@sp00kywestie]

+daveoftheraceways D'y by any chance have a link to it? I've been looking for the original un-edited version for ages, thanks.

[@sp00kywestie]

+daveoftheraceways Thanks! I'll get that sent now.

[@TerryTheNewsGirl]

Delicious Ian' t it?

[@Karaokeking2023]

Dave have you srill got this please? :)

[@NumberFivesAlive]

Posted on my channel sometime ago.

[@chell308]

In reply to Dristarg 3:30 is Cheddington. Polesworth station is near Tamworth and today only one train a day in all stop there. It calls at Polesworth just before 7:30am on a service to Crewe

[@nikosjk1]

I love this video, ive seen it a few times already but still nice to watch again, the music goes perfectly with the video.

[@uniteduktrains5888]

Heh. The ticket guy's uniform is so good. Better back then than it is now.

[@seprishere]

Bring back British Rail?

[@LeandroSnm]

I loved this video. Thanks for the upload.

[@johnnyboy3949]

Back when you could turn up at the station, get a return to London, and not have to take out a mortgage. Buying tickets on the day, only something the rich can do now. Thank you privatisation!

[@seprishere]

It's not THAT bad as long as you don't want an Anytime ticket. Actually if BR had continued, the Off-Peak (former Saver) ticket probably would have been scrapped and we would have to book for anything below Anytime. And BR Open tickets weren't cheap. I do think that the "simplification" was confusing. What was wrong with "Saver", "SuperSaver" and "Cheap Day"?

[@paulrobinson4597]

As the train arrives at Euston the guard making the announcement is Trevor Naughton i remember him from my days at Bescot and I am sure that he came to work at Bescot in a supervisor role. I recognized the other guard on the train clipping the tickets was a Wolverhampton man but can't remember his name, happy days 19 past the hour from Wolverhampton and 29 past the hour from Sandwell & Dudley and onto New Street.😊

[@lindisfarnemusic]

So pleased that this video is back again as the last version was removed. Great music and locos.. Excerlent !!

[@shelbyYT-jx5wz]

Berkhamsted at 3:58 - famous for its 125mph sharp curve, where train pass at full tilt.

[@edharris3668]

Where I went to school

[@thebrummierailenthusiasts5329]

1:14 this is where I’ve been going to all my life which is Birmingham international

[@KarrrRep]

Awesome video cool music. Memories.

[@EASYTIGER10]

2:41 "It's there look, THERE! If you didn't have so much crap in your handbag young lady, I dunno...I aint got time for this bleedin....."

[@andrewlong6438]

Remember she is a customer and pays your wages. She may be a disorganised customer but be polite to her!

[@sp00kywestie]

Nice if someone could do a remake and sync them together like London to Brighton in 4 minutes. Also for anyone interested the tunnel at 3:21 is Linslade Tunnel.

[@jgshanahan]

nice video, thanks. Love the fella showing-off his NEW "mobile phone" @4.11minutes Its gives perspective on life!

[@CelticPowerRanger]

I have been looking for this for ages. I know it was posted a while ago but then it just disappeared before I could show it to my dad. Please keep it up for at least the next few weeks for my next trip to Newcastle. Check out the phobile mone at 4.11! I bet his first words were "hello darling, yes, I am on the train"!

[@busestransporta-z781]

Great vid mate!

[@blackpoolacer]

Oh how i miss those flapper destination boards at new st!

[@ads1066]

Great Vid, Very 80's ( complete with handing over 20 quid for a return!!!) and at least the carriages have BIG wide windows, a proper Buffet carriage and stuff. Nowadays im stuffed into a giant EMU with "mailbox" slot windows, a teeny tiny toilet-sized "Bar" complete with disintrested zombie to while away my trips to/from Euston to Brum. granted thou--the trips are a lot faster than before--almost as fast as this great vid, :))))

[@Glenn1967ful]

Notice also the guards van, something we never see now. I will admit, for all the Pendolinos are faster, the seats are like something out of an Austin Metro and not very comfortable on long journeys for us plebs in standard.

[@mistofoles]

Wish my train journey to work was this fast.

[@ELPaso1990TX]

Better, more spacious and comfortable than those ghastly pendolinos we endure nowadays.

[@trump-sludge2000]

I would say they're more spooky then ghastly because of the way they tilt through stations and stuff if anything the voyagers are ghastly.

[@johnnyboy3949]

They're so cramped and the windows are so small and far between. Truly awful.

[@Aenopia]

Still capable of higher speeds- the class 86 in the video would only be permitted for 110 mph

[@Puckoon2002]

It was the BBC studio in Birmingham, and there was a afternoon TV show called "Pebble Mill at One"

[@calebmumby5803]

amazing video

[@PULSE88]

That video was really good.

[@josephbevan96]

I LOVE this!

[@tom201090]

good video, like how it showed the whole of the trip rather than just the camera.

[@Radvox.]

Thats amazing!

[@soundseeker63]

Ahh, good old 86s and MK2s...a journey should be to enjoy, not just getting from A to B. Pendo's are quick yeah, but not really "pleasant" to spend time in.

[@pburr1973]

The electrified freight loop line at Adderley Park still existed at this time, since removed of course. Can just be made out if you pause it at 0.55.

[@adelestevens]

Proper trains run for the convenience of passengers not for the profitability of shareholders! The UK needs BR again.

[@andrewlong6438]

Railways aren’t that profitable and the Coronavirus situation has seen the franchises effectively nationalised.

[@jameslivingston9801]

Lol that’s right - we need trains that break down every five minutes delaying journeys by hours, run down clapped out stock from the 1950s still trundling about because there isn’t the money to replace them and DR BEECHING! But let’s ignore all that and get back British Fail so we can admire the livery!

[@moose_ringo9161]

@@jameslivingston9801 If privatisation hadn't got int the way most of the clapped out stock would have been replaced anyway, with the Universal Networker programme, the Intercity 250 project, along with other programmes. We need a rail system that the public can afford, not one siphoning out profits to shareholders. I assume your head is in the clouds because I've never spoken to anyone that doesn't support the renationalisation of the railway. If the roads don't make a profit, why should the railways? They are a public service, after all.

[@AdamHiley-pj2zn]

@@moose_ringo9161 I wish Britain had a Deutsche bahn or SNCF system

[@deldirk7123]

I saw this film in 1993 and didn't see it on TV again. I may have video recorded it and wiped it assuming it would be on again. I saw 'Derby - Lincoln in 5 minutes' and made sure I didn't delete it from the videotape. I have only found this film now after a long time searching for it, very enjoyable, after just watching 'Derby - Lincoln' which I found on a BBC archives website

[@soundseeker63]

@ValentaLamenter Originally the loco was to be fitted with nameplates that said "BBC Pebble Mill" but it was decided to shorten it to just "Pebble Mill". I saw the original nameplates that were never carried for sale on ebay the the other week, they might still be up for grabs but the chap was asking £1.6k for them!

[@pedanticmongrel]

back in the day before both Milton Keynes and Watford Junction existed then, huge chunks of the journey missing, what a dissappointment. :(

[@Karaokeking2023]

I managed to get the artist for this, Wolfgang Kafer - Raiders

[@joedoran9729]

Is that the music artist

[@Glenn1967ful]

Is it me, or did most people seem better dressed in the eighties?

[@mistofoles]

Except the guard/conductor @2:51 !

[@thebrummierailenthusiasts5329]

goodness me mate it brings you back happy memories when ac locos and older emus were dominating the route

[@Glenn1967ful]

@@mistofoles A lot of British Rail staff were sloppily dressed back then.

[@andrewlong6438]

I think railway staff are better dressed today.

[@GAC1984]

@ValentaLamenter yes it was a tv centre for BBC it was based around Edgbaston. There was a chatshow there called pebble mill which was on BBC1 around lunchtime. It closed down in 2004 and was demolised in Summer 2005.

[@rez4405]

I miss those old train information boards when it used to flip

[@sandletters39]

Also you don't get trains stopping before you reach the station unlike in privatised railway practise

[@Xantec]

@globaldistrictline pebble mill, its a location in Birmingham where the BBC had their tv studio.

[@bizbros]

nice to see Bernard Cribbins as a Guard!!!? :-)

[@BlackCombeRunnerKarl]

You are more than likely right with that, but when I was a kid in the late 80s even remembering watching this on BBC2, there was a programme called Pebble Mill at One, which was on at 1pm every weekday on BBC 1, (much like the One Show of today which screens at 7pm) long before the days of the BBC news channel and the now 1 O'clock news was on at 12:30 back then to make way for the aforementioned programme.

[@tobysummers471]

Haha the man bragging about his brick phone ! People seem better dressed then. Proper locos and stock. Not the vomit comets we see now. Hate the voyagers but pendolinos are meh. A real time capsule. Thanks for posting

[@Karaokeking2023]

I have been after this for ages trying to find it, i wish it was shown again on tv. The music is called Raiders but i don't know who the artist is.

[@malcyb2000uk]

Raiders - Wolfgang Kafer

[@SouthWestTransportNews]

what is the first song called

[@DazrahT]

In reply to marksta2007; On the left just before you go under the Duddeston flyover is what used to be Castle Cement. I believe that there is student accommodation built on it now.

[@lukebarber9511]

Did the guard at 2:40 win BR's "Most disheveled employee contest"?

[@railandmodel]

Cool, cheers.

[@andysmith5131]

The journey board at the start says it's calling at Birmingham International and Coventry only but it also stops at Rugby.

[@ilikebananassometimes3608]

You've preemptively answered my question (what was the station after Coventry?) Thanks.

[@pricey130]

They changed trains at International

[@TANGARASandOSCARS]

4:07 is that the editor of railways magazine roger ford?

[@ThomastheE2engine]

what song is this?

[@seprishere]

400 a week seems not a lot, especially if it's return? I thought it was 7 tph (3 tph Avanti, 2 tph LNWR, 2 tph Chiltern) now, so about 1600 across the week in both directions (approximate calculation)?

[@jkk45]

when was this filmed, pre privitasion i presume

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

Did they still have British Rail cheese rolls at this time?

[@brunster64]

This is what HS2 could look like 😂

[@SAStarbucks]

A single note for a return to London is the most surprising thing about this.

[@Lynxtro]

Is this the line that would go through high wycombe?

[@jonniefc]

change from a £20 note return to london . were did it all go wrong?

[@sandletters39]

A far cry from the disastrous Pendolino fiasco.

[@markiliff]

02:53 continuity error - isn't it all 4-track after Rugby? 04:11 cool mobile! 04:15 is there really that much worth reading in the Express? Love the electric bass!

[@danielmccarty689]

The quadruple track splits after Rugby with the two slow lines going via Northampton, rejoining by the time you get to Wolverton.

[@ledger4321]

its 2 tracks from birmingham to rugby, then the line from manchester creates 4 tracks. This splits almost at once into 2 to northampton and 2 straight to MK. The lines merge again after northampton and then is 4 tracks all the way to euston.

[@markiliff]

@@ledger4321 Ah! Thanks.

[@JH14FAN]

As a bass guitarist, I want to learn this song. I want to know the name of it as well, because it’s bloody awesome. It’s a shame that I can’t slap lmao, no matter how hard I try.

[@markiliff]

@@JH14FAN :-)

[@DrMarcusKane]

Rugby - and its changed a lot since then!

[@stan5990]

OMG £20 for the fare and he got some change back!

[@DanielsUKT]

This is awesome and I'm pretty sure rail fares back then were dead cheap compared to now

[@TerryTheNewsGirl]

Ah, the theme to Computer Quiz! And it works too.

[@nickforbes-warren6602]

Reminded me a bit of the theme from AIRWOLF!

[@rayjam1962]

is that a class 313 a 4.48sec

[@1madaboutguitar]

Exactly lol. They're half way there with the music

[@ErVeeDeeEm]

Very nice! How long does it take irl from Birmingham to London?

[@AdamHiley-pj2zn]

90 minutes

[@Glenn1967ful]

@ValentaLamenter It was the headquarters of BBC Midlands for 34 years.

[@joedoran9729]

What is the song in the background it’s so catchy love the vid great watching the trip from Birmingham to London

[@philgarratt1561]

I've been thinking the same.

[@davecommentator]

Wolfgang Kafer - Raiders

[@asac159]

@@davecommentator Disagree mate, I think it's giorgio moroder's "Why Me?" performed (with vocal) by Irene Cara

[@davecommentator]

@@asac159 That sampled Kafer's piece!

[@A380bhxdxb]

No sign of Milton Keynes or Watford Junction in this video. In fact it is cut quite a lot.

[@telmas7183]

@nocluewhere I think you'll find it's a broadsheet that he has folded!

[@MAPFWH]

@Dristarg It appears you are right. Geographically very similar, road bridge at Southern end, houses to right, footbridge.... I bow to your superior knowledge. Watch out for Coke machines.

[@Puckoon2002]

I didn't see a title but it would be either The Times, the Daily Telegraph or the Guardian all of which where broadsheet type newspapers, which would be folded in half so that the top half would appear upside down. Quite interesting watching the art of origami as these papers where read...

[@shedontanks]

Did anyone get the number of the 47 at Birmingham International?

[@hunsletmidland]

my uncle used to work for pebble mill. he went on shows like contryfile and he also got to record this video.

[@DownGrand1967]

Birmingham's Exchange Jnc Signalbox still in existence at 0.53...

[@hunsletmidland]

@ValentaLamenter my grandad had one of those old bbc computers and we still got it

[@cig1705]

Wrong: carriages dangerously light and airy. Right: improve cosiness by lowering ceiling, and add interesting aromas to carriage (see above). Wrong: wings on seats (2:15) - encourages inactivity and the risk of deep vein thrombosis. Right: encourage passengers to get up and be active by pumping squealing PA into the coach and providing hard seats with no legroom.

[@tomstickland]

What's the music then?

[@europa2000man]

What is the name of the music used in this programme?

[@ValentaLamenter]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpzLiIKoq9qle6s

[@MannyAntipov]

@@ValentaLamenterthat video is in private mode, could you tell us the name on the comments here if it’s okay?

[@ValentaLamenter]

​Wolfgang Kafer - Raiders@@MannyAntipov

[@terratec1001]

The newspaper is folded in half, so the bit facing him would be the right way up.

[@waleedarif9327]

This video can not be shown in 5 minutes. The version would have to be even a lot faster than that to be so and a lot of the video must have been cut.

[@pauladams1915]

Why does the music sound like "Why Me" by Irene Cara

[@Hirotoro4692]

@A380bhxdxb yep that whole part of the line, cut out. very annoying considering i doubt most of us viewers give a toss about the passengers.

[@cjmillsnun]

It was indeed the BBC's base in Birmingham until they moved to the Mailbox

[@FruityFilm]

What station was at 2:43?

[@Cpr-ls7dm]

FruityFilm Rugby

[@HHGFHJGFHJGFJTYFJDGY]

I miss the mechanical departures board...

[@johnknott6539]

One of the big ones from Charing Cross used to be at Universal Studios, Hollywood USA. I think they bought it as decoration. Not functional of course. I used to love the clacking sound as they rolled over!

[@HarvestHome2000]

4:10 - the ultimate in modern communications (well, it was then!)

[@1968dodgechargerman]

It's an interesting contrast from the Pendo's and Voyager's I drive today. The Guard waving his flag at the start looks like Charlie Patel of Euston, who is still there. As for disastrous pendo's they, like many other forms of traction introduced since the modernization had their teething troubles. They have settled down and do they're job. A better WC video is the Euston - Liverpool cabride of May 1985 by Railscene at 3hrs..

[@MAPFWH]

Polesworth at 3:30 approx, as it overtakes the local stopper. I lived there in the70s. Top place, bloody big for a village though!

[@craigdoran6811]

Theres no polesworth on this vid, its not on the route

[@ormondsworld3947]

A BHM-EUS train wouldn’t go anywhere near Polesworth.

[@Defn28]

Wow that was fast... how come it takes me over an hour?

[@MikesMovies]

Happy days

[@hunsletmidland]

@ValentaLamenter my grandad used to work there i still got a very old computer from pebble mill

[@Cpr1234]

actual trip starts at 0:43

[@pickledegg1989]

#bringbackbritishrail #PublicOwnership

[@daved4757]

A return to London for £20 ?!?!?!

[@BigDsbrush]

and they got change too lol

[@LeamingtonSteve]

those were the days- when all you had to worry about was nuclear annihilation and what was for tea!

[@geoffreylee5199]

Many tunnels.

[@andypreston1524]

Return to London please....... TUUUUNES AH.......😂😂😂

[@sandletters39]

Tories bled BR dry in the 80s and early 90s, but Labour's own mistake was to have allowed Virgin Trains attempts to base their PendoVoyager trains on spaceships for the reason why Virgin calls the short formation diesel versions Voyagers and its a high price to be paid for going alone. These trains are narrow, uncomfortable, have fewer seats and sometimes make you sick when they tilt and train travel is no better.