BR Railfreight Express (1987)

[@Rob1Rich]

The music, the graphics, the presentation style and the fashion all shout out the 80s.

[@hypergolic8468]

Nothing more screamed the 80's that to think that "Dave" would be sent out with a Vauxhall Cavalier with a combie TV / Video player to a portable building on the edge of a god forsaken bit of the rail yard / power station. You'd then sit on plastic seats for the 15 minutes thinking "I've got work to do"...hey but it was the height of tech(ish)...

[@Scots_Diesel]

Dickie Davis - remember him reading the footy scores, east Fife five for far four

[@tuc-dh4df]

East Fife four, For Far so far five.

[@mickd6942]

My exact thought when I saw the thumbnail lol and I thought of benny hills spoof of him

[@andrewmartell6155]

WOW. Not only a section on my favourite depot, Thornaby, but some beautiful shots of TE Class 37/5's, my favourite sub class. All this and Dickie Davis to boot. I am a very Happy Chappy 😀. Thanks for uploading. Priceless.

[@grahamallen1970]

Worked with Phil thickett in the 90s on rrne when he was based at York...top man ...Great respect...also liked a beer ....Great railwayman

[@ggarnet6440]

He was depot engineer at Tinsley when I went there on work experience. Top bloke. I was a bit too young to join him for a beer, though 😜

[@frenchsteam7356]

Phil was temporary Depot Manager at Heaton Depot for a while -great man to work for.

[@robbateman7987]

Best man at Thornaby full stop. Glad to see him regular doing his shopping even now. A pleasure to work with him.

[@grahamallen1970]

@@robbateman7987 when you see him tell him the railway misses him....

[@Discoretrox]

I think he lived in my home town, Darlington.

[@simonclark29041978]

Bloody hell Great to See Ted Hancock I was friends with his Sons David and Phillip Ted we knew him as uncle Edward had a massive train set I used hours with Phil and David and Ed would sit there with train drivers hat . Last time I saw Ted his wife Kate read a beautiful poem at my mums funeral .

[@philclennell]

How refreshing to see the older style of TV journalism and better still nobody using the word "so" at the beginning of every sentence.

[@Mariazellerbahn]

or "so yeah" at the end.

[@voicezful]

@@Mariazellerbahn 'so yeah' is almost as bad as saying 'absolutely' when 'yes' would suffice.

[@edmorris631]

@@voicezful one hundred percent! 😜

[@malthuswasright]

Dickie Davis - what a pro.

[@michaelwhiles5282]

She's thinking ' I am so much better than this job...must get a job reading the news on the BBC'........FANTASTIC to hear and see the Great Dickie again. Golden Balls indeed.

[@robbateman7987]

Don't ask him about "Cup Soccer" though

[@ianjones4116]

And the 37s are still going strong. Where are your 60s now,,, all lined up at Toton. Mmm, something didnt quite add up. Thanks for posting this. 😎👍

[@andymath1523]

True to many at Toton but we still use quite a few 60's on our Kingsbury and Jarrow tanks plus quite for other flows , DCR have some 60's working as well . Don't think 37's (good as they are ) would go down well with drivers after being use to the class 60

[@darreng745]

That was EWS who under Ed Burkhart went for the crappy class 66 and 67's that were EMD built on the basis of standardisation and the ready availability of a parts inventory over using older British built locomotives that were pretty much time expired. Some might argue that it was worth it, but it has left a legacy of a large number of two stroke engined locomotives that will as they get older require to be retrofitted with expensive anti pollution measures to meet increasingly stringent air quality standards.

[@andymath1523]

@@darreng745 Not a fan of the 66's even though i work on them but they are cheap to maintain and proved reliable . As yet no retrofitting any anti pollution on 66's seems the older loco's come under pollution standards at time they were built , but for how long ? . Way things are going can't see this lasting and it will be last minute rush to clean up 66's 67's so they comply

[@steveluckhurst2350]

37s are hardly "going strong".

[@leonblittle226]

@@andymath1523 They won't ever clean up a two stroke power unit in reality. It's more they don't pollute that badly and get the job done. The recent withdrawl of all EWS/DB Class 90s is proof that they haven't got a clue when it comes to green operations that don't loose money

[@kungfuwitcher7621]

At the beginning of the commentary I thought that was a young Richard Hammond lol. Good video.

[@fatwalletboy2]

I could listen to Dickie Davies talk rsilways all day long........

[@flalingbashers2957]

Brilliant video

[@WilliamThomas-dz1fs]

Happy railway memories, worked with the 59s and Westbury lads

[@AndreiTupolev]

Some nice filming of class 37s and 59s. But the star of the show is your feller there's sweater.

[@MarkMcCluney]

He's got Dickie Davis Eyes.

[@Deltacon84]

Amazing thanks for uploading this !!

[@Discoretrox]

Brilliant vid...not much left of Thornaby now...

[@jamesee5053]

Eric Morcambe once said Dickie Davies only worried a little bit, referring to the little flick of grey hair!

[@hackdaniels7253]

5:03 I wonder - did he ever finish painting that ceiling?

[@troytakesphotos]

Surprised Spa Films didn’t do this and others on this channel; I thought they had a practical monopoly on BR in-house films during this period.

[@gordonjohnson8432]

now its all shut and gone!! Ive been a railwayman for 47 years at Crewe Works..sad....

[@NedPooleD818]

Half man half biscuit brought me here….

[@stephenjones6735]

Is it just me or did that 59 run through the one set of points with the blades set the wrong way

[@davidjohnson8175]

Can be done but aloud

[@AndreiTupolev]

It was done quite commonly with hand-operated points

[@Mariazellerbahn]

The BR handpoints were designed to be run through but when EWS came onto the scene, they fitted USA style points that weren't. So we then had to set every point regardless.

[@laszlofyre845]

@@Mariazellerbahn October 2021 sees the practice prohibited in the NR rulebook. My arse! These type of point mechs were designed to be trailed through (that is run through when set wrong direction when approaching from non moving end of the blades). I'll still do it and balls to them!!

[@voicezful]

World of Sport was great, don't remember any adverts either.

[@tristacker]

Wonder how much response they got for viewers stories

[@31144]

Just think how many HGV's would be off the road now if that Speedlink stuff would have taken off .....

[@stephensmith4480]

Speedlink did take off, it was a system that was used for years. The problem was that it didn`t always carry block trains, like you see here. There was an awful lot of local trip working required, using smaller Loco`s such as 25`s and 31`s that would all be running around with just a handful of wagons on them. Those wagons formed the feeder service that then had to be shunted into the forward speedlink service. The powers that be deemed it all to be inefficient and over costly so the service was scrapped.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

By the time of Speedlink's demise it was carrying only 2.3% of the freight BR was handling (or only 0.12% of all of the freight being handled in the UK). BR conducted a survey of around 30,000 potential customers and only got a handful of responses. Trip workings and marshalling accounted for about 70% of the costs of Speedlink and those trip workings needed to have a timetable path, locomotive and crew(s) for every say the service was due to run, even if there was no traffic. BR looked at cutting internal costs - if they could saved 40% on the costs of Speedlinkmonly 15% if the traffic would be profitable. BR knew that to make Speedlink cost effective they needed each supplier to send out 10 wagon loads per day over a journey distance of 500 miles and that there just weren't enough customers in the UK to do that. In 1986 Speedlink had 120 trunk services each weekday and 700 trip workings, many of them only running as required ut still requiring the allocation of a locomotive and crew(s). Some of the trip workings required 2 crews to complete, such as the service along what is now the Mid-Norfolk Railway. Some trips served only 1 customer with a handful of wagons. Whilst theoretically possible to put all the wagons onto a single trip working in practice this was rarely achieved as customers all wanted an early morning delivery and a late afternoon collection, making BR's job much harder.

[@Afc1987]

Typical 80s I love it 😀

[@CycolacFan]

Feels like the presenters ought to have been offering everyone tea and biscuits.

[@ModelRailway]

Interesting video! Points run-through about to occur at 9:18 ... oops! 😵😳🙈

[@andrewblades8368]

Until last month the rule book allowed points to be run through in yards depending on local instructions. Network rail has now changed this rule and all points need to be set for the route being taken. However in certain depots or yards owned by TOCs or rail freight operators it will be up to them if points can be run through. The reason for the change in rules is that the latest points have stronger springs on them and they are unlikely to spring over reliably when a train runs through them. Obviously on the mainline points always needed to be set for the route to be taken

[@ModelRailway]

@@andrewblades8368 Many thanks for the reply and info .... very interesting!

[@dodgydruid]

Spent all that money on GM junk and still the old tractors of BR are still going strong e.g. class 86, 47, 37, 73.

[@underwaterdick]

So the class 66, the most prevalent locomotive in the UK is somehow Junk? And the 59s are still going strong. The very locomotives that did away with double heading, carried record loads and changed the way the UK dealt with heavy freight loads, are somehow junk? The reason they were purchased was because BR were continually building junk and their unreliability made private operation a nightmare.

[@captainboing]

Nob end. Sentimentality gets you nowhere. Prepare yourself for a shock - the railways aren't run so you can fill up your notepad, shout "cop" inexplicably every once in a while and flail your arms from a moving train. The GM junk you allude to has been the backbone of rail freight for decades, far cleaner than your beloved EE stuff, being modifiable to comply with ever-stticter emissions requirements and has Europe-wide coverage... Sorry, you were saying?

[@aidenteszke9000]

GM shits on anything pommy. I'm sorry it's just the truth.

[@NiceDiscotheque]

Lol

[@wirksworthsrailway]

Where's Roland Rat?

[@standrewpics]

Did not know that BR did their own operational videos , my have cost them some money using presenter people TV . Interesting.

[@CosgroveNotts]

Dicky topping up pension fund day 👍

[@TheFokker03]

good grief,remember Dickie on a Saturday.used to love WoS,better than Grandstand.Great memories of the Foster Yeoman 59's.

[@simonhodgetts6530]

What type of banger racing do you call that Dickie Davies?

[@CARLIN4737]

Wow now that was the middle to late 80s in a nutshell?

[@pj100565]

Great knitwear on those presenters!!

[@N00N01]

Sneakey 56 in de backrownd Edit: 13:56 he looks like a Joel haver character

[@kevanhubbard9673]

A Tyne and Wear PTE liveried Pacer behind Dickie and a Cleveland Transit bus too.You can see that privatization is looming in 87 was there's no reference to British Rail and treats Railfreight like it's a company in it's own right although both Railfreight and Regional Railways kept the BR symbol on their rolling stock but Inter City and Network South East soon got rid of it .

[@russb2286]

Dickie davies world of sport leg end

[@gwpee1727]

Dover train ferry, was a waste of money.Channel Tunnel was underconstruction in 1987,why did anyone think,spending Millions on ferry facilities,was a good idea?

[@anthonydavies5248]

Was thinking the same!

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

Because dangerous loads couldn't use the tunnel. The ferrybladted a few years, but the loading fell as very few wagons loaded with these dangerous goods were crossing the Channel. Most of the dangerous goods shifted to the roads.

[@gwpee1727]

@@neiloflongbeck5705 Yes,forgot about dangerous cargo,but the proportion of that type of cargo,to ordinary,must have been very small.Still seems a waste of money.All the track,at Dover long gone.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

@@gwpee1727 I think the ferry was the Nord Pas-de-Calais, which was capable of carrying both rail (6 siding of 600m of usable rail deck, which equated to 30 average size bogie wagons) and road traffic (rail on the lower deck and road on the upper deck). She could do the crossing in 2 hours and could do 3 crossings per day (4 on busy days). Unfortunately the progressive decline in wagon load traffic on both sides of the Channel led to the loss of many small scale flows coupled with the shift to larger wagons such as the IZA twin vans meant that the rail deck was less efficiently loaded that it became to expensive to operate and maintain the link spans on both sides of the Channel. Hervlastbload of rail traffic was carried on 22/12/1998.

[@tomslade3365]

Well it all when a bit down hill in the 1980s Industrys clossing , now tee side is a shaddow of what was and king coal is long dead .... the Channel tunnel has been a utter fale for rail ! in some ways should stuck with the ship ...... true we are now seeing much more containors and stone move by rail but frankly the lack of a railfright national poloicy to drive it forward as part of a green agender is letting oppertunity slip with the post covid crash in passanger figers the network will have to look at getting more fright users on the rails or lines will close ?

[@andrewcowling5804]

I made a comedy routine out of that score

[@jon1864]

Well getting off roads back then didn't work and it won't work now either

[@COIcultist]

4 million tonnes of steel or 80,000 tonnes per week and rail moves 31,000. Not that good, is it?

[@steelhelmetstan7305]

Blast furnace on Teesside gone, thornaby rail depot gone, ICI gone left over bits sold off to smaller companies, the future of the region?...well its part of the northern powerhouse and the Great 'levelling up ' thing now....🤣🤣🤣🤣....better get a job at an amazon workhouse....sorry warehouse 👍

[@matthewpayne42]

British rail, British steel, Maggie Thatcher running the country. Was the 80s that bad after all.?.

[@laszlofyre845]

Think you missed out the word 'down' after the word 'country'.

[@jonmortermusic]

Yes. Next…

[@adrinathegreat3095]

And now for something a little more interesting.. the shipping forecast

[@bigcahoonaburger8550]

Last poor bloke was either saying, look for another job guys, redundancy’s, or we are in the poo. Must make £48 million by April, all about bottom line. Whoops manager goof of the year.never ever say boardroom figures on a shop floor news feed. Unless you want to intentionally 😉

[@fartybutt2666]

Yes, shocking

[@jonmortermusic]

This is worth watching just for the appalling interview dubbing at the end

[@MePeterNicholls]

Traction control. Whatever next!

[@markcousins9337]

World of Sport was better. I was hoping for Big Daddy and Kendo Nagasaki.

[@gordonjohnson8432]

Privatisation......worked didnt it.........

[@ianjones4116]

Dickie Davies on Coke. Lol.

[@MrBristolmidland]

Then Maggie turned up.

[@gs425]

Big error. Maggie had been in charge for 8 years when this film was made.

[@Mariazellerbahn]

Maggie was never going to privatise the railways, but then John Major took over.

[@NedPooleD818]

I was excited then….I thought Ms Philbin was going to appear……

[@markknight1011]

Just stick to sport.