Virtual Railfan Tour UK - Night Mail
The 1936 movie Night Mail was shown on Turner Classic Movies today but unfortunately I gave some of you the wrong time. This is the URL for it on Vimeo
A few points about the movie.
At the beginning there is a scene showing track workers. They are working around some water troughs or track pans. Locomotives would pick up water at speed. I did this a few times on the engine, once I got very wet indeed.
The locomotives were all from the LMS, London. Midland and Scottish Railway with the driver on the left hand side and those nasty brass valve handles that would cut into your palm if you were not careful. In the scene where they were climbing the grade up to Shap there is a banker on the rear and the driver is working the fire doors while the fireman is shovelling. This keeps the ingress of cold air onto the fire to a minimum and would only be done where the engine was working hard.
The mail pouches came into the train at high speed because the train was at high speed, they had to stand clear when an exchange was being made
The poem was written by W.H. Auden. This is one version.
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