No way to treat a train

[hq1hitchin]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8379500.stm

[60041]

I had seen some stills from this film before, but never any clips; it will be worth watching the complete film.
I seem to remember there was another film of a staged crash, made for the BBC sometime in the early 60's, possibly on the Longmoor Military Railway. Unfortunately the planned derailment and subsequent explosion was a non event as by the time the train was derailed, the loco had literally run out of steam. It had been planned as a spectacular end for the loco, but someone decided to tie the whistle down and and the boiler pressure dropped too far for an explosion, resulting in nothing more than a simple derailment.
Does anyone know anything about it?

[giner]

This is a long shot, but i believe you're right about it being on the Longmoor Military Railway and that it was a Southern 4-6-0 of some description. I have vague recollections of it just derailing and sort of slumping down the embankment without even rolling over - total anti-climax. I think the programme was called something like Saturday Night Out and the host was Raymond Baxter of Tomorrow's World fame. Beyond that I know nowt, I'm afraid.

[giner]

Wow, how weird is this? After having posted the above, I surfed over to the BBC website and found the following story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8379500.stm

Is this Karma, or what?

[StevieG]

Wow, how weird is this? After having posted the above, I surfed over to the BBC website and found the following story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8379500.stm

Is this Karma, or what?

...The same link as hq1hitchin posted earlier? Was there a different one intended?

[giner]

Oh! mea culpa, Stevie. I hadn't even looked at HQ1's link. I just took up on 60041's post when I saw he mentioned Longmoor. I'll have a dig around on You Tube for that one. It was, as 60041 mentioned, sometime in the 60's (possibly even in the 50's) and is pretty much as I described from my admittedly dodgy memory.

[giner]

Aha! Nothing turned up on You Tube, but there's a snippet on Wikipedia which is close enough to my memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longmoor_Military_Railway

Under the heading: "In Popular Culture" it says this:
In February 1956 the railway was used to stage a train derailment for the BBC programme Saturday Night Out when Ex-SR King Arthur class locomotive 30740 Merlin and three coaches were pushed down an incline onto a specially canted section of track.[1]

and

^ a b Courtney, Geoff (4 Sept - 1 Oct 2008). "Longmoor derailed an Arthur". Heritage Railway (Horncastle: Mortons Media Group Ltd) (No.115): pp32–33.

Ruddy marvellous, the old web! The only sneaking suspicion that remains is that I'm not sure that Raymond Baxter was the presenter. It may have been a Robert ? who, I believe, was Canadian.

[stembok]

I remember the event well, sitting in front of my aunt's 12inch black and white tv one Saturday evening, waiting with baited breath for the cataclysmic event. Visions of metal flying and great gouts of steam shooting skywards. What an anti-climax as King Arthur 30740 derailed in a stately and dignified manner and stood, - still upright as I remember - appearing faintly bemused by this train of events! Is it my imagination/memory or did she then begin to gently blow off?
It reminds me of a similar 1950s tv event staged on one of the Welsh narrow gauge lines when a lineside tree was supposed to fall across the track simulating an"incident". The two guys charged with felling the tree or sapling had been issued with what looked like a diminutive hatchet and so of course when the train came the tree was still very much in the vertical plane. The presenter having to do his best to cover up the embarassment.

[StevieG]

Oh! mea culpa, Stevie. I hadn't even looked at HQ1's link. I just took up on 60041's post when I saw he mentioned Longmoor. I'll have a dig around on You Tube for that one. It was, as 60041 mentioned, sometime in the 60's (possibly even in the 50's) and is pretty much as I described from my admittedly dodgy memory.

I could easily have done the same.
'Fraid 1956 is a teensy bit early for me, yet I do have some vague recollection, unless it's from the film having been re-shown in some later year(s).

Mixed feelings about the event from the descriptions here. - A disappointing anti-climax / nice it didn't suffer severe destruction / yet still 'no way to treat a train'.

What was this 'Arthur's fate after the mischief (or am I now failing to read the whole thread?) ?

[giner]

Yes, it's a bit odd that they'd do a stunt like this when you consider that, in 1956, there still should have been at least another seven years or so of active service ahead for one of the Southern's premier mainline classes. Maybe someone here (any closet Southern fans?) has reference to when 'Arthurs' were scheduled for scrapping.

I don't know how controlled the derailing and planned destruction was in this instance, but, from what appeared on the film, you'd have to say that Merlin was well repairable. It certainly didn't seem to be in the state that Merry Hampton or Owen Tudor were in after their 'real life' derailments.

All I can add is that I'm glad it wasn't our Merlin that was involved. That would have been sacreligious.

[52D]

Yes i agree with the post above after watching my latest DVD our Merlin features in quite a few sequences and it would have been definite heresy. We would have had to raise a party of inquisitors from the A4 Locomotive Society and visited Longmoor to mete out retribution.

[Bill Bedford]

Yes, it's a bit odd that they'd do a stunt like this when you consider that, in 1956, there still should have been at least another seven years or so of active service ahead for one of the Southern's premier mainline classes. Maybe someone here (any closet Southern fans?) has reference to when 'Arthurs' were scheduled for scrapping.

IIRC part of the training given at Longmoor was how to re-rail trains that had become derailed. So this film probably showed no more than something that happen not infrequently, and the fact that the loco ran out of steam at the time of the derailing does suggest it was part of an exercise. I wonder how often the Army borrowed BR locos for this exercise? Maybe using locos that were due for a heavy repair.

[stembok]

30740 'Merlin' had been withdrawn from BR stock in December,1955 -before the filming took place in 1956 - so this is one reason why the choice fell upon her and the withdrawal of the original Urie King Arthurs had actually begun in 1953. Later the name 'Merlin' was transferred to BR5 73080. The tv film,was, as I recall, presented -not very successfully - more as a destructive spectacle, ie derailing a train,rather than as this is how we go about re-railing them.

[52D]

Didnt Longmoor have an ex LNER constituent, GER ISTR 0-6-0 tender engine for the rerailing exercises.

[Mellon Udrigle]

The 1956 BBC recording of the Longmoor train crash can now be seen here - I believe this is all that remains in the BBC archives of the programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2 ... error.html