Vintage railway film - Motorsport tries Motorail - 1969
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2021
- In this vintage railway film, produced in 1969 by British Transport Films, the London Motor Club members, with their families, took their cars by Motorail for a contest with the Torbay club and the camera was there to record a victory for the home team.
Being a regular holidaymaker from the north of England down to Cornwall, I literally can't think of anything more perfect and convenient than travelling down by Motorail. A long and very stressful drive with regular traffic jams or a relaxing, stress free train journey followed by the convenience of still having a car whilst on holiday. If only it could still exist and be run at a reasonable price....
Absolutely agree. Takes a couple of days to recover from the stressful drive.
sounds perfect until you factor in the price. Doesn't exist at the moment, but I'm guessing a motorail for a standard car from the North of England to Cornwall would set back the purchaser the best part of at least £3000+ ( for comparison see the prices for a 30 mile journey through the channel tunnel on Eurotunnel )
@@j.wellens5660 Probably an unfair comparison, but I agree with you, the price would not be affordable to most of us. Maybe it should be subsidised as part of a green initiative, or am I just being nostalgically romantic?!
@@norbertnedsworth7172 why is it an unfair comparison?
@@j.wellens5660 The Channel Tunnel ticket price has to fund the existence of an undersea tunnel and pay off the massive loans that built it. Ticket prices in general are not directly proportional to distance. To take a silly example that's local to me, Colchester to Colchester Town is a journey of about 2.5 miles and costs £2.80. At that rate, Colchester to London would cost about £55 but it's actually £29.30.
A real dining car and silver service breakfast. Heaven !
Absolutely superb
Beautiful…
England we miss you…😔😔
what about england pictured in this video is now missing, other than a car transporting rail service which no longer exists thanks to english people voting mostly for the right-wing over the last fifty years?
Superb. I've taken part in similar competitions, but how much better they would have been with a fry up, in blue/grey MK1s behind a GSYE Class 47!
Fabulous video .
Motorail should still be a thing, especially on long distance north/south routes.
Especially for electric cars.
What a fine collection of cars. That Audi going aboard the train at0:12must have been one of the first in the UK. And a lovely blue Porsche 356 Carerra behind it.
There's also a Honda S600/800 in the lineup coming out of Torbay. That must've been such a rarity even back then.
Just wonderful! If properly marketed, reasonably priced and with easy roll-on roll-off access this would be a wonderful alternative to the boring motorways.
My last motorail trip was Calais to Narbonne south of France, now sadly you have go to the centre of Paris, to Bercy station, rear of the Gar de Lyon station, lot of hassle not really worth the bother, now drive through. I still think with amount of congestion on UK roads a Motorail service, with perhaps open trucks, for say Devon /Cornwall could make a reasonable profit in summer and also Scotland as well wish someone would take it up.
What a nostalgia trip.
'A couple of points, if you'll pardon the expression' *Chortle* *Guffaw*
I liked the inference that the dog was keeping the score!
Sad to think she'll be about 72 now. 😃
@@chrisredding6673 And those beauties will be around her knees! Ah well, comes to us all.
Lovely couple of points though... great bouncing points, we're still talking about the points now, fabulous points look at them go, If I had a pair of points like that I simply wouldn't go out until I'd rubbed myself dry with a tea towel and washed away any nasty after thoughts about... pointy things... ooh those points though eh eh...
You rotten lot. I was thinking "I hope she's had a long and happy life". 😃
Is it bad to think in todays sociaty the Motorail would be more benificial considering how many 1000s more cars there are since this was filmed
I say ol' chap. That was dandy.
How good is that, what a fantastic weekend that would of been
That bit where he says a couple of points were discussed. That wouldn't get made today!
I just laughed out loud at that part, even before he spoke! Great BR product placement.
Beautiful
The video’s good, but the comments here are the real treasure!
Magnificent, thank you!
Motorail, great idea, though by the seventies, cars and in our case a VW camper, all had window protection..due to vandals stoning the car trains. We came down from Inverness on Motorail, my idea (aged 12) it was stress free, cheaper than the huge drive back to London, being a rail nut, I loved it, circa 1978.
Do you remember what type loco you were behind? Class 47?
So amazing !
Excellent service on the motor rail train very efficient and nostalgia film .😎
Motorail was great !!
2:26 oh boy, look at that beautiful Aston Martin DB5! 007 would be happy to see his car in that gold/tan livery, but being a HMSS (Her Majesty's Secret Service) member, he would prefer to have his DB5 in the grey livery that adorns his car today.
Wonderful!
Fantastic!
Imagine if Motorrail was to be the thing. How many trains would be required to replace just 1 minute of motorway traffic.
Imagination is right: the motorail in the film is for motors in a club, not 'motorway traffic'.
@@elrjames7799 This was a privately hired train but Motorail was a general service that took passengers' cars with them on the train. So, yes, it was a direct replacement for long-distance driving. However, it was actually killed off by the motorways. In the 1960s, when this was filmed, long-distance driving was much slower, as you had to go through the middle of every town and there were hardly any dual carriageways.
@@beeble2003 Yes: that makes sense.
Motorail terminals used to be at London Euston, even for the Penzance route, Crewe, Doncaster, and in Scotland, Perth was chosen being almost in the centre of Scotland but 100 miles from Aberdeen. Inverness and Fort William.
There is still one at Exeter St Davids as well as the one shown in the film at Newton Abort is still there although its just 1 track now not 2.
One at St Austell too!
We took the Euston to Perth Motorail back in the early 70s. The drive to Inverness the following day seemed to take almost as long as the train journey, although I was only about 10 at the time, so that may be slightly out. ;o)
Motorail services to Devon and Cornwall started from Kensington Olympia, not Euston.
The perth platform is far more suited to loading of cars than Aberdeen, I think. Even today there is a platform (presumably the same one that was use before) that could be adapted to load cars on with minimal fuss.
Motorail was started in 1955 by the state run British Railways and grew with demand in the 1960s. The modern British motorway system was still far from complete even by 1970. For example, there was no M4 west of Reading and no M3 then. So driving down to Devon from London took much longer than now, and small family cars were not so reliable then, so the popularity of motorail as part of a car touring holiday grew. When the UK motorway plans were completed and cars improved, the need for Motorail declined. The organisation was wound up in the mid 1990s, though First Great Western revived a London to Penzance service between 1998 and 2005.
Nice reverse handbrake turn by that Hillman Imp5:40.
Nothing to do with the handbrake, the front wheels locked up briefly via the foot brake.
Its known as the J turn
OK, how cool was that!
If only motorail existed today. I bet people would use it if only to get off today's over busy roads. Wouldn't need a sat nav either!
It existed until 2005. It stopped existing because people _didn't_ use it.
Motorail my beloved
A couple of points @ 4:40 they said it not me! 🤣
There's something about Chevrolet Corvairs that I love so much, if not only 1960s Porsches
Happy days
Is this competition still happening, or has it been discontinued?
This is brilliant, how have we gone so backwards?!
Very good filming for its age, but
Keep expecting them to drive past John Cleese sat at a desk...
Ah yes, rally driving. It never seemed to have ocurred to them that driving sensibly would get you there quicker. Maybe silliness was the point.
Not in those days !! The train journey was quicker !!
Eh? It's time trials
4:40 ' a couple of points' 😬
The cars are passing under the cliff railway
Why only to Newton Abbott ? You still had a long drive if you were heading further west ,say to Plymouth or Penzance !
Motorrail went to Penzance. It was all over the network back in the day.
There was also one to St Austell, I believe.
@@AndreiTupolev I grew up in St Austell. I used to watch the cars drive on and off the trains there in the 70's. The bay road that the wagons used to pull into has been filled in years ago, and of course it's now a car park.
@@AndreiTupolev The one to St. Austell ran from Paddington instead of Penzance for a year. I used to use the service every year. The idiocy of when it ran to St. Austell was that the passengers and cars were on separate trains.
Only to Newton Abbott because the train was chartered by people who wanted to go there! As the other comments say, the general service went to Penzance.
Jeepers give me this any day. Even though cars are quieter, smoother, air con, blah blah. Drivers are entitled and selfish, roads packed, and petrol and insurance expensive. Motor Rail was brilliant.
What speed limit were motor rail trains?
I think it was probably around 75mph.
@@squeaksvids5886 thanks 👍👍
@@squeaksvids5886 90mph on the west of England route in those days.
@@BigJoeChrisLewis Cheers.
In the 1970's the flat wagons (like in this film) were 75mph. There were also the 90mph covered ones (coded TCV and NXX). The TCVs had a centre that dropped allowing 2 more cars above, so 6 cars per wagon.
motorail
jolly good show old boy plz can i have the nsu and audi
Gods above! So much has changed since 1969, so much for the better: "a couple of points - pardon the expression" is frightful (4:40)
Right?! Same goes for 3:36ish “… but the sleek special never seems to hot up, like the curry that’s driving it” 👀👀👀 Some of the comments here lamenting these bygone days have clearly not been listening too intently 🤦🏽♀️
@@LizzyFerretOfficial Missed that one
"If you pardon the expression" @4:35 ;-)
if labour had not closed all the lines in the 60's we would have a great service
A couple of points were discussed 😳🧐 never again 😀
That's what this country needs-more dolly-birds in mini-skirts and tight-fitting "arrows of confusion" tops.