British Rail TV ad - "Black Silk" 1991 - launch of the Intercity 225
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- Опубликовано: 16 фев 2018
- The launch of InterCity 225 for the East Coast Main Line electrification from London to Edinburgh.
Note how the ad compares the train not Japan's bullet train or France's TGV on speed (because it was slower) but the quantity - the ad claims that Britain had more 100mph+ trains than both those nations.
Creative agency: J Walter Thompson (JWT)
Some years ago, a BR employee named Frank Dumbleton rescued some VHS tapes literally from a British Rail skip in York. These included many TV and Cinema ads from the 70s and 80s. He digitised them and has given permission for them to be reproduced, here.
British Rail started to advertise on television after it had established the Inter-City revolution in the 1960s. Most of the commercials were aimed at enticing people out of their cars, or dissuading them from choosing internal air travel.
Whilst we can look back at these ads with joy, we shouldn’t have rosy spectacles on. A nationalised rail/operator system was far from perfect: reality was not as these ads portray. They are adverts, not documentaries. Now, British railways carry twice the passengers as they did back then, and are in a far better state.
Such a pity the APT & Intercity 250 was cancelled. It would have build on the success of 125 & 225, and might even have led to lines being straightened/upgraded like the German progress in High Speed Rail.
What do you mean the apt would have built off the 125?
The 125 was designed BECAUSE the apt was such a failure.
@@Night-zn4ewThe 125 was not built because the APT failed. By the late 1960s, it was apparent that the APT was taking much longer to develop than had been expected. Thus, the 125 was conceived as a less risky, quicker solution to the requirement for faster intercity trains, until the APT was ready to assume this role. It entered service 5 years before the APT’s unsuccessful launch. Had the APT succeeded, the 125 would have complemented it, and operated on lines which didn’t require tilt and, after APT became an electric train, non-electrified routes.
This really was "the age of the train".
RIP Class 43s, and probably soon class 91/90s :(
Wdym, 43s still run
@@Danse_Macabre_125They are just starting to be retired, but yeah, they are still.
Love the 0:51 shot of the whole InterCity fleet (including the 125). Just poetry.
You can't beat a bit of Soviet ballet music.
That's because the UK was secretly a member of the USSR. The UKSSR!
BR's divisions advertised heavily in the 80s-early 90s because under the Conservative government's plan BR had been divided into Intercity, NSE, Regional Railways (BR provincial) and possibly others.
The government subsidies for each division were gradually reduced and eventually cut off, and they were expected to run themselves like freestanding businesses (even if government owned). Intercity was first to be left to run itself from profits only and these campaigns were part of their business plan. They worked!
Again, we still have trains under 100MPH here in the US except our new Avelia Liberty and the 2000’s Adela trainset.
Featuring the class 90, 87 and HST as well. The CGI looks really good quality for 1991!
I don't think it's CGI, more likely composted from different practical effect shots.
0:53 Those Trains including the Newborn Class 91 are the Main High Speed Siblings of the Intercity Family
Wow, and then it all went shit.
Man, Intercity knew how to make ads!
0:54 The Intercity Family Fleet
Brilliant. M.
🎉🎉🎉🎉
Funny how the train being unveiled in this advert is now being withdrawn from service...
0:52
Sounds like Ian Holm.
It feels like a rip off though that 225 means 225kph not mph :/
What do they say about statistics and lies. Maybe true we had more by percentage trains running over 100mph. But at the same time France could have claimed to have - a lot - more trains running over 180 mph. Typical bit of British flag waving to divert attention from us actually being pretty shit at everything
Unfair to say we are shit railway wise compared to countries like France without also mentioning the difference in subsidy comparing BR to the SNCF.
BR did a good job, by and large, on a shoe string.