London to Brighton in four minutes across sixty years.

August 28, 2013 7:47 AM

London to Brighton, side by side. "In 1953 the BBC made a point-of-view film from a London to Brighton train. 30 years later it did the same again. And after another 30 years it did so once more."

Here's a BBC News report about making the new film.

And as separate films, 1953, 1983, 2013.

Also, previously on Metafilter.

posted by feelinglistless (20 comments total)

Nice choice of soundtrack. For those that don't catch the reference.
posted by LionIndex at 7:58 AM on August 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

dirty weekends for all!
posted by leotrotsky at 8:07 AM on August 28, 2013

It looks pretty much the same.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 8:18 AM on August 28, 2013

First comment by Arsene Wenger...
posted by MartinWisse at 8:20 AM on August 28, 2013

A couple of changes between 1953, 1983 and 2013: many more trains in both '53 and '13 than in '83. Trip time seems to be roughly the same though.
posted by MartinWisse at 8:23 AM on August 28, 2013

Thirty Down
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:31 AM on August 28, 2013

many more trains in both '53 and '13 than in '83

Do you mean other trains seen en route? The BBC news report says that the number of passengers and trains has doubled.

I find the shots of the stations, employees, and passengers much more interesting than the trip.
posted by Kabanos at 8:37 AM on August 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

This is relevant to my interests.
posted by Decani at 10:09 AM on August 28, 2013

Actually I was staggered to see that colour light signalling was being used in 1953. After doing some Googling I was even more staggered to discover it was introduced on the Brighton line in 1932.
posted by Decani at 10:11 AM on August 28, 2013

That wasn't nearly as interesting as it should have been.
posted by Max Udargo at 12:37 PM on August 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

That wasn't nearly as interesting as it should have been.

Right!?

I love stuff like this, and thought it would be interesting to see the many changes. But, I guess the point is that there aren't that many changes? So, I suppose the sameness is interesting on some level. I'm gonna go try to find that level.
posted by MoxieProxy at 12:59 PM on August 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Also the video for the Cure's Jumping Someone Else's Train.
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:42 PM on August 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

When you're going 810 miles per hour there's a whole lot of change your just not going to see. The one tunnel that is now more of a trench was probably a pretty major change.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 3:13 PM on August 28, 2013

You might be a geek if you start going through this frame by frame to work out the route. Don't ask me how I know this.

Battersea Power Station makes a cameo appearance at 0:34.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 3:29 PM on August 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

See also the 8-bit steam train sim Southern Belle available for Spectrum, Amstrad, C=64 and BBC. Although considering the relative lack of scenery, "see" might be stretching it a little. Also, the game had an accelerate time mode, unfortunately YouTube does not.
posted by comealongpole at 5:20 PM on August 28, 2013

So, looking at more Google maps type stuff, there are apparently a lot of kind of upscale neighborhoods in the UK with full fledged rail lines going underneath them. Gotta wonder what it's like to have a train underneath you every couple minutes.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 11:29 PM on August 28, 2013

Well, there aren't many major changes, in part because the economic appeal of railroads is such that they stay pretty much in the same location and configuration for decades on end.

There are a few notable changes, though, speaking as a railfan. The 1953 run, in particular, betrays much greater tolerance for stuff right up near the tracks including vegetation and rail paraphernalia. There are also a noticeably larger number of points (switches), especially ones with leading points -- since these are recognized as a derailment risk, which rises with speed, railroads try to eliminate them when possible. I feel there are slightly fewer side tracks and so forth in the same vein in the later videos.
posted by dhartung at 1:23 AM on August 29, 2013

If this had been done in the US, the 1953 film would have been of a busy 4 track main line.

The 1983 film would have been of a sparse 1 or 2 track route.

The 2013 film would have been a bike path.
posted by pjern at 2:22 AM on August 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

I wish they'd put up the raw footage as well. I'd be perfectly happy to watch these at actual train speed.
posted by Scienxe at 5:28 AM on August 29, 2013

I was also surprised that the changes were less than I expected. And that there is a lot of greenery in the 13 run that wasn't there in the older ones. It pleases me no end, as I was really expecting lots of multi-story building along the track, and signs of over development.
posted by bystander at 5:19 AM on September 1, 2013