Media
On 21 August 2006, Network Rail and the BBC Television programme Top Gear staged and filmed a crash between a Class 31 locomotive and a family car in order to promote rail safety. The off-limits event was the first of its type for 10 years and took place at Hibaldstow level crossing near Scawby in Lincolnshire, where the B1206 road crosses the Barnetby–Gainsborough railway line.
Two Class 31 locomotives and a parked Renault Espace were used during the crash. Network Rail's 31233 was used to propel 31107 up to a speed of 80 mph (130 km/h). The rear locomotive slowed down to a stop and 31107 continued to coast at a speed of 70–80 miles per hour into the road vehicle parked across the eastbound 'up' line.
For the crash, locomotive 31107 received a special black livery with the slogan "Level crossings — Don't run the risk" along the side in white lettering. The final 5 minute segment, presented by Jeremy Clarkson, was originally scheduled for 4 February 2007 but was rescheduled, apparently due to a fatal crossing crash at Dingwall two days earlier. It was eventually aired on BBC Two on 25 February 2007, shortly after the Cumbria derailment. A repeat of the programme was pulled following a further level-crossing accident.
Class 31 no. 31271 was used in an episode of Dalziel and Pascoe, where it crashed into a coach. This was filmed at Wansford railway station level crossing on the Nene Valley Railway.
Class 31 no. 31420 was also used in a train crash in the ITV series 'The Royal', though locomotive was tipped over onto its side and separated from its bogies.31414 has been used in the ITV drama Mobile and also in the BBC series Casualty with the former Gatwick Express coaches at the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway.
Class 31 no. 31108 appeared on 1 November 2010 in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. The scene shows Janine Butcher nearly being hit by a train on a level crossing, and was filmed at the Nene Valley Railway.
Read more about this topic: British Rail Class 31
Famous quotes containing the word media:
“Never before has a generation of parents faced such awesome competition with the mass media for their children’s attention. While parents tout the virtues of premarital virginity, drug-free living, nonviolent resolution of social conflict, or character over physical appearance, their values are daily challenged by television soaps, rock music lyrics, tabloid headlines, and movie scenes extolling the importance of physical appearance and conformity.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)
“Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so—called educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one’s ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the “educational system” are the prime sources of racism in the United States.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“One can describe a landscape in many different words and sentences, but one would not normally cut up a picture of a landscape and rearrange it in different patterns in order to describe it in different ways. Because a photograph is not composed of discrete units strung out in a linear row of meaningful pieces, we do not understand it by looking at one element after another in a set sequence. The photograph is understood in one act of seeing; it is perceived in a gestalt.”
—Joshua Meyrowitz, U.S. educator, media critic. “The Blurring of Public and Private Behaviors,” No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior, Oxford University Press (1985)