In Film
The units starred in the 1960 British Transport Film Blue Pullman directed by James Ritchie, which followed its development, preparation and a journey on the train. As with earlier British Transport films, many of the personnel, scientists, engineers, crew and passengers were featured. It won several awards, including the Technical & Industrial Information section of the Festival for Films for Television in 1961. The film is also particularly notable for its score, by Clifton Parker.
The units were also the subject of another British Transport Film, Let's Go To Birmingham, made in 1962. This was of a run from London Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill via Leamington Spa and was largely a speeded-up "cab view" film in the style of London to Brighton in Four Minutes. Sadly, the driver in the film, Ernest Morris, was killed on 15 August 1963 in the Knowle and Dorridge rail crash when his express train collided with a freight train at 20 mph (32 km/h). The train was a Birmingham Pullman hauled by a Class 52 "Western" diesel-hydraulic locomotive, a stand-in for the regular Blue Pullman set.
A WR set appears twice in the 1963 British Transport Film Snow in both a panoramic view and a passing view from an adjacent track at slow speed. There are also a few very short snips of close side on views of the train passing the camera.
A Blue Pullman made brief appearances in the 1965 Norman Wisdom film The Early Bird, destroying Pitkin's milk cart at a level crossing.
Read more about this topic: British Rail Classes 251 And 261
Famous quotes containing the word film:
“This film is apparently meaningless, but if it has any meaning it is doubtless objectionable.”
—British Board Of Film Censors. Quoted in Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion (1984)
“The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half- piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)