Call The Midwife Train Crash 13/02/22

[Paul Jones 88]

What did people think about the train crash on tonight's Call The Midwife?
The driver let go of the controls because he was fitting, however the train continues regardless.
It was inferred that the driver was colour blind so I assumed he would have had difficulty getting the job in the first place.
I thought it really bad form for such inaccuracies to be portraid.

 

[JonathanH]

I haven't seen the incident but Call the Midwife is a period piece and historical standards can't necessarily be judged by those today.

The storytellers have to find a way of making a train crash that gives rise to casualties seem realistic without there actually being an actual destructive crash so it is always going to be a bit contrived.

 

[Master29]

What did people think about the train crash on tonight's Call The Midwife?
The driver let go of the controls because he was fitting, however the train continues regardless.
It was inferred that the driver was colour blind so I assumed he would have had difficulty getting the job in the first place.
I thought it really bad form for such inaccuracies to be portraid.

We are talking about a few years ago but TV shows rarely show rail operations with any accuracy as Jo average wouldn't notice.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I haven't seen the incident but Call the Midwife is a period piece and historical standards can't necessarily be judged by those today.

The storytellers have to find a way of making a train crash that gives rise to casualties seem realistic without there actually being an actual destructive crash so it is always going to be a bit contrived.

Being a period piece, in theory it should be MORE accurate... none of these supposedly modern commuter trains that are clearly rather careworn carriages hauled by a diesel shunter (looking at you, Casualty and Hollyoaks).

 

[Ediswan]

What did people think about the train crash on tonight's Call The Midwife?
The driver let go of the controls because he was fitting, however the train continues regardless.
It was inferred that the driver was colour blind so I assumed he would have had difficulty getting the job in the first place.
I thought it really bad form for such inaccuracies to be portraid.

'Jumped the shark' was my reaction.
I didn't see any suggestion of colour blindness. Rather, eye strain and headaches due to ???
The year is 1967, should automation have prevented the collision ?
They were trying, I have never seen a ground/shunt signal have a key role before.

 

[David Burrows]

Initial shots were of a class 20, interior shots of mark 1 stock and the initial shots from the inside of the train suggested a Southern Railway station. An 08 or 09 shunter also seen, propekking a tank wagon. A number of semaphore signals seen including shunt signals, leads me to think the Mid Hants Railway might perhaps be the location. Not quite right for the period as class 20s did not haul passenger trains between Chelmsford and Liverpoo St. At the time any main line engine would have been double manned - and releasing the controls and slumping unconcious would have resulted in brakes being applied. At least it was mark 1 stock - correct for the period.

 

[Cowley]

Initial shots were of a class 20, interior shots of mark 1 stock and the initial shots from the inside of the train suggested a Southern Railway station. An 08 or 09 shunter also seen, propekking a tank wagon. A number of semaphore signals seen including shunt signals, leads me to think the Mid Hants Railway might perhaps be the location. Not quite right for the period as class 20s did not haul passenger trains between Chelmsford and Liverpoo St. At the time any main line engine would have been double manned - and releasing the controls and slumping unconcious would have resulted in brakes being applied. At least it was mark 1 stock - correct for the period.

I’d agree. The railway scenes just before the crash look like Ropley on the Mid Hants to me.

 

[alxndr]

I didn't see any suggestion of colour blindness. Rather, eye strain and headaches due to ???

In the scene where the daughter, Roberta, was making her card for the mother he comments that she has used her mother’s favourite colours, except he mistakes the red flower for a green one.

 

[AM9]

Initial shots were of a class 20, interior shots of mark 1 stock and the initial shots from the inside of the train suggested a Southern Railway station. An 08 or 09 shunter also seen, propekking a tank wagon. A number of semaphore signals seen including shunt signals, leads me to think the Mid Hants Railway might perhaps be the location. Not quite right for the period as class 20s did not haul passenger trains between Chelmsford and Liverpoo St. At the time any main line engine would have been double manned - and releasing the controls and slumping unconcious would have resulted in brakes being applied. At least it was mark 1 stock - correct for the period.

I have watch the programme since it started. I grew up in the '50s and '60s and enjoy it because so far it has been a pretty accurate history of the NHS and surrounding issues that impacted it, (smallpox, thalidomide, measels, abortion law, homosexual bill etc.). In fact so far the main inaccuracies have been the cleanliness of the streets - in Poplar?, and the rugby passes that babies are put through owning to social distancing (by the actors).
Today's episode I'm afraid was well below it's normal standard. In 1968, a train journey to Chelmsford would probably be via Liverpool St. as very few trains would start in Fenchurch St and pass through Poplar (not sure which line that would have been on the bridge, - the Blackwall Railway now DLR? So the journey would be from Liverpool St probably in a class 309, or maybe a 305/308. Whatever it was, a class 20 wouldn't have pulled anything other than ECS. MKI coaches were OK but the 309 interior was far more modern than that.
Then the crash, the driver presumably had an epileptic fit. The AWS would have acted when it wasn't cancelled at the first signal, - it probably wouldn't have reached a second signal.
It was probably planned and executed by the team that does the annual train/plane/motorway disaster on Casualty!

 

[AlterEgo]

It's a TV show. There are loads of inaccuracies for artistic licence.

Amused of the claims of accuracy @AM9 levels at the show - it's a drama. Almost everything about the show is an artistic decision and there are gaping plot holes you aren't supposed to pick into because they serve the purpose of advancing the narrative.

"Oh yes well the train wouldn't have gone via that route" is pettifogging you don't apply to other aspects of the show's premise because you are perfectly happy with the rest of it. "Ah well that looks like a naval ship not a ferry, RUBBISH", "Clearly not a back street in Poplar, definitely looks like naval storehouses", "hmm Ajax the locomotive never actually ran in London", "Sorry but Sister Monica Joan never gets any older or more senile despite ten years since the show's start, very unrealistic", "Why do they only use one doctor??", "Sorry but half the establishment simply wouldn't GO to South Africa for the Christmas Special, there would have been not enough backup at home and we see them stretched all the time", etc etc.

 

[AM9]

It's a TV show. There are loads of inaccuracies for artistic licence.

Amused of the claims of accuracy @AM9 levels at the show - it's a drama. Almost everything about the show is an artistic decision and there are gaping plot holes you aren't supposed to pick into because they serve the purpose of advancing the narrative.

Well no, most of what's in the series has been pretty authentic, especially the maternity issues. My daughter as a matron midwife and she on several occasions has confirmed that they must be getting some professional technical support as it is bang on. In addition, most of the other peripheral material is also credible including the historical facts. It just seems that the regular drama diasaster arrangers were given the job for last night's episode. The plot was so badly woven leading upthe the event that it could be seen a mile off.

 

[AlterEgo]

Well no, most of what's in the series has been pretty authentic, especially the maternity issues. My daughter as a matron midwife and she on several occasions has confirmed that they must be getting some professional technical support as it is bang on. In addition, most of the other peripheral material is also credible including the historical facts. It just seems that the regular drama diasaster arrangers were given the job for last night's episode. The plot was so badly woven leading upthe the event that it could be seen a mile off.

It’s a midwifery programme centred on the birth of children, based off a nurse’s memoirs, so the midwifery is going to be one of the only accurate elements.

It’s not a show about train operations in 1967, or even elderly care or dementia, or the finer points of running a sisterly religious order.

Please do complain to them about the repeated use of a naval ship in place of a civilian vessel or the repeated inclusion of the 1980s era apartments at Royal Victoria in the background of some dockyard scenes, etc etc.

 

[johnny_t]

Any TV show that involves trains is littered with inaccuracies that only an enthusiast would ever care about (Azuma going into a tunnel, Class 25 coming out, sort of thing) but I did think that the idea that there were no safety systems in the train whatsoever was bit annoying. I liked the way someone asked 'Where was the train coming from ?' to be told Chelmsford, as if it was some direct Chelmsford to Liverpool Street non-stop shuttle.

 

[AM9]

Any TV show that involves trains is littered with inaccuracies that only an enthusiast would ever care about (Azuma going into a tunnel, Class 25 coming out, sort of thing) but I did think that the idea that there were no safety systems in the train whatsoever was bit annoying. I liked the way someone asked 'Where was the train coming from ?' to be told Chelmsford, as if it was some direct Chelmsford to Liverpool Street non-stop shuttle.

Yup, the plot was handled carelessly in a series that usually gets everything better than that.

 

[bigbaldbruce]

Also the class 08 showing its TOPS number on the cab side (and double arrow, but not sure when this started being applied to locomotives).

 

[BanburyBlue]

Would they have stopped the passenger train for what looks like a shunting movement?

 

[The Lad]

Not to mention that 'putting back' on a train is crowned upon except in emergency.

 

[Trackman]

Also the class 08 showing its TOPS number on the cab side (and double arrow, but not sure when this started being applied to locomotives).

Would they have stopped the passenger train for what looks like a shunting movement?

We could be here all day.

Why was he wearing a guards hat? Is that a TWPS unit next to the AWS Sunflower?
If he was feeling iffy, why not bring the train to halt whilst he was still conscious?
Why were his hands no-one near the loco straight air or train brake?

Not to mention that 'putting back' on a train is frowned upon except in emergency.

That's the biggie for me.

I’d agree. The railway scenes just before the crash look like Ropley on the Mid Hants to me.

That's where the 08 lives too.

 

[Ediswan]

Not to mention that 'putting back' on a train is crowned upon except in emergency.

Can somebody please explain the term. Google was no help, the words are too common.

 

[GC class B1]

Can somebody please explain the term. Google was no help, the words are too common.

I am sure someone with signalling knowledge will be able to explain it better but I understand the term to mean putting a signal back to red that was previously green or yellow, as the train is approaching. This would only done if it was necessary to stop the approaching train in the event of an emergency.

 

[Roose]

We are talking about a few years ago but TV shows rarely show rail operations with any accuracy as Jo average wouldn't notice.

Or even Jo Johnson...

 

[Bevan Price]

And why did the dead man's handle not work when the driver fainted / fell asleep.
No. A poor, unnecessary episode in this series. There are more convincing ways of "losing" actors who are leaving the cast. (If that is what is happening.)

 

[BanburyBlue]

Slight change of tack, considering dodgy film/tv moments. I’ve just seen the Routemaster bus on Foyle’s War, in 1940’s London. Mrs BanburyBlue thinks I’m having a seizure.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Slight change of tack, considering dodgy film/tv moments. I’ve just seen the Routemaster bus on Foyle’s War, in 1940’s London. Mrs BanburyBlue thinks I’m having a seizure.

Tonight's "Foyle's War" episode on ITV3 (= "High Castle") is supposedly set in 1946/47. What type of London bus would have been appropriate to the time?

 

[AM9]

Tonight's "Foyle's War" episode on ITV3 (= "High Castle") is supposedly set in 1946/47. What type of London bus would have been appropriate to the time?

Mostly STs the predecessor of the RTs. Production of RTs only recommenced in 1946 so there would only be the 150 'pre-war' RTs on the road.

 

[johnny_t]

Also the class 08 showing its TOPS number on the cab side (and double arrow, but not sure when this started being applied to locomotives).

Being a period piece, in theory it should be MORE accurate... none of these supposedly modern commuter trains that are clearly rather careworn carriages hauled by a diesel shunter (looking at you, Casualty and Hollyoaks).

If anyone wants their 'train continuity purity' triggering, try The Stranger on Netflix. S14 from about 12:20 has plenty to get your teeth into...

 

[yorksrob]

I recall watching a programme where the protagonists were supposed to be traveling from London to Dover. I was surprised to see the carriage used for filming was a mk2 non air-con of all things, but at least it has NSE moquette, which would have been authentic for the time !

 

[johnny_t]

I'm going to throw in an episode of Dempsey & Makepeace, that was clearly on the Waterloo & City line.

Spikings got on at Station 1

At Station 2, some people got off, some got on, some (including Spikings) stayed on for the journey on to Station 3...

 

[AM9]

I'm going to throw in an episode of Dempsey & Makepeace, that was clearly on the Waterloo & City line.

Spikings got on at Station 1

At Station 2, some people got off, some got on, some (including Spikings) stayed on for the journey on to Station 3...

Ah! The hitherto secret Drain extension.

 

[D6130]

And why did the dead man's handle not work when the driver fainted / fell asleep.

IIRC, class 08s are not fitted with a DSD (Driver's Safety Device).