0:08 Is that Carstairs?
0:13-0:32 WCML through the Lakes and up Beattock?
0:35 Logical one would be Drax
0:45 Tees Yard?
0:49 Lindsey Refinery?
1:05 is the Saltburn to Boulby Potash line, that's still active.
1:23 is presumably somewhere in the Highlands
1:26 Royal Border Bridge
1:44 I assume is Glenfinnan viaduct
2:03 Blackfriars
2:06 Newcastle Central
2:10 Seems the whole last segment is Paddington
0:08 I think Carstairs is a good bet, especially with that distinctive back-to-back arrangement of the catenary. From current footage of the station, it appears that all of the original buildings have been swept away, which is a shame. This 1981 night mail scene at Carstairs with 27108 has a lot of atmosphere which would be absent today:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jbg06003/50829271377/
I've only set foot on the station once in the late 90s, when there was a commuter service from Glasgow in the evening formed of a Strathclyde-liveried EMU which terminated at Carstairs instead of the more typical Lanark. I think there might have been one return working per day for an EMU, starting from Carstairs in the morning with a return working in the evening, as seen here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/garstangpost/52717984380
I remember getting off the train at Carstairs on a murky evening with one other passenger, who promptly seemed to disappear like a ghost through a door into the station buildings as though he lived inside. It was eerily quiet and I was glad when my onward train arrived in the form of the evening train to Manchester formed of a Class 158 (I think it was an Edinburgh - Manchester Airport working).
Anyway, I think the filming position in the advert is almost replicated just after the 18 minute mark in the video below, with a train heading south through platform 2. The relative heights of the catenary arms / cantilevers (visible after the train has passed) on each side of the post match up very closely, the round arches of the doorways are distinctive, the clock matches, and a fence along the platform is visible in both videos.
Channel:
Yesterday's Tracks
Video:
Railways of the 1980’s | A Day at Carstairs Jct | Freight | Passenger
I've been on an internet mission to identify the industrial locations, I concur with the locations quoted above.
0:35 I think Drax is the only power station with that number and arrangement of cooling towers (two clusters of six).
0:44 Must be the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe known as the "four queens," I don't think any other steelworks has four in a row like that.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/93173492@N00/51363474792
0:45
Agree with Tees Yard, it's a distinctive view. This is looking east into the dead-end sidings in the main part of the yard. I think the "west end" supervisor's cabin would be to the right here, with the arrival/departure sidings behind the camera. The diamond crossing is gone but is shown on old quail maps. A recent view for comparison:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry47401/31845942881/
The grey PGA wagons (number series BSTE 18000 to BSTE 18114) seen in the video used to work from Redmire to Redcar, as seen here behind some Thornaby 20s:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hoover29/8080780181/
0:49 Lindsey refinery is a safe bet. There aren't many photos to compare, but the Elf and Total tanks definitely suggest Lindsey (a 1990 wagon book says those unusual Elf TUA wagons could be found working between Lindsey and Leeds). It's not clear why there would be a Cartic wagon in the sidings at Lindsey, but I think it's still Lindsey visible up to 0:54 with the class 20s near the northeast corner of the site.
Those Elf TUAs can be seen here:
https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/tua
0:55 Those appear to be Norsk Hydro fertiliser logos on the IWA vans, I think this brief clip is at the former fertiliser plant (which closed in 2000 according to Wikipedia) on the east side of Immingham Docks. Again, not many photos to compare of the actual location, but the wagons can be seen in action on the main line here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/185822405@N04/49731344133/
0:57 Back at Lindsey with TOTAL tank wagons. The coloured, numbered storage tanks can be compared with this impressive 2018 drone shot:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/robmcrorie/42176643001/
The area of grass and bushes in the foreground also matches the earlier video footage.
0:59 Took a while to figure out but I'm confident this is Grimsby Docks. I thought it might be Tees Dock at first, but it didn't look right so I searched for Nor-Cargo whose ship is visible. This company later became part of Sea-Cargo which has routes to Immingham from Norway, so an East Coast port was a safe bet. The layout of Immingham Docks didn't seem to match the view in the video, but Grimsby certainly does. A google image search for "Grimsby Docks Aerial Views 1980s" brings up some images from Grimsby Live, the first of which is a clear match with the jetty, the lock at the top-right and the sloping bit of the dock in the top left corner visible at 1:00. The (movable) dockside cranes are also visible. The cargo being unloaded is most likely coils of stainless steel from Sweden to Tinsley, rolled from slab which would have originated at Tinsley. Until the opening of the Nordic terminal at Immingham in 1997, this traffic used Grimsby docks (and some other ports at different times I think). This working can be seen here behind class 20s at Melton Ross in 1992 - I don't recognise the wagon type but they look similar to the ones just about visible on the quayside in the video:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138596289@N03/46099671462
1:05 I like the shape of those green Boulby potash wagons, which were from a batch numbered STS 11401 to STS 11434 -
https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/potashpba
They were later replaced but can be seen here in EWS days along the same stretch of coastline -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/neil_harvey_railway_photos/5419108960/
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This related video may also be of interest, the "Night Mail 2" documentary filmed in 1986:
Video:
'Night Mail 2' Documentary - 1986.
Channel:
ValentaLamenter
