Its amazing how Britain can lead the world in developing technologies and then fall flat implementing it.

Remember when British TV channels (including Channel 4, which broadcast this one) were full of fascinating documentaries like this, which respect the intelligence of the viewer and have no dumbing down? QED, Horizon, Equinox, Cutting Edge. All documentary strands gone or dumbed down today.
Even BBC Four is now just a repeats channel.

British Rail were so much better than the shysters we have now!

A fascinating time capsule of a documentary, and surprisingly heavy on technical detail for something intended for the general public.  The 225s, like the 125s, were/are very nice trains,  and happily, some still in service in 2023! Though how much longer that lasts, who knows...  I will be sad when they are gone.  BR, for all its faults, did gift future generations with some really hard working, comfortable and iconic trains, as the HST and IC225 examplify.

Shame the Government cut the funding for 140 mph signaling so they never exceeded 125 mph in service. The 800 class are actually slower than these and the HST.

Patrick Uden and Paul Fabricius, the producers, were excellent film-makers conveying technical subjects clearly with well-edited interviews - as shown in this great film shown first on Channel 4 in 1988.

The most fascinating part of this film are the people - all men, almost all in suits and most with a rather posh voice.  How different the culture was then.

All this development for a 140mph train that still cannot flex its muscles properly on an infrastructure that can only support 125mph running. Must of been very frustrating for all the engineers involved.

to think that now 35 years or so later they are still working Kings Cross to York and Leeds thow now only 10 out of 31 it will be a grate loss to see them go .

Narrator 1988: "Class 43 Intercity 125s will be replaced"

Cross Country, Scott Rail, GWR all in 2023: "Nah, we're good"

The special adjustable cradle go that way george 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣anyway well any way 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Good was nice to watch😊😀😗😭😆😊

They did a fantastic job, I love those trains.

Thanks for sharing this, as I like engineering problems.

Interestingly, nobody in the entire film mentioned safety

My first ever flight was on the beautiful boeing 757.

Todays high speed trains have bogies split between to cars thus making the train much more sturdy. Also tracks are completly welded into very long sections except for expansion joints thus making the ride more quiet and smooth.

1988... roughly the last time any train the UK actually ran on time.

Fast forward to the end of  the lives of these locomotives and we replace trains with assembly kits from Japan and our population with people from overseas, many unskilled and of unknown origin. Anyone see a pattern here? Clue, only a few people are getting richer.

God I am old seeing this, I was 18 when this was first shown in 1988, so 91 or 225 sets are almost gone bar a couple of services left the main fleet has been taken over by some Azuma thing and no HST's left 54 in October 2024. how time fly's eh? I do have this on VHS somewhere here in the flat boxed up.