BAGDContext CSM

Here is a BBC sound recording of the famous Flying Scotsman…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08fmjfn

Here’s a wonderful picture of the French TEE from the 1970s.

I rode one of these trains between Paris and Toulouse in 1978. Happily, this was also the period of Kraftwerk’s famous TEE LP, and was probably the most stylish iteration of the train. I loved those internal venetian blinds.

I’ve posted before about these trains and about Kraftwerk, and about the history of machine-sounds as music.

Here is a piece of railway music…A year later, Jean Mitry would do the same thing in cinema with Pacific 231 (1949). The first half especially.

A lovely image from the music video, posted below, from 1982. I’ve posted before about the psychological effects of speed and railway travel in relation to Freud and Brecht etc. This is perfect.

Great sounds, and great trains.

and previously posted about, here https://bagdcontext.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2011/07/02/cow-catching-babbage-and-keaton-and-the-machine/

The Guardian had a story about this terrific photo

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/mar/05/train-across-alps-bernina-express-giancarlo-staubmann-best-photograph

The BBC iplayer is showing the classic New Hollywood film, In the heat of the Night (1967).

The film is a classic civil rights movie which places a small-town Southern American town against a visiting African-American detective. He doesn’t want to be there, but he’s stuck passing through and gets caught-up in a murder. Sidney Poitier stars, and there is a terrific jazzy soundtrack by Quincy Jones.

Also, there is quite a lot of train action…

See also,