Flying Scotsman, The: Down Under/Pure Steam (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	120:15
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Peter Henshaw
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Jim Revitt
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

    It would be hard to argue against the assertion that 4472, otherwise known as The Flying Scotsman, is the most famous steam locomotive in the world. For generations of railfans, and even just the ordinary public, it has been the symbol of the entire steam preservation movement - irrespective of where on this insignificant dot of a planet those people may be.

    So when it came to celebrate the Bicentennial of white settlement in Australia back in 1988, you could hardly blame a bunch of eternal optimists for suggesting that perhaps it might be a nice idea if this iconic steam locomotive could be brought down under to help celebrate the Bicentennial. You had to admire them for their optimism but it would never really happen...would it? Well, there were probably still a fair number of knockers suggesting that very thing even in September, 1988 when the famed locomotive was hoisted aboard a container ship in London for the voyage to Australia. Austeam was to be one of the major events of the Bicentennial and Melbourne was to be the host of arguably the finest gathering of preserved steam locomotives in Australia. Celebrating the role the railways played in the development of Australia, it was a sure fire winner of an idea. When the fine gathering was to be also be blessed with the appearance of The Flying Scotsman, it lifted the whole event to another level as far as interest was concerned.

    The Flying Scotsman Down Under basically chronicles the early part of the year long visit the locomotive made to Australia. From her arrival in Sydney in October, 1988 until her return to England in September, 1989, she was a star attraction wherever she went. Thankfully, wherever she went was also where the Australian Broadcasting Commission cameras went, capturing many of the highlights of a year long highlight for rail buffs. This program basically confines itself to the early part of the visit, up to about April, 1989. This is important to remember as it means that we don't get to see one of the big feats of the visit - the trip from Sydney to Perth and return, one of the epic steam journeys of all time. Of course that does still leave a few good ones to enjoy!

    How about the trip from Sydney to Brisbane and back double-heading with arguably Australia's most famous preserved steam locomotive, 3801? How about the utterly memorable, and for a genuine rail buff one of the greatest sights ever seen anywhere in the world - triple parallel runs in Victoria featuring 4472 and two representatives of the R class of Victoria Railways - R761 and R707? How about the run to Alice Springs and a brief meeting with the original Ghan? Or how about the simple runs through the Australian landscape hauling trainloads of happy people, just enjoying the magic of riding behind this great engine?

    As a rail buff, this is terrific stuff and even the really mundane stuff is well worth watching.

    After the main programme comes a fourteen minute addendum that has nothing at all to do with The Flying Scotsman - a look at the return of preserved steam to the Apple Isle that goes by the title of The Derwent Line. Whilst not in the same league as the main programme, it is nonetheless an interesting look at preserved steam that many would have no knowledge of whatsoever.

    But wait - there's more!

    As a bonus, making this an effective double feature, is another programme that looks in part at the famed steam locomotive: Pure Steam. This slightly longer programme makes an apt companion to the main feature. Whilst it does feature some overlap of video material, it concentrates on a shorter period of time (basically the first two months of the visit) in somewhat more detail. However, it also features more of the Australian locomotives that took part in Austeam 88, including 1210 - the oldest preserved steam locomotive active in Australia at the time. So whilst we get some more of 4472, we also get a lot more of R761, 3801, D3639 and K153, amongst others. We get more triple parallel runs as well as double parallel runs. So basically we get more rail buff heaven material, even including footage of R761 managing to derail itself!

    For the railfans out there, this is priceless stuff. If you also happen to remember Austeam 88, then this will bring back some great memories of possibly the pinnacle of local steam locomotive preservation. I vaguely remember seeing the material many years ago on a well-worn VHS tape - I would imagine that most railfans would be familiar with the concept of well-worn VHS tapes as far as these programmes are concerned, so the advent of the titles on DVD Video are all the more welcome. Sit back and enjoy.

Video

    The opening few minutes of The Flying Scotsman Down Under certainly put the fear of god into you, creating an impression that this is going to be a long, softly defined and very grainy evening's viewing. Thankfully, those opening minutes are not entirely typical of the whole show, but the transfer really does not get that much better and is well and truly blighted with one particular problem - aliasing. I will not bother to mention too many examples for it would make the review way too long. Suffice it to say - you are not going to miss it. One of the great problems about trains and railways is that they involve lots of straight and/or sharp edges: locomotives, carriages, buildings, even the tracks themselves. Sharp straight edges of course are the bugbear of quality mastering and often create major problems with aliasing. That is the problem here.

    Just about any straight line aliases with gay abandon here, occasionally descending into some blatantly obvious and highly disturbing stuff too. Unfortunately, The Flying Scotsman's tender is one of the huge culprits and just about any time there is a three quarter view of the tender, you will see the white lining thereon aliasing like there is no tomorrow. 13:40 in the main programme is a typical example. It is joined at times by the tracks themselves, such as at 34:16 in the main programme or horribly at 47:10 in Pure Steam, but just about everything joins in too. At times this is far from a pretty sight...

    Since we are talking material recorded in the dark ages prior to widespread invasion by widescreen televisions, the transfer is somewhat naturally in a Full Frame format that accords with the 1.33:1 ratio of old style television. The transfer is of course not 16x9 enhanced. At a guess I would say the material was shot on video rather than film.

    Whilst there are certainly periods where the material is slightly out of focus, most of the material is reasonably sharp and quite well defined. Shadow detail rarely comes into play and clarity is generally very good. There is some grain at times but that opening sequence is perhaps the worst of it. Overall I felt this to be a very serviceable looking transfer, but always with some slight reservations.

    The colours are pretty good, and at times even better than that. With a variety of material taken by different cameras, inevitably there is some inconsistency in the colours but this is hardly a major issue. Saturation could perhaps have been a little better overall, but as it is there are no significant issues with over saturation nor with bleed.

    There are no obvious MPEG artefacts in the transfer. About the only issue with film-to-video artefacts is the aforementioned aliasing problem, but just for a bit of variety there is some moiré artefacting on a shirt at 22:38 in the second programme. There was nothing much in the way of film artefacts, with about the only obvious issue being a rather large green blob at 42:41, although thankfully this is very brief too.

    This is a Dual Layer formatted DVD, with the two programmes each contained on a single layer. There is therefore no layer change to worry about.

    There are no subtitles on the DVD, which is rather disappointing for the hearing impaired.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is just the one soundtrack on the DVD being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    The dialogue and narration comes up fairly well in the soundtrack and is generally easy to understand. There are no apparent audio sync issues with the transfer.

    The original music is not to my recollection specifically credited on the DVD, although the musicians are. The musical accompaniment is not too bad but my preference would be for little of it and plenty of background silence to hear those magnificent locomotives going about their business.

    Aside from the inevitable extraneous noise - wind blowing, background diesel rumbles and so on - there really is nothing much to say about the sound. Probably best described as adequately functional, I could easily imagine something way better but that really would be expecting way too much.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    A bit of audio enhancement is all you get. But then again we did get a bonus feature...

    As a local production, I would doubt that that this has been released anywhere else in the world. If it were, then it probably would be much the same as the Region 4 release as it is coded for all six regions.

    Were it not for the rather dreadful aliasing problem that besets this otherwise more than acceptable offering, a more wholehearted recommendation would have been forthcoming. As it is, caveat emptor. Some might be less annoyed by the aliasing then I but equally I would guess that some will be even more annoyed by it. It really does make you wonder exactly what goes through the minds of the people responsible for the mastering when such blatantly obvious and disturbing aliasing runs rampant through what is otherwise a very worthwhile release. Better than nothing I suppose but a rather disappointing release from a technical point of view. Content-wise it is a beauty...

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall