I hope you enjoy this cab ride from London Paddington to Hereford filmed in UltraHD during the Covid19 pandemic lockdown of summer 2020 by a friend who is a driver.

This is an updated version with clearer captions that where possible are larger and displayed for longer than on the original version here:    • London Paddington to Hereford train C...  

We journey for a total of 150 miles starting out in England’s capital and slowly head into more rural areas as we pass through the famous University City of Oxford, then through the charming scenery of the Cotswolds before hitting major civilisation again in the form of Worcester. Then it’s out into and through the Malvern Hills passing Great Malvern and Ledbury before reaching our destination of Hereford.

We resisted the urge to get the recordings done at the widest possible focal length, as, despite the gains in peripheral vision, you get a very false impression of speed and perspective. This detracts from the realism. The focal length chosen attempts to give the best compromise of a realistic view of what the driver sees together with a decent amount of peripheral scenery. You won’t see any ‘barrel distortion’ i.e. bending buildings here!

Throughout the trip, captions give information on the route – past, present and future in a way that is hopefully informative without being too over the top and intrusive:
• Bottom right of the screen is the maximum permitted speed at any given location for the train.
• Bottom left of the screen in orange captions is the name of the line we are on, together with information on where the signalling is controlled from, mode of traction the train is using, and lineside gradients of 1:100 or more.
• At the top of the screen, station details are in red captions.
• Major junctions, selected level crossings and other significant infrastructure are in green captions.
• Diverging and converging routes, as well as other lines we pass over or underneath are in dark blue captions.
• Other information, such as historical details, possible future enhancements and other general information the viewer will hopefully find useful, are in mauve or light blue captions.
• Small inset video, at various points on the route, gives ‘flashback’ footage to a previous layout, or views from the side window of the train.

The footage was recorded on several different days using an unmonitored camera.

It is for entertainment only, is not an official GWR or Network Rail publication, and should not be used for route learning.

Comments and discussion are very welcome.