Air Date:

27^th August 2007

These are the stories they tell...

Sir Ralph has been sent away to be repaired, and the foreman has procured an engine from another region - a Great Western Pannier Tank - to help about the yard. Hawk and Allen argue, but realise their mistakes, make up, and Stephen is left tired - but triumphant.

Analysis:

 Straight away it can be seen that this episode means business: a new title opening sequence had been devised, and by now the regular cast was almost complete. Only Nigel, the V3 tank engine, had yet to make his first appearance.

It is the first appearance of Scott in apple green (but sadly for the apple green lovers, in the black and sequences!), and with a double tender. This is quite a mistake, but a deliberate one: it was felt by members of the team, that despite the fact the real Flying Scotsman had only appeared with a second tender in the 1960s, and not the 1920s/30s as the black and sequences depict, it did sum up everything about the LNER and so the old Hornby two tender Scotsman was fired up to take part in the episodes. This episode also sees the first and last appearance of the King Class locomotive, whose name has not been revealed. “Gulliver” (the little 14xx class) can be seen hiding in the background on several occasions. He would not reappear in a non-speaking role until Episode Seven (when he was stuck in a snow-bank).

Of all of the episodes, this episode proved beyond reasonable doubt, that good running models are an absolute necessity for filming a series. The old Lima chassis of Hawk was to be replaced for his Episode Eleven return by a Bachmann 57xx alternative, but it was not just poor chassis units – it was a not cleaning the track, or wheels of the models enough. Eventually, it became a regular thing: before and after every episode filming session, the locomotives, the rolling stock and the track would be cleaned to make sure that the layout and its models worked perfectly for each session.

This episode caused something of a headache for series creator Simon Martin – after Hawk appeared for his supposed “one – and only one – performance” (which was Simon's firm mantra, given the old Lima model's bad running qualities), there was a deluge of emails requesting his return. By the time Episode Eight had come around, it was clear that Hawk's stunning popularity was not going to go away, with almost five hundred emails received in total pleading by this point, for his return.

After Episode Five, a trailer was made up – entitled “Great Western Glory”, it was intended to gauge the reaction of the less than a thousand viewers of the first series as a result of Hawk's popularity. The trailer received a mixed reception, with part of the problem being that it had been filmed on what was clearly an Eastern Region set – and clearly, “The End of the LNER”'s set. The problems began directly after the trailer.

Says Simon, “My greatest regret was putting out that Great Western Glory trailer. Discussing a second series before we were even a quarter of the way through the first series was a mistake, and could have led to the series downfall. It was felt at the time, that should our series be ultimately successful, a second series could incorporate everything we had learnt from the first, and build upon that. Thus, we reapplied for extended film time and possible funding, and with that in mind, we got overly ambitious, with two other proposed series Mighty Midlands and Southern Splendour, added to the BRWS. The problem always lies with working with what you have. It's unlikely we'll ever see the latter two filmed, however, the fact we had scripts for Great Western Glory made up, ten in total, means that should I get around to modelling the Western Region in years to come, I don't think we can rule out Hawk returning, this time as the central character”.