Train Truckers

Excellent skills, and not just from the drivers, planners, banksmen and engineers. The filming on this fly-on-the-wall series, is also excellent.

The camera work and editing is very dramatic.

From the use of every conceivable camera angle, to the brilliant use of dawn til dusk, light.

As for the drivers? My hat is well and truly doffed.

I've drove class 2 for a few years, and to be honest, the thought of driving a 'normal' artic, fills me with dread.

I just ain't interested in the stress and certainly lack the necessary skills. My little 18 tonne tanker is plenty big enough thanks.

15 hour days? Never again.

Sleeping in trucks? See above.

The drivers on this show, have the skills to reverse a 7.5 tonne wheel barrow up a loft ladder. Brilliant stuff. If these lorries were in the wrong hands, there'd be 100s of miles of carnage.

A big thumbs up to the team behind it all too. To organise moving cargo so big, takes some PROPER planning.

As a Brucie bonus, I've a passing interest in history and engineering, so what they're shifting, also gets my attention.

Unfortunately, it's also the reason why it loses a star or 2. The audience for this show is pretty limited to train anoraks, lorry drivers who think the job is romantic and engineering history loving, former photographers and now HGV drivers, like me.

Top work folks 8/10.

This could be an excellent series as the subject matter is fascinating, but what is it with programme narration nowadays? Why are we are constantly being told that if this isn't done or that isn't correctly assembled, it could lead to disaster. The workers involved are always "running out of time" but make it "just in time" or "at the last minute." It is an insult to our intelligence and those working hard on a job, as surely meticulous planning has gone into moving such large loads and the firms must have an excellent safety record or they wouldn't be asked to do the job .

It would be far more interesting to fill the time with extra history of the vehicles and some background on the people involved.

Ok, so I like the topic and the information. But, why the annoying music? It's being played while the host and others are talking. It is distracting to the dialogue. It's like the Youtube hosts who for whatever reasons think adding music to their narration about aviation and dominoes and home repairs is helpful. It is not. It is useless to the video. Unless you're doing a music video or a dance video we don't need to have music constantly playing while folks are talking. So for this series it is also annoying.

Another thing: why is everything (well, in the first 2 episodes at least that I've watched), always a tight schedule? Did the truckers let their clients dictate the time-line? Oh, gee, we need it here in 24 or 48 hours (or whatever). Well, plan it better, so you give yourself another day in case things (like your drivers timing out) go haywire. As for drivers timing out, why not have the 2nd driver with you so you can make it within the time limit? And, yes, I realize you're not driving some little truck, so may be it's not a good thing to be driving in the overnight hours.

All that being said, it's still a good series. What with Ice Road Truckers and Outback Truckers, it's nice another series about not-so-common trucking jobs.

For the record, I'm watching on amazon prime.

23October2023.