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in: The Dark Railway Series, Specials

Pilots (remake)

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Pilots
Director(s)

Thomas Dibden

Producer(s)

Thomas Dibden

Writer(s)

Thomas Dibden

Narrator

Thomas Dibden

Air date

24th March 2016 (original)
16th February 2018 (HD)

Previous episode

You Bang Snowploughs

Next episode

Mere Anarchy

Pilots is a special episode and a remake of the first episode of The Dark Railway Series.

Plot[]

The audience is introduced to the Dark Railway, a privately owned railway in Kent, and two of its locomotives, Dave and Brian. The pair are discussing where they are sleeping tonight when a large diesel engine, Raymond, backs into the shed. Brian leaves shortly afterwards, leaving Dave and Raymond alone together. The conversation turns to Dave's upcoming date, which then turns to the attractiveness of diesels and then Bulleid designs.

As they are talking, a Bulleid Pacific named Sir Eustace Missenden arrives. He immediately begins intimidating Raymond and boasting about his importance. As the two engines begin to argue about a manager's special, Dave also leaves the shed to take a goods train. The argument becomes more heated when Mr. Dark, the railway's manager, arrives and reveals that they will be double heading the train, much to their dismay. As they prepare the train, the two engines argue about which engine should pilot the train, but Raymond eventually does. The train soon departs, with the two engines continuing to bicker as they continue along the line.

Eventually, the train reaches Upway bank. By now, Eustace is low on steam and as they begin climbing, Raymond starts to ease off to let Eustace prove his point that he is reliable, leaving him struggling and demanding assistance. His driver asks more politely, and Raymond restarts, allowing them to top the bank and continue to Merecombe. When they arrive, Eustace apologises to Raymond, who accepts, jokingly saying that it proves his point that diesels are superior. The next morning, Eustace meets Dave at the junction, and after a brief discussion about Raymond, admit their worries regarding their futures as working engines.

Characters[]

Locations[]

Trivia[]

  • The special initally premiered exclusively for contributors to the Patreon campaign on March 19th, 2016.
  • This remake was created as part of Dark DJ's Patreon campaign to raise money for a new computer. The episode was a reward that would be given once the campaign had reached $50. Contributors to the campaign were acknowleged in the credits.
  • The special was subsequently re-filmed on the new DDJP computer, "The Black Knight", in February 2018. It later premiered on the 16th of that month after being aired exclusively for patrons a week earlier.
  • This remake is not intended to be a reboot of The Dark Railway Series and is a standalone recreation of the first episode.
  • This remake rectifies numerous mistakes that the original episode had, such as Eustace and Raymond having the correct liveries, numbers and voices, and the portion of the original where the recording software cut out being readded. In addition, numerous scenes have been added, such as a proper introduction to the railway and its locomotives, along with clearer references to things that would later occur in Series 1, such as Dave's relationship with Leanne.

Goofs[]

  • The narrator mentions that Dave and Brian arrived on the railway in 1968, despite the episode taking place in 1960. This was due to an audio error, which was rectified in an annotation on the official video. This error was fully rectified in the HD version.
  • At Walschurch station, a person can be seen sunken into the platform rather than standing on it. This error was rectified in the HD version.

Episode[]

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