CINEMAS ON TRAINS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22777, 10 July 1937, Page 12

CINEMAS ON TRAINS

[ENTERTAINING PASSENGERS POPULARITY IN ENGLAND A regular film show on an 80-miles ftn'hour English railway express has now passed its second anniversary. The first cinema coach, designed by the chief mechanical engineer of the L.N.E.R., came into operation in May, 1935. It proved an instantaneous success with passengers, and one year later a second coach was added. Now, these two travelling cinemas operate 10 times a day, and on special exclusion trains on Sundays, on the Leeds-London and Don-caster-London runs. /The cinema car is long and wellraked. The seats are arranged in pairs on each side of a central gangway. The screen is of ground glass: the pictures hack-projected from an operating van immediately behind the engine. The show begins with the L.N.E.R. trade mark,.four engines, rushing toward the camera. News and variety follow. The image is steady and impeccable. The sound-proofed car gives only a fleeting sense of tunnel and engine rushing by. There is little vibration. The idea of the cinema car was conceived by Sir Halph Wedgwood, chief general manager of the system. Kight years ago he planned the cocktail bar, still running, on the Flying Scotsman. Since that time the L.N.E.R. has experimented with various social services for its passengers. Hairdressing saloons and showerbaths on sleeping cars; writing rooms tmd ladies' retiring rooms; wireless receiving sets, with plugs for headphones beside each seat; loud-speakers broadcasting events like the Derby; a dictaphone and secretarial service on business trains—these services were largely in tile nature oi experiments, and several of them have come and gone. The cinema car, however, has come and stayed