British Transport Films

Continuing the study of the normal tasks performed by a permanent-way gang, this film deals with the maintenance of switches, common crossings and obtuse crossings. These are the fundamental units from which all track layouts, however complicated are built up.

Young Robbie, a keen footballer and a railway enthusiast, is persuaded by his big brother to go through a hole in a railway fence on to the track for some reason. His laces become caught on the tracks and he has an accident so serious that he will never play football again. A film for showing to eight to eleven-year old children and their parents, which points out the folly of breaking railway fences and trespassing on the line, and illustrates the immediate dangers. Part of BFI collection "The Age of the Train".

Southampton, a deep-water port with four tides a day, is an ocean terminal for the world's largest liners. Their coming and going, and the people who work with them are the subject of this film as they reflect in their personal lives some of the drama and romance of its situation. Among them are a tug skipper and his crew, a stewardess on a Cape ship, an assistant wharfinger in charge of handling baggage and freight, a taxi driver, and a pilot taking a great liner down Southampton water at night.

This fly on the wall-style documentary from 1961 won an Oscar for best documentary, and shows the changing patterns of human emotions during 24 hours in the life of Waterloo Station.

When a schoolboy's day-dream of a fantasy sports day includes events where acts of vandalism and trespass are required, dire consequences ensue. Originally created as an educational film, this somewhat surrealist short has a serious message at its core. This won't be a lesson you'll forget in a hurry.

Sussex - A country rich in scenic beauty and history. South Down and Weald - open space and green woodland. This is Sussex, a county rich in scenic beauty, seaside resorts and international events; peaceful downland villages and fertile weald. History shows itself everywhere, right back to the threshold of legend - The Long Man of Wilmington and Chanctonbury Ring. All this the traveller can see and enjoy, together with the present-day delights of, for example, the Petworth Show, Goodwood Races, polo at Cowdray Park, Glyndebourne, and the fun of the Sussex coast.

A British Transport Film.

The Channel Islands have had a varied and exciting history. Jersey and Guernsey are ideal places for holidays. Jersey offers a wide variety of attractive bays for sport and relaxation; Guernsey still preserves something of an eighteenth-century atmosphere, and is a place for quieter enjoyment. It is an ideal centre for exploring the other smaller islands, and the film ends with a journey by boat to Herm.

Made for senior and middle British Rail management and supervisory staff, to stimulate discussion and provoke action, by alerting them to their responsibilities for staff safety, and the pressing need to reduce accident figures.

The British Railways modernisation programme of the 1960s radically changed the rail network, and the British Transport Films unit and the TV news were there to capture it. Compiled here is never before released colour footage of Southern steam at Waterloo (with Nine Elms depot), all the major London stations, The Blue Pullman and early diesels, The Golden Arrow and Night Ferry service, goods and mail, steam on the Metropolitan Railway and building the Victoria Line.

First transmitted in 1969, this documentary follows the construction of the world’s most advanced underground system. Macdonald Hastings narrates the story of one of the most complex tunnel engineering feats of its time. He reveals the isolation felt by the miners who spent six years burrowing deep beneath the streets of London, shows what they did beneath one of London's most famous department stores and explains why the ground at Tottenham Court Road had to be frozen during the hottest weeks of 1966. The result is a brave new world of transport with automated trains, two way mirrors, automatic fare collection and closed-circuit television, all choreographed by a computer programme played out by an updated version of a pianola located in a control room somewhere near Euston station.

Lost, Stolen, Damaged - the constant £2 million a year problem of claims against British Railways is debated in this film, in which railwaymen, transport police and businessmen put their different points of view vividly and sometimes provocatively.

A short documentary about the transportation of goods and livestock by train around the UK.

Light verse and gay music make their own comment on the holidaymakers of the Yorkshire coastline. Between Tees and Humber thousands each year enjoy the sea and the sands, the funfair and the ballroom: for a row or romance, there's something for each!

Dr Beeching, Chairman of the British Transport Commission, sits at a desk addressing workers. Intended to be shown before a programme of other British Transport films.

The holiday attractions of the Lancashire coast, including a beauty contest in Morecambe, Southport flower show and Blackpool Fun Fair.

"Rail" captures British Railways at a major turning-point in its history. In certain respects, this was a period of considerable upheaval and loss. There was a facing-up to the increasing need for a big modernisation drive. Full and speedy electrification, or the wider promotion of diesel-power on remaining lines, became a matter of top priority. Geoffrey Jones recorded a rapidly disappearing world of everyday steam travel, with its labour-intensive rail workforce : some of the footage in "Rail" (recognisable from "Snow") dates from around 1962.

Originally intended as an advertising short, this film follows The Elizabethan, a non-stop British Railways service from London to Edinburgh along the East Coast Main Line. A nostalgic record of the halcyon years of steam on British Railways and the ex-LNER Class A4.

The Peak District waits invitingly within a sixty-mile reach of half the population of England. To this green centre of a great industrial area, the first of the National Parks, holidaymakers come throughout the year to enjoy a wide variety of scenery and of pastimes. Some visitors come to glide, others to go ‘caving’ or climbing, boating or fishing. The lovely surroundings vary from the windy flat tops of heath with their rocky outcrops to the lush, sheltered dales of the Manifold, the Derwent and the Dove; from the simple stone cottages of the quiet villages to the historic architecture of Ashbourne, Bakewell and Buxton, and the great houses of the past like Chatsworth and Haddon Hall.

A film looking at the first 100 years of the Underground Railway in London from 1863 to 1963. A range of well known people and senior managers speak alongside some excellent archive film.