British Transport Films

As a training exercise for their apprentice camera operators, British Transport Films used surplus roll end length of film to record the daily lives of their neighbours from the roof of their building Melbury House.

A random selection of housewives around the UK take a day off from their traditional domestic chores.

The final episode of five reports on the construction of the Victoria Line in London. This one is edited highlights from the first four with very little new information.

Everyday except Christmas London Transport run coach tours of London. The tours start from Victoria and from Piccadilly Circus; there is no booking and little waiting; they are popular with visitors of all nationalities, and they let you see the sights in comfort, though rarely with so well-orchestrated a musical accompaniment as David Fanshawe's.

‘St Christopher’s - for the children of Railway Servants’. About a hundred children are cared for at this Derby railway orphanage and this film gives a selection of scenes from a typical day: the breakfast mail, a boy with a problem, a girl with a worry, a visit from two widowers, a birthday tea party. An official insight into a forgotten aspect of railway operation.

A documentary showing aspects of long-disappeared rural life in Northumberland in 1953.

A look at British involvement in the construction of the new double-track railway from Kowloon, on Hong Kong's harbour, to the Chinese border.

A review of innovation and development within BR and its businesses, including: modernisation of freight facilities and service to new companies; progress of the Bedford/St. Pancras electrification project; paved track and permanent way maintenance; Sealink's "Galloway Princess"; Seaspeed's SRN4; and the Research department's magnetically levitated vehicle. For general showing.

A romantic overview of England in the Elizabethan Age.

Promotional tourist film, presenting a history of Britain concentrating on landscape and Inter-City travel.

A fond farewell to London's trams - whose peculiarly endearing qualities were discovered only at the threat of their disappearance.

Kay Mander kept training and social issues to the fore in the 1940s with her innovative documentaries. Mander, now living in Kirkcudbrightshire, recalls her life and work, with clips from many of her films.

The Cotswolds are the largest areas of Britain, stretching over a hundred miles from Chipping Camden to the city of Bath.

The operation of the London Transport central Lost Property Office at Baker Street. Collected in BFI's "London on the Move."

Short documentary hymning the wonders of 'modernisation' on the railways.

Based on the sequence of events which led to the deaths of two young trackmen, concluding with an enquiry into the reasons why they were killed. Intended for railway staff responsible for track maintenance, particularly those in supervisory grades.

How the London Transport Board, with the aid of modern technology, is tackling the problems brought about by an ever increasing volume of traffic. Collected in BFI's "London on the Move."

A compilation film about the complex railway systems of Great Britain, demonstrating the work and individual responsibilities of many departments.

A day in the life of London and the Home Counties in 1962, seen from the perspective of the use of London Transport facilities from buses and tubes to long distance coach routes, accompanied by extracts from BBC radio.

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.