Comprising train and track footage quickly shot just before a heavy winter's snowfall was melting, the multi-award-winning classic that emerged from the cutting-room compresses British Rail's dedication to blizzard-battling into a thrilling eight-minute montage cut to music. Tough-as-boots workers struggling to keep the line clear are counterpointed with passengers' buffet-car comforts.
Lively holiday in Blackpool, with jazz accompaniment.
The Nine Road is the busman's name for one of London's oldest and most used bus routes, running between Mortlake and Liverpool Street. The film takes us along the route on a summer's day, and shows the operation and control of the Number Nines from early morning until past midnight. Collected in BFI's "London on the Move."
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.
Report No. 11 in a series of 13 topical films. Because 1970 was European Conservation Year, this issue of the Rail Report Series was devoted to examples of what railways in Britain are doing to help conserve and improve the national environment.
In every industry men still need skill and knowledge, but the addition of a dash of imagination will often mean more pleasure from the job as well as greater efficiency. The film presents four examples: the invention of a ratchet device for turning rails; reshaping worn spanners at a locomotive works; speeding up the replacement of old escalator slats by means of an attachment to a drill; and finally, the thoughtful porter working at a country station who goes out of his way to warn a regular passenger of a change in the timetable.
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.
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.
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 Manifiold, 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.
The transporting of a distillation colurm, 137 feet long, 500 miles by road from Greenwich to Grangemouth in Scotland. The commentary, spoken by the rigger in charge and one of the tractor drivers, expresses the humour and resourcefulness with which these transport workers tackle their job; and the camera has captured moments of beauty as well as some amusing episodes in this journey of the longest load to travel by road in Britain.
Twenty-four hours in the story of the British Railways Channel ferryboats, the 'link spans' directly joining the roads and railways of Britain with those of France and all the Continent. The Lord Warden laden with an assortment of road vehicles from Dover, and the Night Ferry from Newhaven carrying passengers bound for Paris, Vienna or Rome are two of the ferries illustrated in this film; and freight is not forgotten.
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.
The film version of Dr. Richard Beeching's plan for the re-shaping of British Railways, showing some of the problems involved, the research necessary, and the answers that were produced.
A short film focusing on the account of a coaching tour told by the driver, who attempts to try to create a happy atmosphere and cement friendships.
There have been railways in this country for over three hundred years. In the nineteenth century, railways spread across Britain and changed the geography, history, economy, and the life of a nation, but already there existed primitive railways for moving coal and other minerals from the pits and quarries to navigable water and roads. This film scans the present and the past to show those economic principles governing the early railways have been rediscovered as a basis for modern freight trains.
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.
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.
Through the forward-looking windows of the new diesel multiple-unit trains reveals a new world of signs, signals and railway sights to those who ride behind the driver. For children, particularly, find this is a fascinating experience. This film communicates something of their excitement and wonder as well as some of the wry, un-conscious humour with which their pertinent and amusing questions and comments are so often interlerded.
The history of the BRS (British Road Services), the general haulage network of the UK. Part of BFI collection "Points and Aspects."
Driver Sam Smith is given the privilege of driving one of the new electric trains. But when a problem arises, it takes three very different Sams before the problem is solved.
