British Transport Films Collection

A Central Office of Information film made by the Crown Film Unit in 1947 illustrating the scope of London Transport activities at their most extensive including bus, underground, trams and trollybuses.

This film is shown to all new recruits to London Transport's canteen service. It opens by revealing the complexity of the canteen organisation. After this, conditions of work in various canteens are contrasted and explained, the aims of training are dealt with, and the new employees are shown how they should fit in with their fellow canteen workers. Advice is given about coping with some of the difficulties which arise on the job, and the film ends by emphasising the importance to transport workers of efficient and friendly canteens.

Part 1 : Chiswick - On The Skid Patch describes a visit by BBC Television to the bus-drivers' training ground when new cars from the Motor Show were demonstrated to viewers. Part 2 : Overhaul At Acton shows how London Transport trains are stripped, cleaned, examined and made ready for another period of service. Part 3 : Croydon Food Production Centre shows how food is prepared in quantity for London Transport canteens

Strategically sited throughout London Transport's railway system, at immediate call, are Power Signal Linemen, ready to put right any faults that may occur. The film, which is part of London Transport's training course for power signal linemen, shows a possible fault, and how the lineman makes repairs. It emphasises the conditions of urgency and stress under which a lineman must work, and the patient, methodical skill he must nevertheless bring to any problem if it is to be solved successfully as well as speedily.

Day in, day out, throughout the year, the passengers on London's buses and Underground leave behind them enough property to keep a large staff of sorters and storemen permanently busy and often amused. How the lost property is collected, sorted, warehoused and, in most cases, restored to its forgetful owners is shown in this film which reveals an unusual aspect of London Transport's service to the travelling public, gaily described by John Slater

The London street would be colourless and incomplete without the world-famous red buses. Less well known is the means by which standards of service are maintained, and this film shows the rationalised dismantling and re-integration of 44 buses each week at London Transport's Aldenham Works. One of the most up-to-date plants of its kind in the world. Alderham maintains by flow-process techniques the world's largest fleet of 7,500 buses.

After the last train at night and before the first in the morning, 800 heroes are hard at work making London's Underground fit for people like you and me to travel on, and taking in their stride (and having plenty to say about it) a broken rail discovered at 3.30am.

A day-long look at that vast undertaking, London Transport, and at all those - commuters, shoppers, excursionists, theatregoers, and the rest - who rely upon it. This is a film about London as seen by London Transport. Starting at dawn we see the slow build-up to rush hour and afterwards the mid-morning lull. The scene changes to Saturday afternoon, the hurly-burly of sport and pastime, then on to the evening gaiety of the West End, while below the surface men are tunnelling the new tube line from Victoria to Walthamstow

Just off the High Road at Chiswick is the works where all engines, electrical and mechanical parts from London Transport buses are completely reconditioned and given new life after years of arduous service. A multiplicity of engineering processes and skills are combined into an efficient and tightly economic operation which keeps London's bus fleet on the move

An animated short film explaining how to use new automatic fare barriers

The complete network of Underground and Bus routes that keep 'London on the move'. A big industry with big problems as the working population and the volume of traffic grows. This film gives some insight into how London Transport is facing a busy future.

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.

A film produced to mark the 150th anniversary of the first London Omnibus. It traces the origins and development of the London Omnibus, taking us on a journey which starts with George Shillibeer's elegant three-horse bus in 1829 and leads through the years to the familiar red double-deckers of today.