British Transport Films Collection

The true story of a farmer who decided to sell his land in Yorkshire and move his entire stock - cattle, pigs and poultry, machinery, ploughs and tractors - south to Sussex by rail in December, on - as it turned out - the coldest night of the year.

Of the 51,000 miles of railway lines in Britain, over 1,800 miles are renewed every year. No longer is each rail manhandled by the men of the permanent way. Mobile cranes remove the old track, complete with sleepers, and replace it with prefabricated lengths. This has made the work less arduous, and the period during which the line is closed to traffic is considerably shortened. This account of the work as seen from the point of view of the crane inspector

How an express freight train links manufacturers with their customers at the other end of Britain. The fast moving fully fitted freight train, the 4.48 pm Bristol to Leeds, provides a typical example of merchandise being transported at high speed by British Railways. We learn something, too, about the men who do the work as well as the goods they handle.

British Railways of the future and some of the opportunities they will provide as a result of the modern equipment and methods being intruduced in signalling, in marshalling yards and goods depots, in mechanised track-laying and in diesel and electric traction.

With this film, we are taken into the traditional exciting world of railway Civil Engineering. Here we see a length of rail heated until, quite suddenly and dramatically, it buckles. There, a bridge is tested for metal fatigue. The film shows some of the opportunities which British Railways Modernisation is providing for the young Civil Engineer

... and a hungry litter basket, what's more. Every day, the people who use railway stations drop hundreds of tons of litter all over the place, while me and my mates have to stand by, empty and starving. Until, one day, we get so desperate, we go foraging for ourselves. And what happens? Take a look at this film. It makes me weep to think of it. I nearly gave up all hope, untill - but wait and see! This heart-cry by Steward McAllister on behalf of the world's litter-baskets is a tiny masterpiece.

A model of the proposed Terminal which will serve the Channel Tunnel demonstrates the facilities it will offer and show the possibilities of an age-old dream, a dry land crossing between England and France.

On the concourse and platforms of a large railway station you can hear the rhythm of the city and watch the most poignant moments of private lives become public property: grief and joy, meeting and parting, high comedy and near tragedy. Here, for a brief moment, the traveller may confront the station staff with a personal crisis while his neighbour looks on, or passes by to catch a train. To the accompaniment of Ron Grainer's music, and Julian Cooper's songs, this film captures the atmosphere of London's Waterloo station.

Sam Smith is taught to drive an electric locomotive. He learns the new job without difficulty, but one day his train breaks down and Sam summons up three sides of his character to deal with the emergency: 'First Sam' couldn't care less; 'Second Sam' flies into a terrible panic; but 'Third Sam' solves the problem!

With your head still bursting with trains and people asking you a question every minute, it isn't always easy to remember that passengers are people. But when, through the eye of an often candid camera, you see yourself dealing with them, it is only too obvious that they are - 'people like us'.

Robert Stephenson's Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1970. The reconstruction of the bridge, with steel arches supporting and eventually replacing Stephenson's wrought iron tubes, is the subject of this film.

An account, in human and non-technical terms, of the electrification of the West Coast main line railway from Crewe to Glasgow; the logical completion of the Liverpool-Manchester-London electrification of 1966

London Bridge is the oldest of London's railway stations and the focal point for a great complex of suburban and coastal services covering the South East. A film showing reconstruction of the station and its approaches to provide easier, more reliable services for the thousands of people who travel by way of London Bridge

An account of the development of British Rail's experimental Advanced Passenger Train, designed to run at speeds of up to 155 miles per hour on existing track and to take curves some forty per-cent faster than conventional trains. The film explains in simple terms some of the many novel design features of the APT, including the guidance system, the tilt mechanism and the hydro-kinetic brake, and shows the train in action during its trials