British Transport Films Movies

Blue Pullman is a 1960 short documentary film directed by James Ritchie, which follows the development, preparation and a journey from Manchester to London on new British Railways Blue Pullman units. As with earlier British Transport Films, many of the personnel, scientists, engineers, crew and...

Thirty Million Letters is a 1963 short documentary film directed by James Ritchie and made by British Transport Films. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

Documentary from British Transport Films

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...

A poet's eulogy to his beloved mode of transport.

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

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.

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

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...

Short film about the upgrades and technological improvements on the British railways.

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

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

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;...

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...

The people of the Scottish Highlands live in small communities set in landscapes of unsurpassed beauty.

A transformer weighing 123 tons has to be moved to a remote site in Blaenau Ffestiniog. This documents its movement by rail and road.

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.

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

The re-signalling of 1000 track miles from the River Weaver to the Clyde brings the whole line from London to Glasgow under one system of push-button control and colour light signals, and completes the main line electrification. The film follows the intricate production of equipment, and its...

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...