Another volume of highlights from the 1950s and 1960s television series. Here we see the best of French steam, the route from Helsinki to the Artic Circle, and the famous Orient Express from Paris to Athens.
Peter Woods
as Narrator
In 1906, the Arlberg Railway, which connects the Austrian cities of Innsbruck and Bludenz, is the only east-west mountain railway in Austria. This 340-second "ghost railroad ride" shows the view from the back of a train, though I'm not sure if it's heading east or west. This kind of film, in vogue at the time, is an intermediate form of short reality, which often showed a train engaging in a bend, and a feature documentary. Its editing is live, linear and temporal, and the cuts are very apparent. Indeed, the choices of where to place the cuts seem to have avoided the less populated stretches. There are plenty of buildings to see, even when the train is not at the station.
This documentary short offers a nostalgic look at the steam locomotive as it passes from reality to history. In its heyday, the big smoke-belching steam engine seemed immortal. Now, powerful and efficient diesels are pushing the old coal-burning locomotives to the sidelines, and the lonely echo of their whistles may soon be a thing of the past.
Part-fiction documentary into the New Silk Road. AAA Cargo traces the anticipation of infrastructure and trade on a planetary scale, following its distribution networks which are expanding across vast regions between China and Europe. Here, government efforts to speed up the movement of trade collide with more-than-human choreographies of sand, people and goods.
Another volume of highlights from the 1950s and 1960s television series about the vanishing train lines. Here a bevvy of beautiful locomotives take the enthusiast back in time, including a journey from Ryde to Ventnor and the chance to take a spin on the Cumbrian Coast Express.
First volume of highlights from the 1950s and 1960s television series about the vanishing train lines. Here you have a chance to see the Bristol line as it looked during 1958.
Take an epic overland train, boat and car journey through New Zealand’s breathtaking landscapes. The voyage begins in Auckland, but the city soon gives way to rolling pastures, volcanic extremes, tranquil waterways, the snowcapped grandeur of the Southern Alps and the beauty of Fiordland.
Another volume of highlights from the 1950s and 1960s television series about the vanishing train lines. Here you have a chance to relive some of the great trains of the past, featuring a visit to Perth Shed and trains at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
An intimate insight into the servant culture and lifestyle of the Viceroy of India and family, as they visit Simla (Shimla) and Lahore.
This compilation of footage from the BBC television series 'Railway Roundabout' features archive material from the 1960s, supplied by the National Railway Museum, York. Railway artist Terence Cuneo is seen at work, and there is also film of the Talyllyn and Ffestioniog lines.
Another volume of highlights from the 1950s and 1960s television series about the vanishing train lines. Here you have a chance to relive some of the great train journeys in this nostalgic trip which looks at the closing of the Wye Valley, and includes a trip on the 'Brighton Belle' and a visit to King's Cross shed.
Another volume of highlights from the 1950s and 1960s television series about the vanishing train lines. Includes a journey from Bath to Evercreech Junction; the last train from Bala to Ffestiniog; the Lancashire and Yorkshire Special and the Severn and Wye in the Forest of Dean. Welsh narrow gauge highlights are also featured in addition to the locomotives of London Transport and Swindon.
When the first railroads were built some two hundred years ago, they brought about a revolutionary change for mankind, linking cities and countryside, driving the industrial revolution and irrevocably changing the landscape: a history of the railroad from its beginnings to the present day.
