British Transport Films

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.

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 passengers were featured in the 20 minute film. It won several awards, including the Technical & Industrial Information section of the Festival for Films for Television in 1961. The film is also particularly noted for its score, by Clifton Parker, which, unlike the earlier Elizabethan Express is uninterrupted by any commentary.

A BAFTA award winning documentary focussing on how drivers are trained to drive new electric trains in the UK.

Intended for European audiences to encourage them to drive to Britain for their holidays. Shows the travel facilities offered by Sealink, and suggests some of Britain's tourist attractions.

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.

A compilation film on the recent technical achievements of British Rail; made for screening in Washington on the signing of the 'Budd' contract. Material obtained from various BTF films directed and shot by others.

"Rail" captures British Railways at a major turning-point in its history. In certain respects, this was a period of considerable upheaval and loss. There was a facing-up to the increasing need for a big modernisation drive. Full and speedy electrification, or the wider promotion of diesel-power on remaining lines, became a matter of top priority. Geoffrey Jones recorded a rapidly disappearing world of everyday steam travel, with its labour-intensive rail workforce : some of the footage in "Rail" (recognisable from "Snow") dates from around 1962.

A short documentary about the transportation of goods and livestock by train around the UK.

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

The story of a journey from the Yorkshire Dales to Switzerland via Dover and France, made by a party of schoolgirls showing how British rail contributes to a smooth, comfortable journey.

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 eight to eleven-year old children and their parents, which points out the folly of breaking railway fences and trespassing on the line, and illustrates the immediate dangers. Part of BFI collection "The Age of the Train".

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.

A cautionary tale of a typical holiday suitcase. Crammed beyond its capacity, imperfectly fastened, inadequately and confusedly labelled, the railways transport it from station to station, seeking its true abode. Finally, one of its owners comes to the nightmare tribunal where those who maltreat their luggage are dealt with. Did it happen? Was it a dream? Be warned. See this film. Avoid making yours 'a desperate case'.

A look at the 1953 transport infrastructure of York.

All freight movements over Britain's rail network are monitored and controlled by an advanced computer-based system known as TOPS (Total Operations Processing System). The film follows the progress of a wagon load of equipment from Truro to the Midlands and shows how TOPS makes it possible to accommodate a last minute change of plan.

A group of workers from a Leicester shoe-making company travel down south for a day in the Smoke.

The holiday attractions of the Lancashire coast, including a beauty contest in Morecambe, Southport flower show and Blackpool Fun Fair.

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.

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.

Examines Britian's industrial heritage, concentrating on the period between 1708 and 1850, and showing many examples of surviving relics of the period.