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British Transport Films Collection (Vol 4): Reshaping British Railways
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Our DVD Price: £15.99 RRP: 
Availability In Stock - should be despatched within 24 hours. This product will be dispatched from Guernsey. Delivery times
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Film Description
A fourth collection of films showing off Britain's wonderful heritage of archive films selected from the British Transport Films archive. Features Work In Progress (1951), Wash And Brush Up (1953), A Place In The Team (1953), Service For Southend (1957), Diesel Train Ride (1959), Let's Go To Birmingham (1962), Reshaping British Railways (1963), Forward To First Principles (1966), Freight And A City (1966), Second Nature (1967), The New Tradition (1968), Plumb-Loco (1971), This Year By Rail (1972) and Overture One-Two-Five (1978).
Film Information
| Director | Various / Documentary | ||||
| Genre | Documentary
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| Country | UK | Language | ENGLISH | Year | 1951-78 |
DVD Extras
2 discs.
Technical Details
| Certificate | E | Length | 247 mins | Label | BFI | ||
| Cat No | BFIVD743 | Format | DVD | Colour | |||
| Region | 2 | Aspect | 1.33:1 Full Screen | ||||
Share your thoughts and opinions - write a review
Review by Graeme Hobbs on 6th November 2006
Following on from the three highly desirable previous collections in this series - On and Off the Rails, See Britain by Train and Running a Railway - this fourth batch of British Transport Films from the National Film and Television Archive concentrates on the great changes to the network that took place through the 1950s and 60s.
Following the 1955 Modernisation Plan, steam was giving way to electric and diesel locomotives (Service for Southend) but it was apparent that more radical measures had to be taken to save an organisation that was losing enough money 'to put ninepence on the income tax'. Step forward Dr Beeching who, in Reshaping British Railways, presents the logic behind his sweeping proposals to close unprofitable branch lines. 'On one half of the whole route mileage of the British Railways, there is only one-twentieth of the traffic' he announces, and his vision is to shape the railway as part of a 'national transport system' with roads and buses taking up the passengers.
There was frequently an element of enjoyable quirkiness to British Transport Films. It's represented here by Diesel Trainride, a jaunty, charming piece that takes a child's eye view of a ride on a new diesel train, and Let's go to Birmingham, which was BTF's first attempt at a novelty 'high-speed' film, in which the viewer travels from London to Birmingham at a touch under 1,000 mph. If Lumière's train arriving at a station caused consternation among the audience, this would surely have provoked seizures.
Of special note too are the two compositions of music and image that demonstrate some of the Unit’s experimental freedom. The introduction of the Intercity 125 service is celebrated in Overture: One-Two-Five, in which John Gow's specially-composed music is matched to an impressionistic series of images, while Plumb-Loco details the precision manufacturing of new locomotives in a film that recalls the industrial shorts of Geoffrey Jones.
View more reviews by Graeme Hobbs
Article - "Not all about trains! The wider world of British Transport Films"
by Graeme Hobbs
Friday 13th July 2007
After discussing British Transport Films with colleagues recently, I was struck by their general opinion that they must be all about trains. Many of them of course are – British Railways was BTF's biggest customer from the early 1950s to the time of the Unit's closur... View article in full
Article - "Night Mails"
by Graeme Hobbs
Friday 8th February 2008
One of the most famous productions of British documentary film, Night Mail, was recently treated to a restoration which has been released on dvd by the bfi in a comprehensive and pleasing package which also features four associated films which provide a stimul... View article in full
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This film is part of the following Film Collections
Including: All That Mighty Heart, British Buses - The Golden Years, British Transport Films Collection (Vol 1): On and Off the Rails, British Transport Films Collection (Vol 2): See Britain by Train, British Transport Films Collection (Vol 3): Running a Railway, British Transport Films Collection (Vol 4): Reshaping British Railways, Farewell To The Routemaster - The Last Days Of The Famous London Bus, Fred Dibnahs World Of Steel, Steam And Stone Part 1 & 2, Geoffrey Jones: The Rhythm of Film, Metro-Land.
This film is part of the following Customer Film Lists
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