1975: Colonel Campbell’s PRIVATE TRAIN | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive

[@memofromessex]

FYI, the place is Plas Y Dduallt. It was on sale in 2017 for £795k.

[@OlafProt]

And apparently has the distinction of being featured in that ‘quality’ programme Most Haunted. The Colonel would be so proud 😂

[@analogueman123456787]

@@OlafProt - So proud in fact, he'd probably come back and haunt the deluded buggers! 😄

[@themadplotter]

@@OlafProtif I recall they paid rather well for some of the locations, in the thousands 😮 although in some cases that meant buying out a whole hotel 😂

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

For sale not on sale

[@paulregeli6464]

How wonderful to see this. Andrew and Mary Campbell were my aunt and uncle. I would often spend school holidays with them when my parents were abroad. Andrew was on Crete in WW2 and latterly was a judge advocate in Palestine. My father, who was in the RAF, was posted to Cyprus at the same time as Andrew. My mother, an artist herself, and Mary would spend days on painting expeditions with together around Limassol. I have a portrait of my mother painted by Mary hanging on our stairwell. At one point, Andrew had a home made cable car ( co-built with the help of an American guest) to take the shopping from his platform down to the house! Yes, he did help with the blasting for the deviation and would sometimes keep sticks of gelignite in a dresser in the dining room, much to the consternation of dinner guests when he revealed them with a flourish! Without giving too much away, the blasting didn't always go quite to plan! They were wonderful people, like second parents to me. How wonderful to see them remembered here.

[@benji.B-side]

Fantastic story, great to know. 😊

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

Where are they now? How old were they here? Why did they not have a road? Where is the house now?

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

From Wikipedia: The Colonel allowed the use of his outhouses for hostel accommodation for volunteers. He was a licensed explosives handler and as a volunteer he did much of the rock blasting required on the spiral section of the deviation and beyond. A slate seat has been erected at Dduallt in his memory. You made out he was a madman who just had explosives lying round unlawfully.

[@Alan_GA]

Mighty good of you to share that splendid story.

[@callumhardy5098]

Absolutely extraordinary! And what a stunning house, I wonder if anybody still lives there today?

[@Joedirt3349]

National Trust

[@daviddixey]

The Colonel and his Lady Wife of course!!

[@bokhans]

@@daviddixey for your information. Colonel Andrew Campbell born 1911 was 64 at the time of filming and died in 1982! 🤦‍♂️

[@mekonta]

Google Map link - maps.app.goo.gl/vnCGLmVohGZvE7AUA?g_st=ic Map Coordinates (52.9570481, -3.9764543)

[@mekonta]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%27s_Platform_railway_station

[@analogueman123456787]

Utterly charming.

[@daviddixey]

I love these BBC Archive clips!!

[@graemejardin5569]

What a beautiful collie 04:09.

[@robinvanags912]

Beautifully composed shots in this film.

[@petergivenbless900]

Yes, the shot from the hill above the house, looking down on it, framed by the tree and one of its boughs, was striking.

[@BadgerBotherer1]

Although they obviously had rather wobbly tripods in those days!

[@geordieceltic2]

What a wonderful story. I read that he helped with the new deviation tunnel construction being built at that time.

[@BarrieHughes]

Colonel Campbell had a blasting licence and helped in the early days of the Deviation from mid 60s when he let Deviationists stay in his cowshed.

[@Snaptophobic]

Did Nationwide ever do any filming in the summer? It’s like it’s permanent winter during the 1970s!

[@spidyman8853]

70s..... The winter of discontent..... grey and miserable

[@Snaptophobic]

@@spidyman8853 I don’t disagree, but I grew up in the 70s. We did get summers, leaves on trees, that sort of thing! It just struck me almost every report retrieved from the archives seems to have been filmed in the dead of winter. Perhaps BBC film crews just preferred the shorter days. 😆

[@spidyman8853]

@@Snaptophobic I know matey. I was being sarcastic..... 😂😂

[@fredo1070]

@@Snaptophobic We only had one summer in the 1970s the Summer of 76. the rest rained. Kagools for August.

[@Snaptophobic]

@@fredo1070 76 was the year my parents decided we’d go to the south of France for better weather!

[@lifegenius763]

What a delightful archive 😊 so quintessentially 70s..loved watching it 🙏

[@fredo1070]

What a lovely documentary

[@patrickcrowther9195]

Absolutely wonderful. I never appreciated these films at the time as I was too young. But now their quiet poetry puts modern television to shame. PLEASE someone authorise some Nationwide DVDs! BFI?

[@RustyPetterson]

Mrs Campbell sparking up for the journey, a woman after my own heart lol 🔥😀

[@spidyman8853]

The colonel has seen WW2 and the atrocities of WW2 and has retired in a nice wooded area. Good on him.

[@olavwilhelm6843]

he also might has caused atrocities like the unnecessary bombing of Dresden

[@analogueman123456787]

@@olavwilhelm6843 - Seriously...? Unbelievable comment...

[@TomTomicMic]

​​@@olavwilhelm6843 Germany did far worse to more cities and people, and they started it, and unless you have the facts don't dish out tripe, according to your logic everybody in the allies is a war criminal, Dresden was a military communications target and just treated as another part of the Nazi war machine, the Nazis were the bad guys!?!

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

​@@analogueman123456787he's probably a nazi sympathesier

[@hilaryepstein6013]

Apparantly this train line was used by Oliver Postgate for Ivor the Engine.

[@tl50camiva]

Shades of Kenneth More & Lauren Bacall 🙂 A charming film though, good on the Colonel and his lady wife.

[@086DEN]

Excellent

[@Steve14ps]

I am told that there is now road access (of sorts) to this house

[@lifesabeach20]

Yes a tarmac road now & a public footpath goes right past the house 👍

[@Steve14ps]

@@lifesabeach20 I think I would prefer the train

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

There is. But the owners do have exclusive private use of the railway platform still! You don’t have to be told, you can view it on Google maps and you can look it up online. Plenty of photos

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

@@Steve14psit’s not practical and not good in case of emergencies. Stop romanticising it. It’s good there’s road access. The railway is good for leisure.

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

@@algrant5293it is NOT a shame. How on earth would anyone get any help if you needed the emergency services? 😒😡 it’s a good thing. Look it up, the property still has the private use of Campbell’s Platform which is a luxury, but the practicality of a road which everyone needs

[@pauladaniels-bc7rj]

What a sweet little fairytale house they have ❤❤ is it still standing today I wonder 🌸🌿🌸🌿..........x

[@AtheistOrphan]

Someone said it sold in 2017 for £795k.

[@mekonta]

Google Map link - maps.app.goo.gl/vnCGLmVohGZvE7AUA?g_st=ic Map Coordinates (52.9570481, -3.9764543)

[@mekonta]

Map coordinates and article links en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%27s_Platform_railway_station

[@pauladaniels-bc7rj]

@@AtheistOrphan thanks for the information 🙂🌸 x

[@shamrockshore6308]

If that's a little house, I'd like to see what you consider big.

[@mrdelaney4440]

Best of british for sure, love it.

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

There is car access now. But the owners still have a private platform and are honorary stationmasters.

[@mekonta]

Campbell’s Station Map coordinates and article links en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%27s_Platform_railway_station

[@BenNZ-j9n]

Does the place still exist

[@AtheistOrphan]

Someone said it sold in 2017 for £795k.

[@mekonta]

Google Map link - maps.app.goo.gl/vnCGLmVohGZvE7AUA?g_st=ic Map Coordinates (52.9570481, -3.9764543)

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

Yes Google it

[@mattsparling9843]

@BBC Archive. Frank Bough?

[@DDandrums]

Bob Wellings.

[@analogueman123456787]

You'd need something with a few 'ladies of the night' and some lines of Columbian marching powder for old Frank... 😄

[@professormcclaine5738]

​@@analogueman123456787Bough partying like an MP.

[@analogueman123456787]

@@professormcclaine5738 - LOL! And then some. It killed his career, and was manna from heaven for the tabloids of the day.

[@davidbarnes241]

The last of the Raj.

[@RealcFranklin]

This dude got privet train while I am still live at my parents place 😂

[@Joedirt3349]

Not your fault mate!

[@spidyman8853]

Living not live

[@spidyman8853]

I know what you mean, it's not fair on the Young. This is the product of previous governments that have constantly failed to make housing affordable to the young in this day and age compared to 30+ years ago. It's not fair and not right. I feel you pain.

[@kevinhall7518]

Had

[@analogueman123456787]

Privet...??? You're hedging your bets with that spelling...

[@whatamalike]

Then he was pulled out of retirement for the outer heaven, zanzibar land and shadow moses campaigns. Poor chap

[@stugill4513]

only the british could live like this i love it

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

It isn’t like that now.

[@atmakali9599]

It’s mean not to let the migrants stay there. They could help enrich the area.

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

That's probably in the works, as per coundenhove kalegeri plan

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

Coundenhove kalegeri plan will see to that

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

LMAO

[@diabolicalartificer]

@@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044 "Coundenhove kalegeri plan will see to that" There's always one. Every old 1970's program has a far right nutcase espousing that the 1970's were Utopia, when everyone was White, sung Rule Britannia before breakfast & men could call women birds and ogle their tits, going cwor, "knockers!" whilst laughing like schoolboys.