What a marvellous feel of Old England! Polite,funny & chirpy. Masterful. Thank you Mr.Betjeman.
@philiprufus4427 Жыл бұрын
A railway film ! Lets have some silly moronic background music !
@KieranKelly-o9s11 ай бұрын
He really was an absolute joy to listen to
@WallaseyanTube14 жыл бұрын
The joys of travel. This is the chap that saved St Pancras for us.
@HH-qm2gc4 жыл бұрын
..... also, if it had not been for him, the redevelopment of Liverpool Street would have ended up like Euston
@spanglestein663 ай бұрын
@@WallaseyanTube unlike the chap that has purchased the trocadero in Piccadilly Circus To be turned into a mosque…..surely we can’t let this happen….enough is enough
@soundnicetome12 жыл бұрын
What a refreshing change to the garbage on tv. Anything that Sir John Betjeman did was quality, far removed from what we get today which is utter rubbish.
@TaxingIsThieving4 ай бұрын
2012? Things are so much worse now.
@peters11274 жыл бұрын
Excellent old footage, I also cannot believe the Arch was torn down.
@adel3529 Жыл бұрын
Yes that stunning stone arch was pulled down. I can remember in the 1980s part of the arch was laid on the floor in the station cafe. It had been painted in gloss white paint! A double insult if ever there was one.
@OscarOSullivan Жыл бұрын
The last steam locomotive passenger service in the UK was 30th of March in 1970 in Northern Ireland hauled by NCC WT No.4 (preserved)
@paulbroderick84385 жыл бұрын
Train travel is the most restful way of observing the countryside and the cows in the field! Loved this. Thank you.
@philiprufus4427 Жыл бұрын
Nhat ! Without moronic Terpsicoria ?
@raymondrayban12 жыл бұрын
AWESOME! john if only we could go back in time ,to how it was!!!!..IF ONLY!
@angelacooper26612 ай бұрын
Unfortunately, this was at a time when my brother Anthony was a baby and I hadn't been born (August 1968). Shown in 1970, by which time I was being born!
@ketoking94356 жыл бұрын
Luv this,,reminds me of growing up back in those days,,,magical times,,,,
@briansearle41384 жыл бұрын
50's 60's 70's best times of growing up , making dens climbing trees & quarrys bird nesting ,
@martinwilde27372 жыл бұрын
Can you squeeze in the 80s as well? It wasnt bad then - compared to mad house we live in today!
@xxxchrist113 жыл бұрын
That was just great. Thanks for posting.
@jorybennett5932 Жыл бұрын
Motor rail was a brilliant concept.
@railwaystationmaster11 ай бұрын
WOW was that comment really 10 years ago ? , JB should have been Transport Minister his vision was light years ahead of Beeching and his band of assassins who hated the railway .
@Jeffybonbon13 жыл бұрын
I cant belive we pulled the Euston Arch down Whats wrong with this country
@clarepover49784 жыл бұрын
Us! Sad to see the destruction ,,,who "does" it?
@heinkle15 жыл бұрын
At least trains are as important to us now than ever before
@thesoupdragonat1213 жыл бұрын
Just wonderful.
@sleeming887 жыл бұрын
Betjeman's description of the painting of the marriage proposal was so subtle that I'd watched it three times before I realised he was rhyming.
@jettscream7 жыл бұрын
thate exhibition came to wardown park luton and my dad took me to see it i love betchxxx
@martinensor4 ай бұрын
Got this film on Super 8mm. Lovely keep sake of a golden era.
@stevedn111 жыл бұрын
Sir John Betjeman - really like his 1962 film of a train journey from Kings Lynn to Hunstanton - sadly already closed when this programme was made. Sadly in the 80s Margaret Thatcher would be a second Beeching, closing even more more railways. Now we have a "road building obsessed" Tory chancellor called Gideon George Osborne.
@7554EdwardG5 жыл бұрын
Love this valentine to the age of rail. Does anyone out there know the author of the poem John Betjeman reads at 2.11 : "She sat in a first class carriage and her questioning eyes were sweet, when her hand was asked in marriage by the youth on the opposite seat..." Maybe it's Betjeman himself?!
@JudyReadsCards4 жыл бұрын
I saw Railways for Ever on the telly at least 6 months ago and have been wondering the same thing ever since. Today I suddenly remembered it and decided to do some research, which is how I ended up here. I'm surprised to see you posed the same question only 2 weeks ago. Sadly, I haven't been able to find any reference to the poem - other than yours. 😕 I rather suspect it was penned by Betjeman just for this film, it so perfectly fits the painting.
@7554EdwardG4 жыл бұрын
@@JudyReadsCards Thanks Judy. I too had a good look on the internet to see if I could track down this poem (there are quite a few sites where you can search for a poem by the first line - or sometimes any line - but they all came up blank. I think you are correct in that he probably improvised it to give extra impetus to the railway themed painting, so we will only have the few lines - but it's still lovely at that. I think Betjeman came alive when immersed in the world of the railway. Great to see Moving Pictures TV channel give his magical films some airtime.
@7554EdwardG4 жыл бұрын
Meant "Talking Pictures" TV channel!
@JudyReadsCards4 жыл бұрын
@@7554EdwardG Ah, I knew what you meant. 😊 I love that channel.
@TheSuperHarrygeorge2 жыл бұрын
Can only assume john wrote it specifically for this documentary.
@keithbroomhall7139 Жыл бұрын
Brilliant short film, I liked the futuristic 6 car unit, and seeing it run, anyone know who made it and does it still exist?
@DoctorMeatDic Жыл бұрын
This is the poem Slough by SirJohn Betjeman, probably never been here in his life.
@philipcollier2636 жыл бұрын
Undenominational But still the church of God He stood in his conventicle And ruled it with a rod. Undenominational The walls around him rose, The lamps within their brackets shook To hear the hymns he chose. “Glory” “Gopsal” “Russell Place” “Wrestling Jacob” “Rock” “Saffron Walden” “Safe at Home” “Dorking” “Plymouth Dock” I slipped about the chalky lane That runs without the park, I saw the lone conventicle A beacon in the dark. Revival ran along the hedge And made my spirit whole When steam was on the window panes And glory in my soul.
@TankEngine755 жыл бұрын
???
@QHarefield5 жыл бұрын
@@TankEngine75 One of JB's poems; Glory, Gopsal, etc., are hymn-tune names.
@TankEngine755 жыл бұрын
@@QHarefield Ok
@spanglestein662 жыл бұрын
To lament the passing of steam in much the same way as we now lament the passing of the English way of life …..hastily thrown away in to the hands of all comers from the deepest darkest corners of the world , only to be chewed and spat ….on their grabbing and grasping way to god knows where
@steviejd5803 Жыл бұрын
Wholeheartedly agreed
@barrybarry65923 ай бұрын
Grasping grabbing hands of international financiers, 7 !
@michaelpuleston34963 ай бұрын
I would love to hear what JB would hsve made of the GWR Hitatchi trains we have to endure in the SW.
@Mike-vd7ee11 ай бұрын
When you watch something like this you do realise what a dump of a country we live in now
@granitesevan62432 жыл бұрын
And they made him a knight of the realm...
@OscarOSullivan Жыл бұрын
And was almost killed in Ireland during the 1940’s
@DoctorMeatDic Жыл бұрын
overrated....doesn't he like girls?
@OscarOSullivan Жыл бұрын
@@DoctorMeatDic Looked that up and nothing
@railwaystationmaster11 жыл бұрын
They hate anything well made , it gives them a guilty conscience .
@1258-Eckhart11 ай бұрын
This is a Betjeman quotation without the quotation marks. It was said in a vandalised GWR railway carriage.
@railwaystationmaster11 ай бұрын
Wrecked by teds from Highbridge no doubt !
@pufferkuesser977 жыл бұрын
Does someone know of the song is anywhere in the internet to hear and how the name is? Didn't find much with the title "watching the trains go out"
@leecoulson42245 жыл бұрын
Almost sounds like Jon Pertwee singing it maybe?
@AntPDC6 жыл бұрын
Sounds like Sir John's been at the helium again...
@lewis72 Жыл бұрын
0:08 "Sunday, August 11th, 1968. The very last train to operate on std gauge track hauled by a British Railways steam locomotive." - Fortunately, I don't think that that was the case !
@chrismccartney866810 ай бұрын
The HS2 cockup would make Brunel turn in his Grave !!
@ElzevereBlock4 жыл бұрын
Thanks again John for reminding us what idiots run this country.
@EastwoodBirds12 жыл бұрын
ugggh, you brits had some ugly diesels! Lovely steam locos though, you made the best ones in the world.
@Domdeone1 Жыл бұрын
Don't think John Benjamin would like HS2, concrete structures, long tunnels impersonal terminus stops all at a massive cost to the tax payer
@neilbillybob30655 жыл бұрын
Correct date was august 1968 when England felt like England, now it's a lawless third world cesspit. give you thanks for this to the British Governments.
@Bolivar2012able5 жыл бұрын
LET'S HOPE IN THE NICEST POSSIBLE WAY THAT SIR JOHN BETJEMAN IS FOREVER WRONG!
@TaxingIsThieving4 ай бұрын
Trains are faster now
@Lytton3335 жыл бұрын
And what of railways now? A sort of numbing aesthetic anaesthesia. Of course, it was always going to head that way when money forced the human race to hurtle increasingly towards absolute homogeneity.
@danw137411 жыл бұрын
I despise dr beeching.
@Mike89816 жыл бұрын
He was just doing the job he was employed to do. Many lines, which had operated since Victorian times, were loosing huge amounts of money. Remember, this was after the Second World War and the country was still recovering from massive debt. At that time, roads were considered to be the future and a stream-lined rail service was required. That is was Beeching delivered.
@TankEngine755 жыл бұрын
Who Doesn't?
@heinkle15 жыл бұрын
Mick the scrapping of the Varsity line is still felt acutely today. Try taking a 3.75 hour coach from Cambridge to Oxford.
@alantraish33683 жыл бұрын
@@Mike8981 The Beeching report wasn’t telling the truth. The surveys taken on passenger numbers to justify closure were taken off peak and when the schools were closed. Also social need was never taken into account and then we get the question of Ernest Marples . A crook who used Beeching to hide behind his road building company Maples/Ridgeway
@MrHenryrolls3 жыл бұрын
And he was in bed with the road construction firm Marples
@lorenzbroll101 Жыл бұрын
The public school types are really smart. Let's wreck the countries infrastructure when cheap coal is under our feet!
@keithbrowning38994 жыл бұрын
Doesn't sound like Betjeman - someone speaking his words.
@greatwesternproductions28574 жыл бұрын
It definitely it is, listen and learn
@lennylaa16865 жыл бұрын
John sounds rather ''camp'' here! Oooooh! What a gay day! Hahahahaha! lol.
@ukipwarrior10 жыл бұрын
yuck old britain was awful
@Lytton33310 жыл бұрын
< sigh >
@amberlantern93287 жыл бұрын
In many ways things are better today, in many other ways other things were better before. Before the WW2 its railways were supreme. BR sort of ruined it in a way, though it probably did slightly improve communication somewhat, with everything under one ownership.
@johndavey86833 жыл бұрын
@@amberlantern9328 let's not forget that before BR, the Germans inflicted heavy blows to the network as a result of two wars. The railways never fully recovered from the wear and tear and lack of investment.