Engines Must Not Enter The Potato Siding (BBC1, 4 November 1969)

[@BibtheBoulder]

I worked on the railway at Derby for almost thirty years until 2022. The pride of modern railwaymen (and women) is still evident. Furthermore the vast majority are well aware of their railway forefathers and the struggles they faced and the legacy they left. Right up until I finished in 2022 I would (where time permitted) clean the nameplate on any HST I was driving during the turnaround at Sheffield. When I started at Derby in 1992 there were still plenty of ex steam loco drivers, and listening to their stories was a joy for a 'young hand' like myself. The railway was, and still is a very special environment, and the people who keep it ticking are a special group of people. The hours are still antisocial, but the cab of a modern engine is a far more comfortable place to be when you are tackling Sharnbrook or Bradway Tunnel than the inside of a steam locomotives cab.... My respect to all those old hands out there, be they enjoying their retirement or pushing up the daises.

[@onchnc3546]

i agree, some of those old railway blokes were great

[@welshpete12]

As retired railway , I fully agree with you !

[@77thTrombone]

I'm dropping this link to a song that many commenters here will surely appreciate: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i2eyeXdoqqijnLc There's a long sound outage towards the end of this film. The last few bars of this song are heard when the sound returns.

[@thomasshepard6030]

Hi I’m an ex British rail fireman 1974 from Glasgow have you any idea when this filmed

[@BibtheBoulder]

@@thomasshepard6030 Alas, not a clue I'm afraid.

[@marmion150]

The last time I saw this film was on 4th November 1969, and I am so grateful it's now on KZbin. A real slice of nostalgia. I would have been 13 when I first saw it. How short sighted they were, doing away with the Woodhead route.

[@Kivetonandrew]

A brilliant documentary from a time when the BBC was at the top of the game. Sadly no longer the Licence Fee no longer value for money! As a Sheffielder, I found this particularly interesting as there are wiews of the now closed Woodhead Route.

[@paulnolan1352]

What a great film, one of the best I’ve seen. Captures the flavour and feeling of the times, looking at it from today’s perspective makes you realise what we lost.

[@77thTrombone]

I'm dropping this link to a song that many commenters here will surely appreciate: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i2eyeXdoqqijnLc There's a long sound outage towards the end of this film. The last few bars of this song are heard when the sound returns.

[@soundseeker63]

What a gem! Not least because it captures working (the people AND the trains) on the old Woodhead route, which was closed to passengers just a few months later, and closed entirely just over a decade later! A real pity. Those old boys arguing about steam vs electric made me smile. All scenes of the past now of course.

[@mickd6942]

Growing up in the seventies my bedroom window over looked the woodhead route , a none stop stream of electric trains , i would watch as two EM1s brought a coal train in from wath and two more were put on the rear to act as bankers for the trip up the 1 in 40 of the worsborough bank , today i cycle on the route regularly and if i close my eyes i can see and hear the electric trains as if it was yesterday, the woodhead was a fondly remembered part of my childhood and it was saddening when it closed , like saying goodbye to an old friend, the long mornful wail of the EM 1 horns prepareing to move up the bank would never be heard again .

[@77thTrombone]

I'm dropping this link to a song that many commenters here will surely appreciate: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i2eyeXdoqqijnLc

[@MrNicktheBeat]

What a refreshing change from all the channels the Tube has been recommending. Amid all the Doom and Gloom, Austerity, Warfare and Suffering I came across this directive:- " Engines Must Not Enter the Potato Sidings" My first thought was that it must be an old 'Monty Python' sketch that I haven't seen but after watching it for 5 minutes, I stopped the video, made a cup of tea, made myself comfy and treated myself to a further 40 minutes, both of nostalgia and the emotional realisation that there were so many memories of those times that I should have had but didn't. 1969 was the year I returned to Britain after 5 years of Military Service overseas and soon realised how much had changed and how much I had missed. My family had even sold my Triang train set in my absence. This lovely film was a rare treat for me. Now , at least, I can pretend that I lived through those changing times in Britain even though my actual memories may be quite different to those of my Peers. I guess that is no accident that I have been researching this Era on KZbin as I plan my new N gauge layout which is probably why this video was recommended. I am very pleased that it was. Thank you!

[@coloradostrong]

Wow, I just bought a Triang train set for a few pence a while back. They said the bloke was MIA.

[@Isochest]

One must always think of those who gave their lives constructing this railway and their wives and children

[@77thTrombone]

Yes, and the wives and children. No one goes alone, but ironically, some are left alone while not going alone.

[@onchnc3546]

Classic railway tale with the lives of those men who chose this path. Great people.

[@retrorambles517]

The golden age of BBC documentary making

[@johnbarthram2761]

I remember this film so well, I was at secondary school at the time the film is excellent, I worked on British rail at Stratford depot east London, its true railway people are a very special breed of people and I had the privilege to work with these people.

[@sarahmiller4734]

You didn;t just "work with them" though, you were part of their team so you were one of them!!

[@jennyd255]

What an interesting film, which gave a real insight into what life was like for all the railwaymen of my 1960's youth. Makes me rather sad never to have travelled the Woodhead route. Shame the excerpt from the Flanders & Swan song (at about 35 mins in) had to be muted out.

[@77thTrombone]

I'm dropping this link to a song that many commenters here will surely appreciate: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i2eyeXdoqqijnLc

[@samuelfellows6923]

😠 ~ assume the YT bot copyright striked it

[@terencemichaels]

Simply wonderful.

[@antonyjohnson4489]

Wow, what a fantastic documentary film. The railwaymen certainly had huge pride, it was way more than just a job to them. Also of course, the navvies worked heroically to construct the line, and many lost their lives doing so. Successive Governments have shown their appreciation of these efforts by ripping it all apart. Thanks a bunch ☹️

[@22pcirish]

We still have pride in our job!

[@grahamariss2111]

Amazing that they electrified the Woodhead line but left it with a mechanical block signalling system even though there were electronic signalling systems by the start of the 20th century. I suspect that failure to properly modernise it was in the 80s when it needed upgrading to 25KV it was decided instead to close it.

[@chrismccartney8668]

Stunning film of a lost world such a special line that cost so much human cost no longer used i belove.

[@stevebrown9974]

Wonder visit to a beautiful graveyard. Great video, your Georgia friends.

[@johnbarthram2761]

I wish I had a time machine, when this film 🎥 was shown on TV 📺 everybody in my family 👪 who I knew and loved were alive 😢, being a massive railway fan this film is very special to me, I would love to be able to buy this film.

[@a11csc]

a priceless gem

[@boyfromblackstuff7859]

Excellent! Thanks for posting.

[@rickydub6950]

Thanks for posting this 🙂👍

[@MrJimbaloid]

TX Charlie that was fabulous.

[@Shelfandtabletoplayouts00gauge]

Thanks for a fantastic watch 👍

[@leebritnell2405]

Creme Brulee,the early years!

[@elizabethdarley8646]

Staggeringly brilliant film!!!!!!!!!😃

[@thomasshepard6030]

My grandfather was a mainline steam driver and my uncle my grandfather retired just as diesel came in my uncle moved on to diesels they both worked out of dawsholm sheds maryhill Glasgow these sheds are long gone now new houses built there now my uncle got me started as a fireman at eastfield traction depot Glasgow 1974 19 years old and driving class 37s on the west highland line queen street to Oban would loved to have driven a steam locomotive

[@christopherbutler7588]

Great video thanks for showing 👍

[@modelrailwaynoob]

This was great thank you

[@atilllathehun1212]

What a good video, why have I not seen this before.....

[@bergedie]

I love that title.

[@77thTrombone]

Yah. Normally I'd put this on my ever-growing "watch later" list, but I have to find out about this siding!

[@daveconyard8946]

Thank You 👍👍

[@danielbarton9291]

Fabulous!!!!

[@patrickdunning9820]

Great item! Wonder how much that nameplate from the electric is worth, I did a railtour over the Woodhead route in 1980...it was another world, even then.

[@Isochest]

A bloody fortune I guess!

[@alantraish3368]

Memories😢

[@beertruk2429]

The blokes arguing steam v diesel sound like Monty Python's 'The Four Yorkshire Men' sketch. 😉

[@bergedie]

40:34 finally show it.

[@johnwaller2886]

32.36 Watford Junction on the down fast; class 501 Dc unit in the bay. -Platform trolley "liberated from Brackley on the Banbury Merton Street branch.

[@daystatesniper01]

Superb video ,still a scandal this line ,the Woodhead closed

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

The electrical equipment was life expired and non-standard. This coupled with the operation cost of need to switch diesel at each end of the route and the falling traffic levels due to the recession lead to the closure of the line.

[@steveluckhurst2350]

@@neiloflongbeck5705 Don't go spoiling a conspiracy with facts!

[@royfearn4345]

The real tragedy is that this route was the only one to be built with European clearances to accept the possibility of through freight services with our neighbours so wilfully thrown out with closure and then brexit!

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

@@royfearn4345 except it only had one port and that one never had train ferries serving it. If Watkin's plan had been seen through then parts of the SER would have been rebuilt to the larger gauge the GCR used. This was still smaller than the Berne gauge of 1914 which had a max width of 10' 4" and a height of 14'. Before this there was no single standard loading gauge in Europe, just as there wasn't in Britain. Prior to WW1 there were no cross-Channel train ferries. You have to wait until 1924 when the LNER started to operate its Harwich-Zeebrugge. The SR followed suit in 1933 with their Dover to Dunkerque service. It was simpler and cheaper to build internstional rolling stock to meet the smallest loading gauge expected to be encountered, which is what happened to the GCR' rolling stock on the Grouping.

[@johncourtneidge]

Thank-you. All things pass. Except those that are eternal. Such as the English values of efficiency, service and humility.

[@Biggles2498]

The Good Old Days.

[@dieseldave3879]

2:10 Well said! 🚂⚡👍

[@johnwaller2886]

32.36 a platform sack barrow from Brackley!!

[@tinytonymaloney7832]

Was that guy 2:09 Sidney Weighell in his younger days, deffo sounded like him.

[@amazoniaamazonia7225]

Weighell was a signalman.

[@adrianmanship2546]

What is the tune at the very beginning and the very end ?

[@stephensmith799]

Lyrical film making; eloquent employees.

[@samuelfellows6923]

🎵✝️ ~ thine be the glory, Easter hymn

[@bimmeroo0906]

@ 45-12....is that a Class 37 diesel loco?.

[@GeordieGroundwater]

Yes. It is surely on the Manchester - Harwich PArkeston Quay daily boat train. Originally from Liverpool, but cut back by 1969, I think, to just Man Picc. Later it started from Glasgow and I think, ultimately, went via the North London line to Harwich. It connected with the boat to Hook van Holland, with train connections to Germany and, ultimately, Moscow!

[@-M0LE]

Why aren’t public together like they were back with the inside back then

[@paulmanners1364]

True old Bbc program . Not modern rubbish

[@thomasshepard6030]

What year was this filmed any idea

[@arthurrytis6010]

Give me a class 87 any day .

[@mikecawood]

35:20 the sound disappears.

[@gwishart]

Copyright strike for the music track.

[@77thTrombone]

@@gwishart freaking EMI. I suspected that when I heard the last bars of Flanders & Swann's song. Here's a link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i2eyeXdoqqijnLc

[@samuelfellows6923]

😠

[@johnthompson7420]

Hilarious . I was sure this was Monty Python. Paul's humble start as a signalman. What language these guys speak?

[@markgoddard2560]

When the BBC Could make a documentary without an “end of the world” theme or pepper it with equal sexual “rights” proclivities or something else that “may cause distress” and a pointless help line to call “if you have been effected…”.

[@GeordieGroundwater]

Today it would carry the warning: These accents could harm your health. :)

[@coloradostrong]

Hogwarts™ Express is better at Universal Studios.

[@bigcahoonaburger8550]

Isn’t this filmed in 2023 just in black and white 🤔 Oh hang on less lines, less socialising and erm smoking. But just the same really. Why we got rid of rail lines, as passengers maybe, for freight it wins hands down.

[@marktucker208]

All these people are dead, think about that

[@rogerlaurel2363]

Those video clips of the scrapping of those steam locomotives between 35:20 & 35:50 are great!