Transport films from the 1950's

[@tangerinedream7211]

All those Bristol factories have long since disappeared, Wood head route closed, automated marshalling yards superceded by freightliners. Brave new world of the BTC gave us some fascinating films, all praise to Edgar Ansty. Thanks for uploading.

[@sianwarwick633]

Well, hmm, thanks for the update. Times change eh ?

[@robinwells8879]

Whitemoor shunting yards at March are now a maximum security prison amongst other things. Now we shunt our most dangerous prisoners there.

[@sameebah]

Filton hasn't entirely disappeared - RR and Airbus still have a presence.

[@marka2520]

Thoroughly enjoyed this.

[@willowwobble]

Woodhead tunnel: 30 workers killed, 200 maimed and 450 injured. There were no health and safety rules... that can be seen in the film.

[@johno4521]

That guy in the dumper leading away the rock and stones - perilously close and no head protection!

[@kevinmoffatt]

Guarantee that, if they lived long enough, those men would all have had hearing problems in later life. I only drove trucks but am now virtually deaf.

[@nounoufriend1442]

Then they closed tunnel !

Shocked to see workers breathing in all that dust. I bet many died before their time.

[@Peter-sl6mf]

It wouldn't have got through with the modern health and safety rules. I know I work with some of these men. Rip lost friends

[@kenstevens5065]

If this film doesn't prove how wrong the Politicians have been creating a service industry economy with little manufacturing I don't know what will. The trouble is it will be the working people who trusted Politicians who will suffer the most.

[@DomingoDeSantaClara]

I'm sure you wouldn't mind paying double or triple prices for everyday commodities, but I would. We buy from overseas to take advantage of their cheap labour, we don't have cheap labour. So how do you want it?

[@johnross2924]

You trust the politicians!

[@philthycat1408]

@@johnross2924😂👍

[@davidgreenwood5241]

@@DomingoDeSantaClaratrouble is we’ll end up with no Labour at all

[@DomingoDeSantaClara]

@@davidgreenwood5241 we can't have it both ways, I know it's far from ideal but if we bring back manufacturing, expect huge price increases. I certainly don't have the answers other than to say, be careful what you wish for.

[@mrnobody1067]

I had 2 grandfather's and 6 uncles fight for my freedom and my lovely country AND I'M NEVER GIVING HER UP ! Great film thanks 👍❤🇬🇧

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

👍 Mr Nobody you are someone 🙏 God bless you sonny. 🙏 England needs you 🙏

[@Peter-sl6mf]

Fighting for your freedom. Please explain yourself. Most of those tunnel men were irishmen

[@alestout5632]

@@Peter-sl6mfdon’t think he’s talking about the tunnellers he’s referring to servicemen

[@davidgalloway8825]

Don’t worry, the Government will give it up for you.

[@londongirl1733]

@@jesusislukeskywalker4294 Millions feel the same way❤

[@martinlintzgy1361]

Back then, british people knew who they were, with a strong sense of identity. Having foiught together, they knew the risks but they worked for a better Britain.

[@michaelkinsey4649]

Scotland - how beautifully written and spoken by John Laurie

I love the way they trill their Rs.

[@Ted-Jack-Dougal]

..."Then there it was.....gone". Private James Frazer/ John Laurie...Legend 👍🏻 R.I.P.

[@simonlane1277]

We're doomed I say

[@FernandWinnie-s3l]

“They?”

[@bertiewooster3326]

Common language!!!!! Joke of the year today

[@davedixon2068]

careful your racism is showing

[@rivergladesgardenrailroad8834]

Common language separated by dialects.

[@Kamina1703]

Oi!, You got a loicence for that accent, Bruv?

[@raybob49]

Sad isn't it?

[@YDysgwrAraf]

@@raybob49 Mewn pa ffordd?

[@digitalimager4946]

Oh, my. Nostalgia overload. I'm a child of the fifties. What wonderful memories. Please turn back the clock 😊

[@alasdairblack393]

What a beautiful speaking voice. So easy to understand and listen to.

[@Laidback61]

Not a single 'INNIT' in the entire film !!

[@markchadwick1378]

Is the Scottish voice John Laurie?

[@johno4521]

Mostly flat bed lorries in those days - the forgotten joy of roping and sheeting; a skill in itself.

[@alestout5632]

Roping &sheeting yes I did do a bit of that not pleasant in a strong wind and when that was done you had a crash gear box and no power steering

[@radiosnail]

I can remember courses for that being advertised in he back of Commercial Motor back in the late 80s

[@georgerenton965]

Dad did that back in the day. He hauled a lot of fresh fish into the markets like Hull, and Grimsby from various ports in Scotland depending on where the trawlers where landing. It was an interesting life for a young school boy. I’d help him fold the tarps while he shouted about how useless I was. I loved every minute of it. The fish would be packed in big reusable wooden boxes with crushed ice, covered with tarps, and an all night drive from places like Ardrossan. I’d watch him work his magic with the ropes, everything would be nice and tidy. With fresh fish, the ropes would get wet, and the hemp would get into your skin. Buy the end of the summer I’d have working man’s hands, and a cornucopia of swear words that would make me popular among the lads in the playground. Hey ! How are you going to learn good behaviour if you can’t measure it up against some bad behaviour. Comes down to how far the needle swings. I’m 71 now, we left Scotland in 65, just before the fishing industry collapsed, I’ve been a truck driver the majority of my working life, still doing it part time, but closer to home. Most drivers these days don’t know what a hard days work is. Or know how to drive a truck for that matter.

[@gegwen7440]

On lorries that were so gutless they would pass out at the site of a hill & praised by so many “dim witted drivers” who would always sprout that they never go wrong. Indeed they did as there was nothing much to go wrong as they were so basic.

[@georgerenton965]

@@gegwen7440 how much power did they need to roll along at the speed limit of 30 mph over roads and bridges built by the Romans. Vacuum brakes, and mechanical levers. There was the fleet owners who counted every penny they consumed, who where still lamented giving up on horses. Dad started out working for a man who had 150 draft horses, wouldn’t pay to use antifreeze, they had to drain the radiator and engine block every night.

[@danielbarton9291]

The kid at the end working the lathe with no goggles absolutely fabulous!!!! This film is brilliant. Thanks for sharing it.

[@windypup8845]

A time when leaders supported their country and it's workers, unlike today's leaders who should be tried for treason.

[@kevinhayes7830]

These films were just propaganda soft power the reality were people living in slums with no working rights and very little money working in terrible conditions

[@jackking5567]

A fabulous look at the past. Thanks for sharing.

[@toucan221]

Absolutely Wonderful Thank you Mr Birch. I am amazed at the automated marshalling yard, that's the kind of that escapes most peoples mind these days, they have to make it complicated. and the Argyll group of British Road Transport, and the huge weighing scales, no electric for those scales. A world where everyone knew there and got on with life. A Wonderful piece of Our history, I look at this in Awe and admiration.

[@williamseaborne2694]

A big shout out to the composer who wrote the equivalent of a 26 minute symphony to accompany the pictures on screen. A lot of work!

[@waterboy8999]

My ears respectfully disagree.

[@fintanoneill2493]

I totally agree! Thank you for highlighting the composers work. As a musician, I can tell you it is a lot of work and a lot of skill to do the orchestration also.

[@rgarlinyc]

There's something quite charming about these old Black 'n White films, their construction, the narrators and the very script used.

[@andrewbennett7756]

Great video thanks

[@chestnutsev7]

Great footage! Seeing The cross channel ferry Maid of Orleans brought back a fond memory of my dad taking me to France for the first time and we went on that ferry in early 70s. My dad was working on the SS Lord Warden in 1956 sailing across to Dover in heavy fog and they hit another ship pushing the Lord Warden bow in badly but she stayed afloat . Thanks for sharing this !.

[@LordTantrums007]

Today Britain cannot even complete HS2 to the North!

[@daleharper2007]

I wonder how many billions were spent on consultants

[@everestyeti]

​@@daleharper2007Probably 2/3rds, as you now need a consultant to tell you what toilet paper to use and which hand.

[@Handlebar-MustDash]

Imagine how much these infrastructure projects cost back then. Now the politicians are too busy stealing the nations wealth whilst we are a much wealthier country than post war Britain was then. MPs think we are all dumb and haven't noticed. 😂

[@kevinmoffatt]

The building part was unimportant; the great achievement has been to transfer lots of taxpayers money into the pockets of the already wealthy; bit like the covid PPE.

[@everestyeti]

@@ttm2609 Because of our own activities over the centuries, we've been colonized for years, that's why we are Great Britain.

[@timothydigiuseppe1753]

Had not seen this film before. I liked it very much and thank you for uploading.

[@harri2626]

Amazing how the film makers managed to get ordinary folk to act normally without looking into the camera or smiling inappropriately - looking for five minutes of fame.

Not really, they edited out the other bits.

[@m3photo726]

11:54 I could have sworn that was Gordon Jackson, although his fine Glaswegian accent was dubbed over …

[@10xZ00M]

So BRS (10:02) took over the Stork contract as well......

[@SuperMikado282]

@@harri2626 People were more humble back then, unlike the egotistical and narcissistic morons of today's world.

[@davidclinch1358]

Thanks for this very interesting film that takes us back to our childhood. Unlike today we didn't spot one overweight person !!!

[@robertmulhall1634]

Zand not a single person of a certain colour.

[@AnthonyTobyEllenor-pi4jq]

And no spades either !

[@James-jd6in]

😂😂😂​@@AnthonyTobyEllenor-pi4jq

Or anyone checking their mobile phone.

[@noneofyourbeeswax01]

@@robertmulhall1634 They made srue they avoided us when they were doing their filming - but we were there! Sadly you racists were also there...

[@connect4glyn]

My wonderful ., beautiful country ,,, gone for ever . How priviliged I am to have known you .

[@Senna-xi1gr]

Thanks for uploading Nigel. Great film 👍🏆🇬🇧 My grandfather worked for BRS for 35 years out of Newcastle upon Tyne. Cecil cogger was his name.

[@apacherider7110]

People with pride in their work, such a rarity now days.

[@patrickokeeffe-i7i]

codswallop

[@ianjeffery6744]

A very enjoyable film - as one who was born in 1951, there are a lot of happy memories here! Note, though, how the then up-to-date technology of Whitemoor Yard contrasts with the antiquated four-wheeled goods wagons still in use at that time...

[@jadeyork4919]

How different everything is now, I remember learning in the sixties that England was an homogeneous country, and didn't know what it meant. How I wish we could go back to those simpler times ! We appear to be catapulting towards a dystopian hell. The ruling Establishment are guilty, in my view , of utterly destroying our culture, history, economy, Constitution, and traditions.

[@BarryRudge]

Those old time shunting yards have now all gone and those men had to be fit to chase after those wagons.Its was a time if you ordered something to be delivered via mail order it could easily take a month for it to arrive. Times and transport have changed so much that we tend to moan if we haven't received the item the day after ordering. But that's all about progress. Thanks for uploading the quality of the footage is excellent

[@jamesavenell1205]

Good old days the 1950s. I was between 12 & 22 during that era. It was all labour intensive. The transport age most exciting for me, in that time I progressed from rabid train, bus & British Road Service number collecting to working on the railway & National Service. The next decade was even better because I encountered the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me as shorty after demob I met my future wife {Marilyn) of over 55 years before she reverted back to our true home out there in the universe. The old lads back when I was an apprentice always fondly remembered the 20s & 30s despite the hard times & I am left to reflect on those years following the second war. I wouldn't swap that for all the riches of the world.

[@steveb1739]

Beautiful James. RIP Marilyn .

[@elainemagson213]

Beautifully written. This made my eyes prickle. Thank you.

[@hemiolaguy]

How can trains have rabies?

[@sloanelouch393]

@@hemiolaguy idiot ! read it again. But slowly.

[@MrBlaxjax]

@@hemiolaguydon’t know but rabies can send you loco.

[@everestyeti]

In the days when there was a working transport infrastructure, where everyone benifited. Shame successive Governments have sold everything off to Hedge Funds, who only care about money and not providing a service.

[@henrygingold6549]

Successive *TORY* governments

[@everestyeti]

@@henrygingold6549 Mostly yes Conservatives, mainly because they always want something for nothing. Unfortunately Tony Blair's government was as bad, especially when it came to awarding PFI contracts.

[@vikingsmb]

@@henrygingold6549 labour as well

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

​@@vikingsmbyeah both parties are virtually the same. it seems to be more of a class thing. these politicians think that they are better than us. they are malignant narcissists . no morals, ethics or standards. unscrupulous. career politicians never worked a real day's work in their life.

[@SuperMikado282]

​@@henrygingold6549Who voted for them?

[@SimonHollandfilms]

one of my favourites....thanks for posting this again.

[@georgemoskal2098]

Love these old films, if I could go back to the days when the film was made, I'd be off like a shot. Before we were blessed with diversity.

[@johnathandaviddunster38]

Please go ...

[@VickersDoorter]

​@@johnathandaviddunster38 I'm guessing you're finding diversity such a rewarding success.... Luton, Wolverhampton, Southall and Slough, to name but a few, are such shining examples of cultural integration, whereby the incoming peoples have improved their local environment, beautifully renovated their houses, barely need to thrust themselves on the NHS or benefit office and of course, have lowered the crime rate appreciably. Diversity - bring it on!

[@sianwarwick633]

​@VickersDoorter thanks for that well-written support

[@noneofyourbeeswax01]

@@VickersDoorterThe NHS would barely exist were it not for the West Indian immigrants who staffed it... so all you racists would have been Rickety and dying of TB.

[@johndean4765]

But our 'pro British BBC' are Always saying diversity enriches our society we know that has in fact been the opposite.

[@mattikaki]

Hello from Finland. This was really nice to see how well everything went those days. That one man who run between the cars braking them was an awfully dangerous job to do. What I love, is the odor of London Underground.

[@WadekMaszota-l9x]

Brings a Tear to ones eyes To see this fabulous film And how the country has Become now.....please someone invent a time machine....❤

[@nigelleyland166]

at 1:05 is the transported bridge across the Tees at Middlesbrough, still working, sometimes!

[@derekmills1080]

By pure fluke, this video appeared on my phone. In 1969, after I had graduated in physics, I stayed with a fellow graduate who lived in Middlesbrough and, out of interest, we climbed the rickety stairs and walked across the top of the transporter bridge. I still remember how, all those years ago, the whole bridge shook as vehicles were transported across.

[@SimonLloydGuitar]

Those poor blokes. Just returned from war, then work underground, doing dangerous, life shortening back breaking work for a pittance. No respirators, no ear defenders, no safety glasses...Now to be told that they were 'privileged' and immigrants built Britain. How ungrateful we are to these brave heroic men to allow their memory and sacrifice to be denigrated.

[@davedixon2068]

where did it say that? must be in a different post

[@daydays12]

Very well observed. What awful working conditions!

[@ronnyklein8010]

Wahre Worte .Der Krieg gegen das Leben geht bis heute weiter .

[@spikefunakoshi5667]

Perhaps one of these men could explain to Starmer what socialism actually means.

[@harold6863]

They had white privilege 😂😂😂

[@sianwarwick633]

Really good quality film - i don't know if it has been enhanced digitally, but it looks so sharp and bright. Anyway, the content is so optimistic and confident. A great sort of recruitment film. Especially like the topographical map.

Makes you want to move there and be a part of it.

[@MichaelCairns-fv2vi]

Opening sentence.."a common launguage...UNITE OUR PEOPLE

[@mathewgreen4099]

Glorious, thank you.👍

[@48billy0]

Those men running alongside the railway wagons must have been extremely fit. The Dover/Calais ferry would be too busy dodging dinghies these days.

[@unconventionalideas5683]

They would just stow away on the ferry instead.

I wonder what their job title was?

[@mh53j]

Why would you want to dodge them?

[@jfboomerang1310]

My guess is Runners but since they appeared to break and slow the cars, Running Brakeman. lol

[@itadrummer1]

@@mh53j 🤣🤣🤣👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@trondog8503]

Everything appeared to run with military precision back in the 50’s .

[@robertsmith9810]

ALL i remember as a kid growing up in the 1950s was how dirty the trains were and going to London people always refereed as going up to the smoke and a day in london you needed a bath on return home

Because they avoided filming the things that didn't.

[@trondog8503]

Like what?

[@noneofyourbeeswax01]

That was the point of the film - to hide the grime, inefficiency and slums and to present a false image of efficiency and success at every turn. I know better; I was there!

[@davedixon2068]

@@noneofyourbeeswax01 but it did get better.

[@jinnxish]

Wonderful but so sad that so much as been lost since those days

[@davedavis4269]

Back in the days when the country worked well & wasn’t broken

[@johnjephcote7636]

I date from the 1940s and I remember a succession of horrific accidents, especially around 1953. Air travel had a disaster on a monthly basis at times.

[@andybirchenall1113]

Good old Woodhead will be going over there Monday morning,Manchester to Barnsley first job fully freighted its a bloody pull over there even with todays all singing and dancing trucks, Roll on hanging the keys up for the last time, 😊

[@peterjenks5451]

Brings back memories of my early childhood...

[@rogersmith9579]

Gotta love that radar,

[@arcoulant87]

Elf and safety would have a fit today .Great film .

[@andybirchenall1113]

I was delivering to a factory in Worksop a while back,I asked a manager am I OK to open both gates I cannot get my truck thru just 1,he sent a lad over to do it who had been on a day's course on the correct way to open a gate ffs Elf n Safety 😂

[@brianmillerthomas]

Spotted the bridge at Inveraray straightaway at 7:38 followed by the lorries driving through the town....bonnie Scotland!

[@Jimmiburn]

Wonderful film really enjoyed watching thankyou for uploading shame about some of the comments.🇬🇧

[@stuartbroome1258]

Machines are all very well, but you can't beat the working man or woman on the ground. A great era of camaraderie back then, with most in employment. I knew it well.🎉

[@andybirchenall1113]

Camaraderie is long since gone sadly,I drive a 44 tonne truck a while back had problems on the M60 pulled onto hard shoulder some dick in another truck coming at me just missed me with 3 empty lanes to himself,folk wud drive thru a puddle n splash you now rather than stop n help sad to say 😢

[@davidingram1892]

Brilliant, why isn’t life like this anymore? I feel sorry for younger people who never knew it.

[@SuperMikado282]

They would hate it.

[@JaneMurray-di3gq]

They wouldn’t appreciate it.

[@jameswhite6589]

Wonder how many men you would get to work like that to day yes I know modern technology taken over no need for lots of men woman to do some of the job's done then hard work but happier times ..........

[@Paul-md8de]

At 0.54 thats Henley on Thames market place in the back ground + the town hall, looks like the bus is driving towards the bridge

[@alastairstaunton7081]

Cities grow (18:09)..... street shots of a "busy city" with half-empty roads, mostly bikes, walkers, and busses moving freely. The mass adoption of the car was some time away.

[@Laidback61]

The adoption of the car was due to the politicians... Dr beeching ripped up the railways and policy was tomove all goods by road !!

[@thebear3178]

The streets looked so clean. People getting on with their work. We've lost so much. When compared to today's society of benefits scrounging, working from home and the place overrun with illegals costing us all a fortune. I really do despair. Come another 70 years I forecast society will have collapsed.

[@davecooper3238]

I have been hearing that for over 70 years. Get the same story from every generation. The quicker they get the asylum people processed and into work the better. The country will benefit from them paying tax.

[@johnathandaviddunster38]

ILLEGAL s cost every UK citizen 50 pence a day ...

[@rivergladesgardenrailroad8834]

WRONG

[@thebear3178]

​@@davecooper3238ain't no more room at the Inn for these chancers. Deport immediately on landing on our shores and save the taxpayers a fortune!

[@_Dougaldog]

The buildings throughout Britain were filthy, thick with years of smoke and soot, the great smog of London December i952 killed thousands.

[@jimmeltonbradley1497]

Watching this optimistic piece of social history, it's easy to forget that, post WW2, the country was almost bankrupt and desperate to get back on its feet. I was a kid in the 1950s and remember the grey austerity that was the reality of growing up during this period. I did, however, enjoy the film. it was fascinating.

[@gbentley8176]

Yes me too. I remember the optimism of those days despite hard and dangerous work, in many areas, pride was taken. Far fewer couch potatoes, no lounging about.

[@maunsell24]

The immediate post war years were no picnic. Rationing continued, in some cases for a considerable time. Meat did not come off the coupon until 1954, coal until 1958. We lived in the depths of the countryside which had certain advantages. Plenty of wood for the fire, eggs from our own chickens, vegetables from the garden. Having a farmer as your neighbour (half a mile away) helped too.

[@kafkastrial8650]

We were promised a better world then and now are hurtling towards a much worse one .

[@williamboot658]

The lorry pulling out at 9.22 would be done for unsecured load these days, but they still got the job done without anything falling off.

[@rivergladesgardenrailroad8834]

But things did fall off, mate, not all the time, but it happened. Surely, we do not want to go back to the road death toll of the 1950s.

[@danganbeg7225]

People died.

[@jonahallen4867]

My grandfather and great grandfather both worked on these tunnels as drivers including coach and horses and pulled out many dead and casualties on these tunnels . Lived in Dukenfield and Godley junction before moving to Glossop where they were eventually laid to rest . ..many stories .. RIP .

[@anthonykoller4459]

It’s amazing how everything looks and so organised and clean, now with mass immigration and crime and the streets being turned into refugee camps, the good old days of the 1950s looks like heaven compared to today

[@johnathandaviddunster38]

Within living memory millions of white Europeans killed millions of white Europeans twice and they still are r.e Ukraine 🩲👙👚👑💩

Amazing? They simply didn't film the disorganized things.

[@daydays12]

such racism...why can't you get on with your fellow human beings?

[@johnathandaviddunster38]

@@daydays12 you can't argue with drunks,religious maniacs, BIGOTS or my wife

[@anthonykoller4459]

@@daydays12 because they can’t get along with the new countries that they now reside in, London, Paris and other European cities are now crime infested hot spots and they refuse to follow the rules and customs of the host countries and this has nothing to do with racism but with mass immigration that is changing the face of Europe.

[@caterthun4853]

An apprenticeship in Britain was a lifetime skill . When Margaret Thatcher changed this by deskilling jobs destroying the power of trade unions. We lost the trade skills... Now an apprentice can be a burger flipper in fast food restaurant..

[@AnthonyTobyEllenor-pi4jq]

1.05 is that the Transporter over the river Tees ? I like these films showing how good we used to have it before mass immigration was forced upon us.

[@davebeech236]

When Britain was still British. Lord, how I miss my home.

[@williamseaborne2694]

I couldn’t agree with you more. What we have lost can never be recovered.

[@fabiotabaton314]

The good old days........!!!!!!

[@SEPK09]

110% dont recognise my own country anymore!

[@welshpete12]

For my family and many more , we were very poor and life was grim with very little money . I remember when we had a chicken to eat for the first time . We all of use to work hard including my self at the age of 6 . Today life is much much better !

[@davedixon2068]

@@williamseaborne2694 All you have to do is retrace your steps and I'm sure you will find whatever it was you lost dont be defeatist

[@MrWombatty]

Before the mid '60s when they decided to rip up most of the railway lines!

[@manxman8008]

Mono cultures are best, and manufacturing jobs provided a great career (i.e. me). All gone now. I left the UK as its too sad, broken, and expensive. But it lives on with these great movies.

[@EI6DP]

Its interesting to see the many pipe smokers back then. 74 here and still puffing away on my pipe and with a mixture of Black Cherry and Eirnmore plug tobacco 😶‍🌫😶‍🌫😶‍🌫😶‍🌫

[@MrBazH]

Hehe I was watching out for them too. Erinmore is definitely an acquired taste. Good job we all prefer different things! Rattray's 7 Reserve for me, though not quite your age yet. Hope you keep on puffing for many years yet.

[@EI6DP]

Hello - The Rattray's 7 Reserve looks like a very light smoke, I have tried such light tobaccos when I started smoking a pipe first, but found they burned very hot. I met an old gent who recommended trying plug tobacco which I did and for ever after I smoked plug. Plug tobacco burns much cooler and has a more favourable flavour and aftertaste.

[@MrBazH]

@@EI6DP We all have different journeys. 7 Reserve is a medium, all day English blend much like Dunhill/Peterson Early Morning Pipe (another favourite). I'm not a fan of heavy Latakia. As a new pipe smoker I suspect you found tobacco burned hot since beginners tend to chug away like a steam train, so consequently suffer with horrendous tongue bite and then blame the tobacco, especially with aromatics. Anyway, glad it's worked out for you. I may try plug one of these fine days. The world needs more pipe smokers! Wishing you all the best.

[@WilliamJohnwon1522]

It was before de-industrialisation 70s-80s, 90s and then the 21st century. Happier days eh? And not forgetting Richard Beaching with the railways, in the 60s.

[@robertsmith9810]

this story was told to me many yrs ago by a BRS DRIVER he said it was a cold foggy night he was loaded with vegetables as he arrived in Covent Garden market a chap jump of the top of his load who`s name was known locally as burglar Bill Dennis thanking him for the lift walked of saying he need to get of our town without being seen this would have been mid 1950`s

[@dac3uk]

I think I hear actor John Laurie doing the voice over for the Scottish section.

[@philthycat1408]

I like seeing tram and train lines reopening in systems that were torn up because of ‘progress’. Replaced exactly the same at the cost of billions and were only ripped up in the late 60s and early 70s. I suppose ‘Great ideas’ are meant to flow both ways.

[@georgekaplan6451]

A quick flash of RMS Aquitania awaiting breaking.

[@adyamski]

Absolutely brilliant film - just wish i lived in a countryside like there was then

[@brubeker12]

The biggest mistake or rather crime was Beeching cutting tge railways, it now becomes evident that vested interest in road was behind all this with Marples

[@frank7611]

But, many of the routes that were axed had little or no passengers so why should tax payers continue to pay for that? Hindsight is a wonderful thing and the fact remains that the vast majority of the population never travel by rail...🤔🤔

[@SuperMikado282]

It had nothing to do with Dr. Beeching. He only compiled a list of unprofitable rail lines. The vast majority of these lines were closed by Barbara Castle, the Labour Transport Minister. Dr. Beeching had no authority to close railways.

[@paulwright9749]

The train coming out of the tunnel is Standedge Tunnel in West Yorkshire - all still looks the same on Google Earth 😊

[@peacockpaula4723]

Wow, what a responsibility on those dear people. Where does that fog come from? What a good job they've done! Amazing and captivating, wow!

[@tominnis8353]

And all for nothing. The new Woodhead tunnel was closed at the beginning of the 1980s.

[@andybirchenall1113]

They have just taken down a load of pylons and put the wires thru the tunnel apparently it's aim was to make the Peak District more pleasing to the eye 😅

[@allenjenkinson7608]

Three generations of my family worked at Hanson Haulage before and after it became British Road Services but that was when we had textile and engineering manufacturing in Huddersfield - God bless Margret Thatcher......

[@TeddyGolf]

I was born in 1961 and always loved these films. I loved growing up then and I enjoyed catching the the progress oft his era as it moved forward to the 60s. I don't miss the health and safety nightmares, the smoking that happened everywhere, the poorer health care, and the negative attitudes that came from a simpler time, but the work ethic, community spirit, and the hope for the future was genuine. Yes, we have become safer at work, more observant of how what we do affects others, medicine has improved, as has technology, but I miss the simplicity of a quieter time on the roads, in cities, and at home which is why I navigated towards rural life as I've got older where much of this still exists.

[@pettetread5959]

The film quality is amazing.

[@upturnedkangaroo]

Nationalised public services with excellent pay and conditions! Strong industries! Mass housebuilding! Everything you like about the Britain of old was because of socialism and the Labour Party. The decline started in 1979.

[@rayg4360]

20 min wait for a bus. Have to do that for most of them now

[@anthonyharrison3343]

I think all those men running to catch a bus would now be running into a car park to get in their cars!!

[@russthebiker]

Not running, they are all so fat these days they would waddle

[@davedixon2068]

All retired/ dead or living in Spain.

[@reynardbizzar5461]

“ In spite of the excavator and the drills , tunnelling hasn’t changed” . Well it has now😂

[@davedavis4269]

Boy oh boy did these folks earn their money

[@DavidFennessy-yj7du]

The guys running alongside the wagons to put the brakes on was a very dangerous job and there were deaths and injuries involved in this job, it was known for being very dangerous

[@nounoufriend1442]

No Hi viz clothing ! but makes no difference with the waggons rolling down the hump ! , still risky job now as corners sometimes get cut to get job done faster

[@mikebutler3263]

Excellent.

[@astrecks]

The good old bad old days! Somewhere between then and now must have been the optimal time to live.

[@michaellongstaff4624]

Mid 60s, best time!

1960s/1970s was the best. I know, I lived through it as a young man.

[@davedixon2068]

I'm doing fine. nice house, car, well educated hard working kids. Certainly far better off than my parents were at the time of this film. And I'm not exceptional by any means, just an ordinary bloke living my life, most of you seem to be bots attempting to disillusion people and cause trouble where there isnt any.

[@astrecks]

​@@davedixon2068It's easy to look back with rose tinted glasses. As a youngster back in the '50s & '60s I wouldn't have appreciated the hardship my parents faced. Like you I've done okay. I'm not rich, but not destitute either. But I do think we are heading for times where younger people will be less well off than their parents.

[@davedixon2068]

@@astrecks no rose tinted glasses here, I was brought up by parents with not very much who worked very hard to give us a good start. I worked hard to help my kids, and they are doing the same for theirs. Is it going to be easy no, but then it never has been nor will be.

[@DavidMartin-ym2te]

I like the way they put staff on to investigate late buses! These days they just bin your letter.

[@stevef9530]

Does anyone know where the scene at 0:58 is? There’s so much going on, it’s fascinating. It would make a great scene for a model layout.

[@IN_THIS_DAY_AND_AGE]

Marsden. Yorkshire end of Standedge Tunnels

[@stevef9530]

@@IN_THIS_DAY_AND_AGE Great, thanks very much!

[@steviedee8921]

Manchester didn't need coal from Yorkshire. Plenty of the black gold in good old Lancashire.

[@rodericstanley2258]

I remember British Road Services, with their red lorries. I hitched rides on them from Manchester to Sheffield and back every Monday morning and Friday afternoon when I was a student at Manchester U.

[@crumplezone1]

On those trucks only the driver had a windscreen wiper, economy at its best

[@robinwells8879]

Beautiful piece on the Kintyre route. I recently learned that much of the investment in that route from Glasgow to Campbeltown was actually provided by the USA via NATO funding. The airfield complex at Machrihanish was the location for the NATO anti submarine ordinance supply yard. They needed to improve the road access for servicing the base and we didn’t have the capital apparently. It went on for years as logged with interest by myself twice a year as a child travelling the route to and from holiday in Argyll. In my earliest memories it was mostly single track. The gorgeous bridge shown near Inveraray is bypassed and preserved now but it’s sister bridge, a little further on and damaged currently, is still in use with one way traffic lights. One of my favourite roads in all Britain. ❤

[@RaggedRomeo]

Infrastructure should be nationalised. Today's water supply and treatment, rail, road and electric systems are in a state of collapse and cost a fortune as the shareholders and directors pocket billions every year.

[@IN_THIS_DAY_AND_AGE]

And mostly owned by foreign companies

[@peetsnort]

Is that thumbnail of the bridge over the river wye at bredwardine...?

[@russelmurray9268]

Overpopulation is the problem, not politicians

[@SuperMikado282]

Politicians have always been a problem. They are a first-class reason to stay at home on polling day.

[@neilbain8736]

That was an unexpected scene at Garelochead with- I'm assuming - the Aquitania. The scene immediately before is just as striking of Ben Lomond in the middle from the approx South looking like an Olympic podium with three flat tops.

Thanks. I wondered which ship that was. An impressive sight with four funnels.

[@wednesdayblues3845]

Yes certainly looks like the RMS Aquitania. Scrapped at Faslane 1950-51 after 35 years of service, including in both World Wars and sailing 3 million miles. Pity it couldn't have been preserved.

[@CDeBeaulieu]

2 points: 1 Supply creates its own Demand (John Baptiste Say) 2 in the classical theory of the firm an entrepreneur will continue to employ workers until the last one's wages equals the value of his work. So all being equal, home manufactured goods are affordable to those who produced them. An economy based on 'services' is doomed to fail without a manufacturing base. The current 'services' industries only work in areas like tourism where the income is derived from overseas. In Britain areas like Corby and Hull which have no international tourism are dark places of unemployment and misery. China is doing fine because it has replaced Britain's former position as workshop of the world.

[@alfredroyal3473]

A Britain long since lost

And never coming back. Everyone in that film apart from the young children have passed on.

[@SimonLloydGuitar]

Given away and flushed down the drain more like

[@Ted-Jack-Dougal]

Not everybody has gone, my father drove for BRS in the Late 50's / 60's after years in the Army as a Regular, We are lucky enough to still have him with us at 92 years old. Thanks to the chap who uploaded this, he will love it.👍🏻

[@alfredroyal3473]

@@SimonLloydGuitarAgreed