Titfield Thunderbolt before and after.

[@rockhamstertactical9851]

A proper feel good film when the world was a simpler, happier place. Thank you.

[@DaveSuperThomas]

And there were still active coal mines in north Somerset, a stone's throw from the suburbs of the lovely Georgian City of Bath!

[@markstarmer3677]

Amen to that. Great Times.

[@JOHNMONO]

One of my favourite films, Oh how i wish we could return to that era, brilliant bit of editing, it must have taking absolutely ages to put together Paul and Rebecca

[@Vid-FX]

Really shows how well manicured England was in those days, before they ended the practice of hedging and ditching. An exercise to keep farm and estate staff busy off season before mechanisation made these jobs redundant.

[@1969Wilus]

Beautifully done. Nice to see how well the landscape has survived, even if the rails are gone.

[@ANTONYTHEDRAWINGMAN]

that was brilliant.how the hell did you get the before and after shots so accurately lined up.that was so clever.

[@mungoted]

Wonderful video. Britain was a better place back then.

[@keyboarddancers7751]

@Nic Marshall I remember as a kid being chased by skinheads in the early '70s in south London. Taught me that I needed to grow up really hard.

[@hartleymartin]

Its nice to know that at least the "farmhouse" is still there. It is very sad that the railway line is closed. It was so picturesque! But at least there are still signs that it was once there.

[@DaveSuperThomas]

The freight-only railway line closed because the large coal mine which it served had itself been closed, removing its only source of revenue-earning traffic. The last two mines in Somerset closed in 1974, removing the need to transport coal by rail from Kilmersdon and Braysdown to the electricity generating station at Portishead.

[@jasonkristunas9427]

Nice work an England gone forever shame

[@MegaSnm1]

Brilliant and sad at the same time.

[@trevornew6687]

For those who have watched the full movie, this Ealing comedy movie's train scenes were mainly shot in Freshford, Limpley Stoke and Midford, my late uncle, Dennis New caught the rabbits and my late grandmother, Edith New owned the goats. Somewhere in the family archives is a photograph of myself with my gran watching the shooting by the railway line close to Tucking Mill.

[@DaveSuperThomas]

Bristol Temple Meads station was "Mallingford" in the film!

[@Britishrailwaystories]

Beautifully done sir. A great tribute to a great film, sad though it is to see tne route in decay, it is amazing to see what remains.

[@DaveSuperThomas]

The former Great Western Railway's Cam Valley line was used for the filming of the "Titfield Thunderbolt" because it had closed in 1951 along with the coal mine at Camerton which it existed to serve.

[@lezza1975]

Great little film. Shame we have lost a lot of are small railways

[@DaveSuperThomas]

The reason why British Railways made the Cam Valley line available for filming purposes in 1952 was because the coal mine at Camerton, which it existed to serve, had recently closed down after a working life of 150 years. The passenger service on this route was withdrawn by the GWR in 1925 because patronage was so poor.

[@Crusader24]

You’re not the only one’s Germany has made the Same mistake.

[@johnholt9399]

Difference is we kept South East and London and butchered the rest including Somerset where I live

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

*our

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

@@Crusader24 *ones

[@CyberPin2001]

Superb work! Very accurate match-ups. Many thanks.

[@mikepayne8745]

Watched this film for the first time over Christmas. Thanks for that. Have people noticed how green everything is and the variety of birdsong?

[@williamkennedy5492]

Our country vanishes in more ways than one, a 1952 movie when it was safe to walk the streets !

[@phaasch]

Meticulously put together. And achingly nostalgic.

[@robmasterman]

What an excellent idea, and superb before and after filming....5* Bob

[@meckanicall]

The most achingly sad aspect of this film and others like it from the early fifties, (just a few years after the second world war) is the mind-boggling contrast of how a beautiful, peaceful, simple, honest unique gem of an island has been destroyed by our politicians who made the wrong terrible decisions and carry on to this day to ruin everything and submerge us under an ugly, overcrowded, crime ridden mess, which gets worse by the day. It could have been so very, very different but now gone forever.... It brings tears to my eyes.

[@jacobmassey3897]

You should've got into politics and single handedly stopped it 😂

[@markstarmer3677]

What an honest comment. You nailed life since then perfectly.

[@robertcrewdson8611]

Yes, it's a shame how this beautiful country has been destroyed.

[@normandunford5747]

Me too, it was utterly disgusting what the insane government did to the rail system. Application of a little common sense and this country could have had a fantastic rail system, instead of gridlocked roads and lousy bus services as it is now.

[@bewseybill3691]

Very well edited. This short, simply demonstrates the wholesale destruction of our railway system, that once connected nearly every town and city in the UK. A sad reminder of better days gone by.

[@ambivalentonion2620]

they destroyed 2/3rds of railway lines in the 60s just to now try and throw us out of cars too

[@stephenfox6943]

Yes went way too far. Unbelievable that decent size towns don't even have a station even though a train line runs through 🤦🏻 like corsham and wellington.

[@matthewshaw988]

Very well done. I’ve tried to do then-and-now static images and realise how difficult it is. You need to get the location the same, of course, but matching the focal length too. To do this for moving images is very skilful.

[@steamsearcher]

I visit the area quite often and as you can now walk most of the Radstock branch on a new paved footpath go down this. The two lines running almost parrelel to each other through similar scenery. Thanks for such a good sorting out of locations and editing.

[@rubberdc]

This is EXCELLENT! Please please do some more like this.You obviously know your stuff?Isnt it amazing how the landscapes have changed? Wonderful.

[@zeddboy46]

Fascinating comparisons, cleverly arranged too! So sad the way things have changed with so much abandonment and wastage these days. Old England disappearing forever.....

[@G4KDXlive]

Terrific film - thanks for uploading this!

[@nightynightjill]

Fascinating, I live 8 miles away from here and have found the spot where the station would have been, its just off of Brassknocker Hill. Sad that things have changed so much in little time. A time when Britain was Great.

[@brianfaulkner7446]

SO SO TRUE KURT .

[@nightynightjill]

+train channel Its long gone, and has a large garage/lockup built on the old site.

[@SuperCustodian]

Kurt Jones h

[@None-zc5vg]

@Thurstone Furlong There were/are plenty of "Marples" (pl.) around and he didn't destroy the railways in isolation. For all that's fine about the picture, don't forget that it only shows the same fantasy 'England' as did "Passport To Pimlico" a few years earlier.

[@84asrd84boxy]

Excellent video,well thought out, and very well put together , The Titfield Thunderbolt was and still is a classic film, well done...Bill

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

Apparently it wasn't that popular when it came out, mainly because it wasn't as relatable as the other Ealing comedies. It was made in 1953, and at the time closure of a local railway line wasn't an issue that resonated with very many people - had it been made 20 years later it would've been a very different story!

[@simonf8902]

The scenery looked better with the railway. Rampant overgrowth has spoiled many of the lovely views shown in the film. I love that the ‘ modern ‘ railway at the beginning is the long closed Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.

[@georgeewart52]

Only just seen this brilliant video, you're obviously very familiar with the area to find the exact locations, well done!

[@rileyonoid6731]

The sad irony, in the film they fought against the closure of their line and won; in reality...

[@KempSimon]

In reality the nationalised rail industry closed the remaining stub of the Cam Valley line in 1953 because the nationalised coal industry had closed the mine which it served. The GWR withdrew the passenger train service along the Cam Valley as early as 1925 and between then and 1950 coal produced at Camerton Colliery (1780-1850) was the route's only significant freight flow.

[@boxtop2941]

The film was all about changing times but even they couldn't have imagined what was coming. Great look back.

[@redcarmodels]

Fantastically edited well done, seeing this movie on T.V at three year old and Thomas the Tank engine stories from my Dad every night, got me hooked on railways. 34 years later I'm still hooked and so are my 3 kids LOL!

[@MindWorksMarketing]

Your match-ups are immaculate! superb detective work!

[@robnewman6101]

Enjoy the ride.

[@mariaud999]

Brilliant! How much nicer England looked then.... :(

[@DaveSuperThomas]

Complete with its working coal mines?

[@OlafProt]

Fabulously done. You must be very proud of this. It’s terribly sad what we’ve lost. When the engine goes down the street from the museum, that’s Park Street in Woodstock Oxfordshire. I managed the Bear Hotel it went past. Although a few decades later 😂

[@colwynkid]

Just watched the film for the first time & thought I'd see what was up on you tube. I was Google mapping some of the locations in Freshford. Love this couple of minutes of nostalgia. Brilliant & keep up the good work. 10/10.

[@4beatlefans]

Excellent! I have a number of the 'Then and Now' books and this is a similar slant but with 'live' stuff. Super idea and well done!

[@davywarren2573]

lovely bit of nostalgia thanks for sharing

[@gandydancerpete]

Life was so much better when people traveled everywhere by rail. It was a HUGE mistake to pull up the rails. Highways are clogged. I've loved the movie Titfield Thunderbolt for years, and my heart raced a bit as I watched the unfortunate changes chronicled in this excellent video. We need more light rail, not less.

[@DaveSuperThomas]

Except that people weren't travelling everywhere by rail in 1925, which was when the Great Western Railway withdrew its lossmaking passenger train services from north Somerset's verdant Cam Valley, because of growing competition from the cheaper and more flexible road 'bus.

[@graceonline320]

How England has changed. Sadly for the worse.

[@DaveSuperThomas]

No doubt the inhabitants of this beautiful corner of north Somerset said exactly the same thing two centuries ago, as the construction of the Coal Canal proceded apace and barges carrying sixty tons of coal replaced long-suffering pack horses carrying, at most, a couple of hundredweight.

[@johnmillard7555]

Yes, you are right, many decades of 'negative progress'. I had to emigrate in the end , to get away from it all.

[@revol148]

@@johnmillard7555 where did you emigrate to John?

[@MOLYN867]

England is still a beautiful country. It’s the inhabitants that have disfigured it.

[@michaelnaisbitt1639]

If you destroy the infrastructure of a country and import thousands of illegal immigrants bend on changing a Christian country to a Muslim one the of course things will deteriorate add to this the biggest bunch of corrupt governments over 30- plus years and you get England today a third world country that can’t defend itself

[@likklej8]

Love the GWR Toad break van in the movie. Thanks for showing the original route and movie clips excellent video

[@JontyTrain]

Very well put together, very telling how much busier that road is that previously only had the bus on.

[@arthurbaldwin1804]

A lovely bit of editing giving us a snapshot of a gentler world, alas now forever gone. When our local line in rural Wales closed it left me instead of a five minute dash to catch the train to high school, a three mile each way cycle ride every day winter and summer.

[@cribpointcritter]

How fantastic this is, thanks for putting it up. It has always been one of my favourite films.

[@GreenerHill]

Very well done! The part just below the former Viaduct Inn was on the exact spot. I live two miles from the general area, and that makes the film even more fun.

[@pleatedskirt18]

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much. A lost time of a great country.

[@thesteamenginelover1974]

This probably makes every titfield thunderbolt fan sad

[@rivet4431]

I love these then and now films

[@pudseybob3682]

Amazingly put together, I do like these before and after films.

[@AndyGabrielPowell]

What a massive tourism boost that line would have been today. One snippet I don't know if viewers are aware of but I believe the 'Lion' used in the film is the original now in the National Railway Museum. The 'dent' it received in the film is still on the engine!

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

Actually, it's in the Museum of Liverpool

[@JohnnyWaterbucket]

Superb, Very well put together. One of the best produced things Ive seen on You Tube.

[@brianwalmsley447]

Nice one loads of memorys of the film been to the place where it was filmed hard to find a trace good to watch 👍

[@MrJasdog107]

Good work very interesting .

[@richardchadwick4028]

One of my Dad's favourite films , he got me into railways, if only they had more support , alot of are railway lines would be well used now. Oh well, it is ,what it is. ..great film .

[@DaveSuperThomas]

In reality the nationalised rail industry closed the remaining stub of the Cam Valley line in 1953 because the nationalised coal industry had closed the mine which it served. The GWR withdrew the passenger train service along the Cam Valley as early as 1925 and between then and 1950 coal produced at Camerton Colliery (1780-1850) was the route's only significant freight flow.

[@caley956]

That is one of the best things I've seen on KZbin. Enlightening and sad at the same time. Congratulations and keep it up!

[@dobermanpac1064]

Fabulous! Fun to watch. Remember you can’t go home, once you’ve left 😎

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

@MOHAAVIDEO Beeching wasn't responsible for this particular closure - the film was made in 1953 and the line that they used for the Titfield branch was already closed by then. Beeching was appointed in 1963. Everyone associates railway closures with him, yet they seem to forget that there were many beforehand! The network's peak size was around 23,000 miles - at the time of Beeching's appoitment it was already down to around 18,000.

[@DaveSuperThomas]

The Cam Valley line closed in 1952 because the large coal mine which it served, in the village of Camerton, had itself just been closed by the National Coal Board.

[@hansomcommon]

Fabulous video, please do some more to this superb standard!

[@paulgardner1957]

A superb bit of work. Thank youfor posting. I loved it.

[@DaveSuperThomas]

Just outside the beautiful Georgian City of Bath. You can walk along the trackbed of the former Somerset & Dorset Railway from the remains of Green Park Station (now a Sainsbury's supermarket) via the mile-long, unventilated, single-track tunnel under Combe Down, all the way to Midford, where much of the "Titfield Thunderbolt" was filmed. After a pint of locally-made cider in the "Hope and Anchor Inn" carefully cross the busy main road before dropping down onto the dry bed of the defunct Somerset Coal Canal, and prepare to be pleasantly surprised ....

[@fransam1961]

Wonderfully done....spot on. Thank you!

[@mrspivvy]

excellent job! well done, makes me very sad though that all these lines are gone now.

[@DaveSuperThomas]

In reality the nationalised rail industry closed the remaining stub of the Cam Valley line in 1953 because the nationalised coal industry had closed the mine which it served. The GWR withdrew the passenger train service along the Cam Valley as early as 1925 and between then and 1950 coal produced at Camerton Colliery (1780-1850) was the route's only significant freight flow.

[@martintaylor7391]

What a wonderful film, watch it every time it comes on the telly. Oh, for England to be like that again….I know it can’t be, but compared with today, it was a better place. I’m glad I live in the West Country and pass some of the scenes now and again.

[@patronstdenial5195]

This kinda made me sad. I just find it upsetting that such remnants and traces of the pass are lost to time. The land is indifferent to human presence and infrastructure, and it just reclaims the space as if it was there to begin with. Forget the age old sentiment “if these walls could talk,” rather, if the trees or grass could talk, there’d be no room, not even in a museum to hold all the words they’ve got to say.

[@dek12120]

Super video, brought a lump to my throat. A golden age.

[@raythomason3]

Wonderfully nostalgic; well done.

[@swifthalf]

I was just google mapping Freshford and thought I'd put Titfield to see what came up. What a dedicated piece of work. Excellent filming and production. Can't wait to show this to my cousins who are also Titfield fans. Have explored the area many times but just can't get enough of Titfield. Thanks P.S. I know its a bit of an imposition but any chance of any more perhaps "Amateuritis" or how about "The duel". ;o)

[@chrisjohnson4165]

I lived in Freshford for a few years in the 1970s. Lovely village.

[@robertwhite8238]

I watched the film last night. This set of views and film is lovely. What a shame the station is now a football pitch and the only reminder is 2 iron gate posts. I wonder if life was as peaceful and simple as it looked?

[@revol148]

+Robert White health & safety regulations, advanced medicine, the internet, central heating, 28 days paid holiday, international travel - give me 2018 for all the problems of the present than the over fondly remembered 1950's.

[@CZ350tuner]

@@revol148 Don't forget the advancements in medicine we enjoy today. Children died from measles. Adults died from what are now detectable, treatable and even curable cancers.

[@clearlake3492]

@@revol148 Ah, but rose-tinted spectacles are far more expensive nowadays...

[@revol148]

@@clearlake3492 agreed - I guess you would really have to ask someone who was alive 70 years ago (I certainly wasn't) to give an honest appraisal of the 1950's compared to now.

[@clearlake3492]

@@revol148 Well, I WAS alive 70 years ago, being born in 1945. What I recall about the 1950s wasn't good. To me it was a very 'grey' time with very few luxuries on offer.. Indeed, I was nine before rationing finally ended and I recall waking up on winter mornings with ice on the inside (yes, inside) of the bedroom window. This was standard in houses without central heating and all the other mod-cons we now take for granted. My parents couldn't afford a car (not many could in those days) and obviously foreign holidays were out of the question. No, people who go on about how wonderful things were back then clearly either weren't alive at the time, or have extremely defective memories.

[@glendaoconnor6849]

The loco used for The Titfield Thunderbolt is really called "The Lion" and is on display in The Museum of Liverpool Life well cared for in her retirement.

[@Moodster020]

One of the best i've seen! Great stuff, 5* & Fave'd

[@thunderchild21]

Wow. Excellent video there. You must have gone through some great length to find the actual locations of where the film was based! Many thanks for posting this up. Jeff

[@SuperYellowPhoenix]

Came through via the link from My Beautiful Ealing. This is amazing and very nostalgic viewing.

[@joewalker2152]

Fantastic video my friend!! Combining two of my many interests, the railways and "then and now" photography/video. Its a long time since ive seen the film, but wasn't this part the race to prove the train was quicker than the bus?? If so, one thing for certain is the bus or car would definitely be a lot slower today with all the traffic and other restrictions!!!!

[@johnwaldron4750]

What a charming and fantastic video, very well researched and assembled. Thank you.

[@ianomeara3963]

From Australia love that move 👍🚂

[@stroudtimewatch]

Thanks. It took a while to find the locations but was great fun to do.

[@alanrookard4924]

The number of times that I watched this film, have only just noticed that is comes through the viaduct at 0.12 the loco is running in reverse.

[@stephenfox6943]

Lovely video, i came here for a run the other week from bath through the tunnel and back via the canal system. It 2as early morning and lively morning mist around. I didn't realise it was from the ealing film untill i saw the placard and then i couldn't help having a good nose around.

[@DangerAngelous]

What a shame the line isn’t there anymore

[@rexorr]

This sort of thing always makes me feel sad!

[@bus2birds]

What an excellent video..well done and thanks for sharing

[@yeojohn]

A brilliant piece of film - well done & thank you.

[@GarethJohnMills]

Wow! What a great mini film. I loved The Titfield Thunderbolt and all the quirky Ealing Comedy characters. This video is fantastically made. If I could give 6 stars, I would.

[@angelsone-five7912]

Very well put together and I still say England was a better place back then.

[@pwiller7980]

The bus won in the end. Buses on country routes still run. Branch lines are now very few in number. An era of England lost forever.

[@TransportGeekery]

Do you have a list of these locations please? Please add to the description

[@trevortrevortsr2]

Its spooky how quick things vanish

[@likklej8]

The English future dream is a parking lot and a block paving front garden, man I’m feeling sick.

[@R2tag]

Great bit of filming to be at the same spot each time well done to match the old film :o)

[@lesreed9269]

Lovely clip - thanks.

[@stuartwalters1889]

Thoroughly enjoyed, thanks

[@mollyfilms]

Shame there wasn’t info on where the locations were, however I did recognise most as being just south of Bath close to Monkton Combe.

[@chrisevans5259]

Places looked so much more beautiful and quaint many years ago, and seemed to pulse with much more life and atmosphere.

[@atomage2006]

Very good - agree with all the previous comments - any more then!?

[@craignobbs2455]

A remarkable piece of work. Thank you!

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

@MrBazzabee To be fair, the railways were losing an awful lot of money which we simply couldn't afford to be losing - especially when we were already virtually bankrupt from WWII - and something needed to be done about it, otherwise the whole system could've collapsed! Also, don't forget that the Minister of Transport who employed Beeching just happened to own a road building company - something which wouldn't be allowed these days!

[@None-zc5vg]

My local P.T.E. had representation on the board of the company that supplied most of its bus bodies: coincidentally, those buses were being scrapped after only 12 years so that the bus company could make a healthy profit supplying replacement buses. This meant that there was de facto corruption, but no-one saw the inside of a courtroom or of a prison-cell. The hundreds of written-off '12 year old' retired buses were later found to have been capable of another 4 or 5 years on the road.

[@deannelson2207]

we were there 2 weeks ago,wish we had know sooner we would have took some location pics

[@marklatimer7333]

Anyone else notice how much better the countryside looks without all the trees in the way?

[@simontrainbrainz6038]

I need to rebuild the old line at all costs, it would be amazing for that to happen.

[@None-zc5vg]

You would need millions to buy back the land and to buy the labour and materials (no more Irish-navvy slave labour) and then your plans would have to go through Parliament. Then you need rolling-stock and stations and all the infrastructure to access the stations, and the fuel for the motive power, and then you'd have to get the potential passengers out of their expensive cars (in what will now be an exclusive area).

[@Paulwherrell]

This was a Great British film made during a bygone age. Even back then people realised it was a huge mistake closing a lot of those lines down.

[@DaveSuperThomas]

The former Cam Valley Railway, which ran through the verdant landscape of north Somerset from Monkton Combe to Hallatrow, was a freight-only branch line closed by the British Railways Board in 1952 after its main source of traffic - the coal mine at Camerton - had itself been closed by the National Coal Board. The supreme irony being, of course, that the railway was itself built along much of the dry bed of the Somerset Coal Canal, which closed in 1895 .... although not, of course, the magnificent flight of 28 locks at Combe Hay, which are still extant. In my student days at Bath University I lead an annual Hiking Club ramble along the Cam Valley Railway/Somerset Coal Canal from Midford all the way to Paulton Basin. There must be more industrial archaeology in the little village of Midford than there is, per square mile, anywhere else in England.

[@stroudtimewatch]

Cheers, glad you liked it.