Vintage railway film - North British - 1949

[@julianbassett5172]

Great stuff. Those were the days, when we did stuff more than sell houses and frothy coffees.

[@fulknerra6116]

1949. Hmmm. Meanwhile, in the real world equally skilled engineers elsewhere were designing the electric traction that would replace all this 19th century coal fired ironwork.

[@simonsadler9360]

In my youth all was steam , I biked miles to see steam locos , & my unforgettable trip on the Cornish Riviera Express & those beautiful King class , my late dad took us to Kings Cross station on his Douglas Dragonfly , and gave the driver & stoker a pack of ciggies & I boarded the footplate of Mallard an tooted the whistle , although 79 now and living in the small village of Gaianes in Spain I was always known as "Smiler "

[@jamescollins3647]

The number of skilled and semi skilled people here is amazing. All gone now.

[@richardkell4888]

So much to be in awe of, but I must say that with these highly efficient pressure vessels and how 'tight' and accurate they are there is never any need as was the old hackneyed idea to look down on a boiler maker! Hats off to you all Sirs! .... So much bloody hard work and accumulated skill, it seems endless. I listened closely looking for mistakes in the narration (theres some terribly ill informed films out there on youtube) ... but hats off to the film makers they are 99.9% accurate.

[@tonyneville2905]

Love the commentary at 20 mins that notes 'the safety of the operator is never sacrificed for high productivity' just as the film zooms out to an operator with pretty much zero PPE on and turned stock laying on the floor in wait for an unsuspecting victim.

[@RHR-221b]

Thank you for this absolute *GEM* B B R. I was born at Stobhill Hospital, Springburn, Glasgow N1 (in the same Parish as the NB), on 29 March 1951, and lived at 42 Millarbank Street until circa 1962. My dear Paternal Aunties resided about half a mile away, in Avonspark Street. Whilst walking there to visit, I went via Flemington Street (where the main NB (Hyde Park) offices were situated). I always visited the foyer/vast 'lobby' therein. In pride of place was a wonderful scale model of one of NB's steam locomotives, built by NB apprentices. The model was immaculate in every detail, encased under glass. I spent many 'wee boy' imaginings there. Thank you so much for this upload and the associated memories brought to mind: some good, some bad - such as the time a NB employee was crushed under the huge metal pressing machine. The poor man was extricated by firemen using shovels and buckets. *Rest In Peace.* Stay free, B B R. Rab 🍻😎 ⏰ 🎲 🌠 🕊 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *North British Locomotive Company* [Credit: Wikipedia] The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies: Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Works) and Dübs and Company (Queens Park Works), creating the largest locomotive manufacturing company in Europe and the British Empire. Its main factories were located at the neighbouring Atlas and Hyde Park Works in central Springburn, as well as the Queens Park Works in Polmadie. A new central Administration and Drawing Office for the combined company was completed across the road from the Hyde Park Works on Flemington Street by James Miller in 1909, later sold to Glasgow Corporation in 1961 to become the main campus of North Glasgow College (now Glasgow Kelvin College). Much more data available at Wikipedia et al. R 👋

[@howardgoy9568]

A fascinating glimpse into a world of superb engineering craftsmanship now sadly almost extinct.

[@tweygant]

I spent 20 years as a supply chain manager for a contract manufacturer in the Chicago area. I performed many machine shop supplier qualification inspection visits. As I watched I swear I could smell the cutting and cooling oil of the shop. I’m also amazed at how much hasn’t changed in machine shops. I’m gobsmacked how much mechanical automation they had that today is done by computer

[@johndonaldson3619]

3:10 The head office building is still there on Flemington st with the NBL logo above the entrance) I attended classroom studies in the building which was then a college in 1977

[@Tom-Lahaye]

It's amazing how well set up and thoroughly modern the production was at North British. Many machines were state of the art like the automated lathes and drilling machines and the use of carbide tipped cutting tools which achieved high machine speeds for the time. Also the unified methods of production and interchangeability of parts was something not every locomotive factory could ensure. Their production equipment couldn't be the cause of the failure of their diesel locomotives, but more likely the design and the famous errors made in conversion from metric to imperial for the licence built MAN engines. Nice to see the cab for No. 10600 being mocked up. The demise of NBL is a great loss for the UK, they gave us so many excellent steam locomotives.

[@colinfeilen988]

It's great to volunteer with Rail Heritage at Bassendean Western Australia 🇦🇺 amongst these NBL locomotives 🚂 bearing the hallowed diamond makers plates !

[@TheManFrayBentos]

I knew that building well, as Springburn College. It was only much later I discovered the college building was the old head office of the NB works.

[@wagrtrains]

I think I saw 2 Pmr locos in a shot, wonderful suprise!

[@Dedubya-]

Narration by Mr Cholmondley-Warner or Mr Grayson

[@jamessmith6402]

Absolutely incredible video 👍 thanks

[@keithwoodburn7895]

Glaswegian friends will tell me but I think the crane loading at the end of the film still exists, with the Rotunda in the background

[@jamessmith6402]

Yes the Finnieston crane is still in place 👍

[@kylemore9142]

Looking round the sad husk that is Glasgow today it is hardly believable that this was the same city!

[@colettemccoy2921]

In the late 60s-70s a distant relative broke up trains for export his family built em and destroyed them over 40yrs all those jobs gone now though rip post war modernity😢❤

[@johnboxxy3432]

I was surprised near the end of the film to see the engine being transported to the docks by a towing truck and behind it a steam traction engine. I thought the traction engines would be gone by 1949.

[@thomasm1964]

They still used them for road-making as well. My late Dad was born in 1939 and used to tell stories of the road gangs in rural Lancashire letting kids up onto the traction engines and even letting the kids drive them. He would have been somewhere between 10 and 13 at the time so about this time. A different world and, in many ways, a better one.

[@TheStickCollector]

Neat Where can I get the music?

[@RHR-221b]

In the opening credits, the music is credited to a 'Mr Wolfe'. Not a lot of help ... All the best Y. R 🍻😎

[@joncrawford3485]

Could always try their website (really) www.dewolfemusic.com

[@piotrj.kaversky6676]

WOW 1949 THAT IS A OLD TIME

[@thomasm1964]

Well within the lifetimes of both my parents and only 15 years before I was born!

[@minixtvbox]

Then Thatcherism dictated no industry only services like warehousing shopwork

[@philnewcomers9170]

bravoe! ttfn&ty

[@glynwelshkarelian3489]

Spoiler alert! North British once built good steam engines, using methods that were out of date in 1920's America and 1910's Germany. By 1950 the company was a basket case. Just look at how primitive everything is! As long as any steam engine was better than nothing North British had a job; but they were struggling years before steam was killed off in Britain. The company was propped up by my parent's taxes paying for them to build diesels locomotives that were utter garbage, and were a millstone around BR's neck.

[@Steven_Rowe]

It is sad they closed but of course n many regards you are correct. There is a video from 1951 showing Alf Barnes the minster for transport naming Britannia at Marylebone in 1951, he states how Britain can still show the world how to build a steam locomotive. The French were commited to electrification before WW2 at 1500DC but by 1949 had tried 20KV AC with AC traction motors but soon went to 25KV using rectifiers and DC motors. Britain came out the war broke and that is part of the problem but I'm not to sure how the French found he money to do so much and let's not forget Germany that had just lost a war. Even now in the UK whilst trains are running at 200kph there is still no 300 plus h services apart from the Eurostar andHS2 is not completed. Even Morocco has a 300 kph service.

[@TheManFrayBentos]

@@Steven_Rowe The US Marshall Plan booted huge amounts of money into war-ravaged European states. Britain got a load,too, but pissed it up against the wall trying to prop up dreams of Empire.

[@Steven_Rowe]

@@TheManFrayBentos How do you know that's I would think Empire was dead by then.

[@johndonaldson3619]

Glyn hello, Britain was broke after the war. It couldn't afford investment and its steam engines were knackered from the war.. Coal was cheap and abundant, fuel was not so the only option was to continue with steam engine production for at least another decade...

[@glynwelshkarelian3489]

@@johndonaldson3619 You are absolutely right John, and, maybe, if Attlee & Labour had won the 51 election, British Railways might have managed to move from steam to electric, via diesel, in a sensible way. On the other hand both Conservative and Labour Governments kept giving work, and money, to the basket case that was North British, and even then North British supplied the dreadful diesels they built at a loss.