Vintage transport film - Moving Millions - 1947

This vintage transport film, produced in 1947 by the Central Office of Information, details the challenges involved in the transport of London's millions and how London Transport deals with it.

[@neilritson7445]

Love how everyone is well-dressed!

[@robkeeleycomposer]

And thin (for the most part). the austerity diet was healthy, if restricted.

[@MrAsBBB]

This is what KZbin is for. I often think I wish we were able to do this hundreds of years ago. Can you imagine, it would be like time travel. At least our descendants will be able to do it. Such a great video. Happy days

[@johntyjp]

Now we regret getting rid of those electric trolleybus s and trams for clean air!!🧐

[@nicholasroberts6954]

Thank you Mr Marples

[@marvwatkins7029]

You know it! And in other cities as well. What foresight, eh what?

[@ktipuss]

Yes, notice how only one tram gets shown and only two trolleybuses; LPTB no doubt thought that including too many of them would spoil their "modern" image, despite several ancient buses being in shots.

[@OlafProt]

Definitely a HUGE hindsight moment isn’t it? Trams worked, they just needed updating. Not rubbishing. But the car was, and is, king, according to every government since the 50s.

[@spikespike9720]

In 50 years time, we will be back to diesel. Its all about economy and none reliance on Russia. P.s, we will have a ice age in around 120k years time. We are still coming out of the last ice age. It's the earth's cycle.

[@NickRatnieks]

London Transport planned and designed so much- even down to that cast concrete bus stop with timetable we see at 3:40. Sadly, it all began to unravel in the late 60s and early 70s but for 40 odd years, London Transport was a model for others to admire and copy. Great film- and a glimpse of about the time my parents began to live in London, where they met.

[@jamesfrench7299]

Now mediocrity reigns supreme. We need to hand it over to autists.

[@shanegahan4341]

What an era...the London I miss

[@petermartin6941]

Nostalgic to see a double deck on service 305 which at the time ran from Beaconsfield Old Town to Gerrards Cross via my village Seer Green and the Chalfonts. What an historical gem this documentary is.

[@CockatooTransit]

An absolutely incredible upload! what a gem.

[@doctordeej]

A pre-cursor to Jago Hazard and Geoff Marshall KZbin videos.

[@MrAsBBB]

Totally agree.

[@johnhehir508]

Jago and Geoff do updates 1948-2023 😂😂😂😂😂

[@tattyshoesshigure5731]

Wonderful film, thanks for uploading it! As a 10 year old bus spotter I used to get a Red Rover ticket for 2/6d (I think that’s what they cost in 1960!) and go all over London seeking out rare buses like Pre-War RT’s listed in my Ian Allan ABC London Transport booklet… happy, carefree days indeed!

[@jackmartinleith]

"Red Rover ticket for 2/6d" Sounds about right to me. I lived in Barking and would see how far away I could get. My favourite jaunt was to Ripley via 215 RF class bus from Kingston Bus Station.

[@stevewindsor120]

A timeless classic information film, how London has changed since those post war days, thanks for sharing such a wonderful time in London, a time of hopes and dreams of a better safer future.

[@aaarrrggghhhh]

11.47 is Northfields Station, 11.51 is Rayners Lane and 11.54 is Harrow-On-The-Hill. I remember the days when people smoked on trains, it was disgusting being trapped in a tunnel on a smoking carriage.

[@annenunney9907]

Lovely video they were the days thank you

[@AndreiTupolev]

What magnificent musical scores these films had. It could be Brief Encounter.

[@michaelmiller641]

Nicking a lot of themes, I noticed!

[@Quebecoisegal]

The music is a real time shifter, love it and the video.

[@trainrover]

OMG..! I've waited years & years to watch more SPLENDID footage of CO/CP rolling stock recorded here 👍👏❤💋

[@John-qq8he]

A different world. One which I miss.

[@tancreddehauteville764]

Seems like it could be from 1,000 years ago, so different is it from modern reality of life in London.

[@user-sd3ik9rt6d]

It's a work of propaganda

[@dave-si1vq]

London was a wonderful place. Now look at it 🤔

[@doodemog]

It’s a shithole now

[@gaugeonesteam]

My late father born in 1922 in Islington worked for an engineering firm that was relocated to Poole/Dorset in 1939 as they did defence work for the MOD. He told me he thought London was an awful place to live and he never wanted to go back there.

[@memyself1566]

@@gaugeonesteam Your father was probably right! What would you think of it now though?

[@neild129]

That's the England I want to live in. Not the disaster we have today. They may not have the technology we have today but it looks a much better place to live!

[@VickersDoorter]

How true. You don't have to go far from your doorstep to find aggression, rudeness and unpleasantness, even when you're trying to mind your own business.

[@iant9461]

It’s tragic. But that’s what diversity and the rot of the 3rd world has drought us.

[@canturgan]

In the days when London Transport was run like the military. Double deckers used to go through the Rotherhithe tunnel in those days.

[@davidgolbert3548]

Great production, and as someone has already pointed out, feature film quality musical score.

[@gazza2933]

I love these post war documentaries. 👍 🇬🇧

[@nicholasroberts6954]

Civilisation . . . even I, as a 1960s boy, remember the last vestiges of that. My local station, Rayners Lane @ 11:47 and later Harrow-on-the-Hill. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Rayners Lane used to have cracking flower beds on the platform . . . . another sign of civilisation . . gone ?

[@prc789]

Raynes Lane was my local in the 1980s and 90s in was useful as it had 2 lines so when I moved jobs from Whitehall to Earl's Court I still used the same station .

[@whynotagain3639]

It was my station, grew up round there from 1980-2015, did a paper round from Balfour News on the corner of High Worple Avenue as a teenager. I think it's a Subway now!

[@martm216]

Lovely old film.

[@simonfunwithtrains1572]

Reminds me of visiting London with my dad in the 1950's

[@andrewdolinskiatcarpathian]

Good grief. How the look and sounds of “life” has changed 😢

[@Finglesham]

Not for the better!!

[@michaelmiller641]

Wow! I've never seen that one before! About 1949-50 my era for modelling London!

[@VickersDoorter]

So evocative of that time. Alas, it was another world.

[@ed9763]

Fantastic. People looked so well dressed and smarter than today.

[@stevejulietb1590]

A happier time.

[@tonylittlelegs2110]

I’m a child of the 1960s God how I miss those days my country Great Britain England will never ever be the same again. We have all been sold down. The great British culture is Dave. The great British way of life is dead. I’m glad I was born when I was.

[@rickremco6275]

Imagine how this 80yr old Londoner feels :(

[@TicoStudio90]

Wonderful nostalgia 🤗 Wish l had a time machine to visit that era. It's a really lovely video. Thanks for uploading ❤

[@Oliver61500]

Beautiful film. Thank you for sharing

[@DawnGibson-gk6we]

So clean

[@Thefisherman27]

What a lovely time to be alive..

[@memyself1566]

Nostalgia is a very powerful emotion. It was not entirely good to be alive - not for the 95% of society.

[@Thefisherman27]

@@memyself1566 boo.

[@LondonRider12]

What? They were only two years out of a world war, they were still on food rations and large parts of the city would have been rubble. 😮

[@memyself1566]

@@Thefisherman27 Hoo

[@Thefisherman27]

@@memyself1566 🤣

[@jeremywilcox]

Surprised to see it was a two realer. Thanks for posting.

[@skrayraja]

Very informative and nostalgic video

[@Wildcard71]

A very good time capsule!

[@douglasgreen437]

Grayson, was that you on that bus getting on at the racecourse in a timely manner ? Why yes Mr Chalmondly Warner it was...

[@AndreiTupolev]

Some priceless shots of Ts and STs and LTs and STLs. And even (1:30) a Green Line Q!

[@michaelgreene4748]

In addition, the "Utility" buses, bought by London Transport starting in 1942, and peaking in 1946, while LT was waiting for production of the RT class bus to resume, are seen here.

[@tomkent4656]

Back when London and Londoners had a sense of pride.

[@marvwatkins7029]

Bloody fine work, say I.

[@Baldieman1]

Thank yo for the upload of this fascinating film,lovely to see London as it used to be,with all the lovely old buildings& vehicles,and everyone so smartly dressed.Also,how pretty is the girl@2.06

[@Rocketed12]

When people had morals, values and good manners

[@robbiefstrains9083]

13:47 White City station, I reckon. Westbound platform 1 yet to receive its track, signal cabin on the right of this, the white Unigate Dairy building in the distance (just recently demolished), framework of the ticket hall building left of centre and possibly White City Stadium and one of its lamp pylons to the extreme left. Great film!

[@Ass_Burgers_Syndrome]

Yeah I was thinking the same based on the year this film was made. That was my home station for a few years in the 90's when I was a guard

[@Finglesham]

Fantastic nostalgia. Great and the commentary is so clearly spoken. I wish people spoke that way now. Of course so few private cars to obstruct the public transport. We thought 'flexi- time ' was a new invention!

[@martinepstein3332]

Another world

[@alexandertebbiche6061]

Now that is my kind of thing, very good indeed❤😊!

[@Steven_Rowe]

I love these old films from the 40s and 50s, it gave an aire of correct procedures. It almost makes me want to live their again. I wonder if people queue in L9ndon for the bus like we did in the 1960s. I moved to Aus and it was a free for all to get on the bus. I remember probably around jumping the queue and the conductor reported me to the school, i got called in the old mans office and he said that i was bringing the re p utation of the school down,he was very proud and he of course was right. It wasnt something i did but i was just being stupid around school mates which teenagers are known to do. I nver got the stick, just a telling off.😊

[@MadBiker-vj5qj]

How very interesting to see car 20000, at 12:08, that looks like the prototype for the Metropolitan Line A Stock?

[@dvdvnr]

Yes, I saw that and thought the same thing. I hadn't realised they were prototyping it that early!

[@trainrover]

BLOWS ME AWAY..! and there I'd trusted its design tellingly turn of the Sixties 👀

[@dvdvnr]

According to Wikipedia those prototypes were built in 1946 but scrapped after the initial trials: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_A60_and_A62_Stock

[@michaelgreene4748]

@@dvdvnrthe cars were built on the underframes on T stock compartment motor cars. They were first built in 1947, with another car, which was to become what would become the A60 and A62 stock, going on line ca. 1948 The experimental cars would be scrapped in 1955.

[@leesmith8366]

Last old d stock I caught was from Gloucester rd Feb 1980.

[@LouDeVere]

What a wonderful video. Despite the difficulties of the era, I wish I could go back to this time. Obviously all the workers shown building London were shipped in to make the film as we know quite categorically that non-white people built London as any woke up person will tell you. Yeah, right! Alas, long gone now. I was born 11 years after this was made but still remember a London and Home Counties very similar.

[@RichieReportsUK]

People thought it was getting busy then, just look at it now!

[@DANEBLUEGNOME]

Wow, what are this film to see that type of the local transport, isn't... Nice! ;)

[@AndreiTupolev]

"Mishaps on a large scale become impossible" (8:47) was a hostage to fortune, though it was nearly another 30 years before a really large scale mishap did occur (Moorgate)

[@2760ade]

I do wonder, if they had a system for automatically stopping trains passing a danger signal, in 1947, how Moorgate even happened in 1975!

[@AndreiTupolev]

@@2760ade The thing was, I think, the train was correctly signalled into that platform so the signal would have been off. Now they're timed to make sure that the trains are correctly going slowly

[@2760ade]

@@AndreiTupolev Yes, I see what you are saying. However they obviously had the technology to automatically stop a train, in certain dangerous circumstances, well before the '70s. They must never have considered Moorgate a possibility I suppose!

[@patronstdenial5195]

8:31 LMAO I love this narrator

[@pgroove163]

wow just great

[@whynotagain3639]

My manor Rayners Lane station in the thumb nail!

[@robkeeleycomposer]

Marvellous. I wonder who the narrator is?

[@kevinwingfield2007]

Plummy voice

[@clam3822]

I really love the black & white days.

[@user-gk8gg1zt7l]

Good video, like😄😁!

[@paulwilliams5208]

This just after the 2nd world war and just to think 16 years later there was the Beeching bomb

[@bishwatntl]

Beeching reported on BR; this film was about London Transport

[@christown2827]

​@@bishwatntlThere must have been some knock on effects. Ever heard of Quainton Road?

[@MannyAntipov]

@@christown2827 Quainton Road was no longer needed by LT as the Metropolitan was considered too large to be part of the metro network. What happened after then was responsibility of BR.

[@stupididiot6116]

4:43 😆😆😆😆😀muppets washing bus with a pressure hose while the cab door is open ! …..bet the driver who next had to sit in that cab was right pissed off

[@AndreiTupolev]

Oil tail lamps on the rear of 1938 stock seems a bit surprising

[@wilsonflood4393]

A real cut gless eccent

[@TroublesomeSlateTruck]

Wow.

[@marknestbox]

This green and pleasant land, then so notably a brim with its indigenous population; but alas, no more, and never again.

[@basfinnis]

People queuing? I’m gobsmacked 😛

[@timjmyall]

I like the young girl on the tube - they don't make "em like that any more! Very pretty.

[@Baldieman1]

unfortunately not,pretty& elegant,unlike so many girls today.

[@MervynPartin]

4:45 Hosing down the side of the bus with the cab door open! Looks like a grudge against a particular driver. The narrator referred to "We Londoners" but sounded more like a BBC, plum in the mouth announcer. Nevertheless, an enjoyable documentary of better times (Pre- Khan)

[@RA76951]

Sounds a bit like Harry Enfield's character Grayson........

[@660einzylinder]

The bus is an STL, they had no cab door. The Metropolitan Police had a huge say in the design of London buses, and they felt a door would make it more difficult for drivers to signal and speak to beat and point duty bobbies. They were also dead against 8' wide buses being used in the central area, feeling there was not enough room for them, and they resisted OMO buses as they felt it would take too long to load passengers at busy locations.

[@MervynPartin]

@@660einzylinderThanks for that info. I certainly did not know that the Metropolitan Police were involved. It seems strange that with all the developments of buses in improving the conditions for drivers, that they should be exposed to the elements because of this interference. Did this occur in any other parts of the country?

[@heathstjohn6775]

I shouldn't look at these. Too much has been lost, and too-much ' gained ', since, to leave me feeling happy. A similie for me should be a smiling, happy, optimistic, encouraging, clean, well-dressed....corpse.

[@jackpontiac52]

Blakie: Get that bus out, Butler !

[@luislaplume8261]

Personally give me the buses and subway trains of Philadelphia and my old hometown of NYC during that era. 😊

[@michaelgreene4748]

I'm from Philadelphia, and I've seen those in New York City. London should be acknowledged for how they sought to address public transit.

[@KiyokaMakibi]

Look at the orderly queues for the buses. Sigh. Nowadays there’s like three queues 😑

[@pjeaton58]

4:20 Just like on the busses.

[@paulmoran217]

Notice the hair fashion....generally short, generally dark/brunette, no pseudo-blondes.

[@walkerramos6648]

Jeck kerouac ja bebia todas pelos pubs q tocava jaz nesa epoca kkk

[@Bungle-UK]

The voice of a typical Londoner there….like he has ever been anywhere near a factory or dockyard 😂

[@routeman680]

With his accent you hear every word clearly. You can't say that for the mumbling announcers of today.

[@austenhamilton7312]

Not a typical Londoner - he just has the voice required by the media at that time.

[@DawnGibson-gk6we]

Good days

[@TheStickCollector]

And in the us it is only thousands now 😞

[@eswnl1]

5:11 Live rail checker. Looked like a bank of light bulbs.

[@Hail_To_The_King]

Thank goodness these films exist to document London before the the gates of Mordor were opened

[@walkerramos6648]

MESMA EPOCA EM JACK KEROUAC VIAJAVA DE CARONA PELOS EUA !

[@johnbeagley8162]

Thanks to Khan London is lost forever

[@robertlamb1962]

Racist arsehole

[@InnocentAbyssinianCat-eb7ge]

Higgledee pigledee is posh slang

[@davidgray2653]

No uleez.then freedom to drive with being spyed on

[@Nigelfarij]

It says at the end "made at the request of the Foreign Office". So - this film was a propaganda piece that was not designed to be shown in the UK. That's why everyone looks so smart.

[@AndreiTupolev]

Every single one of the people in it, even the crowd scenes, are actors? 🤨🧐

[@Nigelfarij]

@@AndreiTupolev Of course not. But you choose what to show.

[@theskidmarkoforion4829]

London transport b4 sad sack wrecked it

[@robertfencl4401]

Every thing in Britain is catty-wampus!

[@Oliver61500]

London must be the Capital of Europe. No Berlin. London is the best city of Europe!

[@johnallen7807]

What a wonderfully "non-diverse" city our Capital used to be!

[@ianjeffery6744]

RACIST!

[@AndreiTupolev]

Aaaand there has to be the obligatory comment like this 😑

[@ianjeffery6744]

The racists are always with us.@@AndreiTupolev

[@johnallen7807]

And of course as a famous Russian aircraft designer you are more than qualified to comment??? Every time I think I have seen the most stupid fake name on KZbin someone like you comes along and surprises me!@@AndreiTupolev

[@memyself1566]

@@AndreiTupolev ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

[@lachlanmaclean3852]

I’m surprised this is allowed on KZbin.

[@AtheistOrphan]

Why?

[@petergardner5002]

Pre diversity.

[@edgarpoinsot5502]

😮How beautiful was the human race... before. 😢

[@davidreeves-turner6572]

Not much evidence of diverse casting…

[@robkeeleycomposer]

well, don't worry. it was made one year from the Windrush arrived.

[@ThRealJakeFeatherston]

Too bad we can't bring back the British Empire

[@hazcat640]

"four thousand 300 million" is a number that means nothing to me. Even search engines won't answer the question of what number that represents. Is it 4000300000000 ? Because the number I typed just now is four thousand followed by three hundred million.

[@JC-gm3zs]

4,300,000,000

[@hazcat640]

@@JC-gm3zs So, 4 Billion, 300 million. Thank you. Why do the British say it in such a convoluted way?

[@coloradostrong]

Because they have separate hot and cold water faucets. Because _guns_ and _knives_ are scary and have to be banned. Because they have to pay a licence fee to _watch_ television. Because they drive on the wrong side of the road. @@hazcat640

[@jimstrainsandstuff9539]

Because it IS 4300 million. Back then a billion was 1 million x 1 million or 1,000,000,000,000.

[@hazcat640]

@@jimstrainsandstuff9539 'Back when'? And who decided that one trillion was actually 1 billion? Also if you (not you personally) want to be awkward then why not say things like 'ten one hundred thousand' for a million? You have to admit it is ridiculous to state a math problem in place of simply stating a number.

[@JohnJ.Crunchalot]

First❤

[@timwright5466]

London...and not a single black face to be seen ..

[@user-sd3ik9rt6d]

Makes you feel happy, safe, comfortable?

[@robertlamb1962]

Racist arsehole

[@AndreiTupolev]

Wish you could go back to that time when you didn't see threatening alien faces everywhere?

[@kennethgiles-nu9dk]

@@user-sd3ik9rt6d no

[@ourtvchannel]

I assume women were invented after this film was made.

[@Hail_To_The_King]

How can you tell who identifies as a man or woman from the film?

[@NeilCharltonwebdesignlondon]

Lefties in disbelief

[@robertlamb1962]

What’s that got to do with it?

[@richardwilson9035]

The people who established and ran London Transport would be regarded as 'Lefties' in the current age. It was all about public service rather than private profit in those days.

[@Bestroblozianxxx]

That’s 1947 today London is very diverse city with many black faces brown faces and yellow faces. Oh yeah and white faces.