Michael Palin, confessed train buff, introduces unique footage from the BBC archive: Branchline Railway and two historic newsreel sequences - a splendid requiem for the steam railway. “Branchline Railway”: the late Sir John Betjeman presents this little known film which perfectly captures the atmosphere of a 24 mile stretch of the now vanished Somerset and Dorset railway. It celebrates a working, living railway, complete with dirty locomotives, clean stations decked with flowers, and austere gas-lit waiting rooms. It all belongs to a vanished age but the film remains to delight and inform (broadcast 1963). “Britannia under her own steam” looks at the naming of the first magnificent Class 7 4-6-2 Standard locomotives ‘Britannia’ (broadcast 1951). “Atlantic Coast Express” is a footplate journey on Merchant Navy Class No. 35016 ‘Elder Fyffe’ as it heads the ‘Atlantic Coast Express’ (broadcast 1960).
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How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
304963
Language
English
Audience classification
G
Subject categories
Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → Travel
Communications, Infrastructure, & Transport → Railroad trains
Communications, Infrastructure, & Transport → Railroads
Communications, Infrastructure, & Transport → Railroads - Great Britain
Communications, Infrastructure, & Transport → Steam-engines
Documentary → Documentary films - Great Britain
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)