Vintage railway film - Freight and a city - 1966

The optimism that came with the Brutalist architecture is worth a study because of the severe depression and decline that came later.

I love this, I could watch old films like this all day long.

Whilst it is a shameful indictment on current transport problems, I get terrible memories of accidents caused by loose shunting activities. Still, this film shows the great efforts to modernise the railways in the 1960’s and 70’s.

Sheffield, and many other once prosperous British cities, are now a far cry from when city planners and architects from all over the world came to marvel at the sheer excellence of their layout and organisation. Now just jobless, underdeveloped dumps due to the wonder of deindustrialisation. The manual jobs back then may have been hard, but at least they were jobs, with decent pay and the average worker could afford to live and buy a house. Such a scandal that we look back 57 years and compare life then to now and find it was better then in many respects!

On the cusp of computerization, but still with steam about (admittedly for just two years): amazing and incredulous.

What an excellent historical documentary. The shots from inside the wagons stand out. I do miss the Tinsley area!

That's actually fascinating, can't help but love the ramshackle human nature of the old system though.

A fascinating view of the Brave New World during the 1960s. 60 years on the world is totally different of course. Great video👍

Bloody brilliant. Thanks for uploading. Also, I've played "Train Simulator" but what I really want from the game is to be in charge of a marshaling yard.

Amazing to see a shunting brakeman wearing a suit

9:54 Loco No.61315 was a Thomson B1, built by North British, Glasgow, in April '48 and was withdrawn February '66. The Shed she's emerging from is likely 40E Langwith Junction, her last shed, and she was 'dealt with' at Hesslewoods, Attercliffe, one of 13 loco's they scrapped. Interestingly, Hesslewoods still survives to this day . . .

Reminds me of the start of The Full Monty.

It's strange to see exactly the kind of thing my grandparents would've seen 100-ish miles down the Midland in the 60s. What's considered modern and cutting edge, now feels archaic. Calling the concrete flats "good flats in nice surrounds" and seeing people trackside without any protective gear really shows how times have changed. And that building at 15:11 doesn't even seem real! Got to say though, the Double Arrow really is a timeless classic. 21:10 could've been today just with higher quality. Glad it's coming back to full prominence soon.

Interesting to see the nearly forgotten Capstan used for shunting a single wagon at 7:03.

Can't help but think we actually took a step back in time closing all this and crowding our roads with freight once more...how ironic that all that manpower and mechanical nostalgia seems more. forward thinking than our so called smart motorways of today.

It’s nice once in a while to hear the optimism of BTF. Great film, thank you for sharing it!

It's nice to see such a pristine film of British industry back when it was still bouyant. As many will know, the 70's presented England with many unforeseen problems and selfish incompentent leadership didn't help, the upshot being that UK industry was decimated and what was left was just gutted by Thatcher. My home town was a railway town and the postwar policies of cutting back on rail stations and production saw to that. Nice movie though.

I’ve always wondered how the automated sorting worked, thanks for posting this.

I was 16 years old when this film was made, remember those times well, and lived in a different - but similar - midland city. What I had quite forgotten was how grubby and depressed everything still looked in those days. If the date wasn't given (and we didn't see the 'modern' railway equipment and architecture) I would have though this film was made in the early 1950s.

Fascinating stuff, from Sheffield but only saw the end of the new developments shown in this film.