MAKING TRACKS BRITISH TRANS PORT FILMS AND THE HISTORY OF BRITISH RAILW AYS 1950-1983
On a Saturday night in 1952 a young couple has gone to the cinema to see The Gift Horse, a new wartime drama starring Trevor Howard. As usual, the feature is accompanied by a short. As the lights go down and the film starts, a patrician voice intones “Spring in England, West Cornwall to be exact. Broccoli is the crop of the moment, and there is a rush for it.” For the next 30 minutes the couple is entertained by a film outlining the problems that transporting the broccoli harvest causes the nation’s railways.
The film was Train Time, one of the early films produced by British Transport Films (BTF), established in 1950 by the British Transport Commission (BTC). It was headed by Edgar Anstey who had been involved in the British Documentary Movement in the 1930s. This aimed to produce films that would educate citizens in an understanding of their role in a democratic society but also address social inequalities and raise awareness of the contribution that ordinary workers made to society. Its most famous production was Night Mail. Made by the GPO Film Unit in 1936, it celebrated the work of the Travelling Post Office and has been cited as the best railway film ever made. Anstey saw BTF as producing films in the tradition of the Documentary Movement.
In possibly a conscious echo of the BBC’s public service commitment to “inform, educate and entertain”, BTF productions fell into three categories:
● ‘Informational films’ made for showing to the general public to “spread knowledge of current problems and achievements.”
● ‘Selling films:’ designed to “directly increase revenues by persuading the public to use railway facilities”.
● Instructional films for staff. (Quotes are from articles written by Edgar Anstey.)
The Unit’s output was considerable. Between 1950 and 1983 it produced over 1,500 films and filmstrips. Quality was high and the films won many awards, including an Oscar for Best Short Subject awarded to Wild Wings in 1967. (This was a film about Peter Scott’s work at the bird reserve at Slimbridge which, ironically, didn’t feature transport at all). Many are now available on DVD from the British Film Institute.
Although the films present a rather idealised vision of Britain’s railways between the 1950s and 1980s, they still constitute an important historical archive. They show many aspects of railway operation during a period of significant change as well as scenes of everyday life that have since almost entirely disappeared.
Uniting the nation
was unusual in securing a cinema release. Usually the films were shown in nontheatrical venues, such as factories and schools and in community centres and village halls to groups including trades unions and Women’s Institutes. However, it does demonstrate several of the key themes which characterise many BTF productions. It includes shots of trains from different locations, from the far north of Scotland through the Lake District and the Midlands to the very south
