3801 - "A Steam Train Passes" - Out Takes

During a clean out of the Film Australia archives in the late 1990s a reel of out takes from “A Steam Train Passes" was discovered. The pieces of original film had been collected from the “cutting room floor” and randomly spliced together. The original audio had not been saved.
Fortunately the person who found it recognised its historical significance and contacted the NSW RTM. The reel had to be destroyed, but the process could be stalled for a few days. I was asked to digitise the contents and was able to do so before the reel was returned and destroyed.
I have attempted to edit the out takes in a sequence that partially resembles the original story.
I do not own, nor hold the copyright to this original material. A high quality copy of the digitised material has been forwarded to THfNSW for safe keeping.

[@australiasindustrialage689]

The film was remarkable, it is a culmination of railway folklore during the steam era in NSW into a 20 minute film and given it's production date of 1974, a year after steam passed followed by the sanctions against mainline steam it is a symbol of something we lost. One of the most haunting aspects of the film is the line of of engines in Enfield, some that are no longer with us. One of my favourite scenes was the parrallel run with the U-set. Yet, if that was included with the original sequence it would have detracted from the idea that it was the steam era and not a more recent scene. E.G. They would have wanted to make believe it was the 1940s and not the 1970s. Thanks for sharing!

[@Linda2]

Wonderful footage. We are so fortunate to have folk like you to go to much trouble for us to enjoy. Its easy to forget the amount of work you have put into doing this , very much appreciated, thankyou.

[@donaldfaris4798]

So glad this footage was saved awesome to see it

[@phillipoconnor8815]

Hi,
Thanks for sharing this one. Its great. My dad who has long passed fired the 3801 as well as many other classes in the early 1950's. Worked mainly out of Goulburn, Cooma, some times Enfield and Macdonaldtown.
Talked often about the different operations shown in the film. Loved the original film but this one is incredible. Thanks for saving it for us.🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺👍👍👍

[@plainswell]

It is unforgivable that they deliberately destroyed such great original footage. Thanks so much for making a copy and compiling this. The creativity in so many of the takes is marvellous and it is a bit sad more of these didn't make it into the final cut.

[@vsvnrg3263]

plainswell, it may have been recorded on highly unstable acetate film. you cant leave it lying around because it can spontaneously combust then set fire to all other important film around it then burn the whole place down.

[@plainswell]

@@vsvnrg3263 That would have been the case for early nitrate film stock (pre around 1948) but by the 1970's the film used would have been acetate film ('safety film'). I just did a little search on the topic and found that acetate film DOES degrade but is not flammable. Properly stored, Kodak originally claimed a life of 450 years, but that was revised down to 70 years by the 1980's. Hi-res 4k or even 10K digitisation was/is the recommended preservation method, but I guess they could not afford to do that with this footage. When destroyed, this footage would have been only around 25 years old, so could have been kept a few more years awaiting cheaper or better preservation. We can at least be grateful that this clandestine lo-res transfer was achieved...

[@williamwelbourn7932]

I own the DVD Umbrella put out 15 years ago. I think I understand why this wouldn't have been an extra... too much fiddling about. Thanks for making this incredible footage available for us to watch.

[@terrenceodgers5866]

Thank you for your dedication.

[@MichaelStBede]

That was really wonderful ! Thank you.