Vintage railway film - Operation London Bridge - 1975
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- Опубліковано 29 лис 2024
- This vintage railway film, produced by British Transport Films in 1975, shows the reconstruction of London Bridge station and its approaches to provide easier, more reliable services for the thousands of people who use it.
London Bridge is the oldest of London's railway stations and the focal point for a great complex of suburban and coastal services covering the South East.
This is a perfect use for You Tube. It just keeps the memories alive and will keep it alive for generations to come.
I remember this well... the actual works and this film! Thank you for uploading. Fantastic footage. As someone else has already said, much of this has recently been extensively remodeled yet again!
Shut your thuking noise
Thanks for posting this film - I remember it being made and shown to us at work. I was a trainee in the S&T department in the early 70s and then worked in the signal engineering drawing office at Croydon from the very end of 1974 for 4 years, much of it on the new Hither Green interlocking which was part of the London Bridge scheme. This means I remember the scheme well and it was great to relive those years in brief by watching the film. As has been mentioned our scheme has been superseded by further works and remodelling to remove more of the conflicting moves mentioned and to replace our scheme which must have been life expired. The panel tester is the late Roy Bell who was the Project Engineer and a first rate signal engineer who was widely respected by all who knew him.
You're very lucky to have had such opportunities. Must have been exciting.
Many thanks for this. Fascinating to see the construction of the station and railway that I remember from the late 1980s onwards, and which was itself rebuilt again, even more drastically, in the mid 2010s.
Marvellous. 47 years ago. How time flies!
I started my working career at a public analysts off Fenchurch st in 1967. London was a lively place, full of interest and smells. The pool of London was still alive with Wharves and Warehouses, Billingsgate was in full swing in the early morning, the smell of roasting coffee as you walked to work, Leadenhall Market as it was,
old tea rooms, coffee houses, dining rooms and pubs. The lunchtime fun on Tower Hill cobbles with Lord Soper,
fire Eaters, sword swallowers, escape artists etc,. The Wren Skyline still in evidence and unspoiled, 6d to walk up the steps of the fire monument where sometimes a fellow worker and myself at a sandwich or two. London
lost it's Bridge and it's charm, such is life. I now live in the far West (to go any further would be Scilly), I've been back once or twice and that was enough... Love these Old Films you post, they bring back very happy memories, thank you!
I don't know how this ended up in my recommends but I'm glad it did; it's fascinating! It's interesting to see how this complicated upgrade happened in the 70s. Also, comparing the working methods back then to now it's crazy to see how people worked: jackets and ties, no hats or high-vis, a bunch of guys with walking sticks just there to check things out on the railway! This was a great video, thanks for sharing.
I think it landed on mine because I've watched a few bits of royal death continuity, "Operation London Bridge" being the apparent codename for the death-of-the-monarch operation! Fascinating to think this video is from the first half of the Second Elizabethan Age, when you think of it like that...
And no gloves, apart from the guys laying the tarmac. Their hands must have been wrecked. I commuted to school in the 1960s and early 1970s using those slam-door trains and we would open them as early as we could; sometimes before the train even drew into the platform let alone stopped. If the driver stopped more suddenly the door might slam back so you had to watch them at all times
Laying hot tarmac by hand - what a awful job
at 8:25, the white building in the centre is now "The Barrow Boy and Banker" a nice Fuller's pub. There are so many great pubs in this area. the Rake, the Market Porter, I could go on!
Just in there this evening! Nice pub, not been in there before and been a londoner 47 years..
Very informative and fun to watch. A bit of history.
Love these. Thanks for putting them up.
Thank you for posting this! I remember watching this countless times on a DVD loaned from my local library in Lancashire in my childhood, and this is incredible to watch again
Working on the railway in jeans and a T-shirt. Love it.
I remember this happening , the final bit was changing the layout at Borough market junction and this was done over an Easter weekend, I think in 1975. With the Charing Cross and Cannon Street trains not having to cross over each other the punctuality and reliability of the service improved beyond recognition
I used to commute in from Sutton and passed this construction as it was going on. London Bridge Station had just been renewed, without the turmoil of the most recent one. I remember the surface was laid with plastic tiles that,when wet, were lethal underfoot and all became unstuck. Coming up to the station there used to be the smell of the Peek Freans on the right and Sarson's Vinegar on the left. In those days the rail was run for the employees, whereas now it's run for profit. Never for the poor, overcharged passengers. Having drunk ticket collector puffing away on a cigarette was common.
Even though I'm 35 and I'm old enough to remember slam-door trains in my childhood it still seems weird to me watching this thinking "you could just open the door at 70mph" 😯 😅
Same age and have some pretty similar feelings. Then again, I've spent the last nine of those years in Newport, South Wales - which kept HSTs well into the 2010s. As someone with coordination difficulties from being autistic, I used to feel very nervous about getting on and off those, especially getting off at Newport where I might be hurried...
I used that station every day for a few years.......hated every journey there during the rush hour! It did bring back some memories though, of a different and less violent age. Great video.
Brilliant! Thanks for uploading. These videos are vital in keeping history alive and well documented, and its great they bothered to do so in the 1970s.
Is a great contrast to see the 1970s calling its old, ugly and in need of optimising with the same being said in the 2010s.
I really was born in the wrong decade. Less people, less job competition, able to drive and park in the capital. And best of all, able to rent a place in an old building right next to a railway line. Now its all offices, bar a pub or two.
Thanks for sharing CHEERS from United States 🇺🇸
I don't know how this ended up popping up in my feed, but it's fascinating to see how much things have changed, looking on with modern eyes!.11:31 was the first point I noticed hard hats! All the swinging steel and track, in the air, at 9 minutes in, was making me slightly nervous. A different age.
But the job got done in half the time I too was thinking the same no orange in sight how times have changed
And again in 2012 the station underwent a massive redevelopment.
The latest redevelopment is pretty impressive though. I don't remember the station before 1975 but the one they built in this film was pretty grim and I don't miss it at all. The works to rebuild the station this time weren't 'that bad' either.
It was a horrible station, still confusing and dingy. The modern station is a great improvement
Don't forget, around 1999, they rebuilt the undergorund station as well.
I too remember this well! I started my apprenticeship on BR in 1972. I worked on CM&EE maintaining lifts cranes etc. from New Cross Gate and later Waterloo. Not the finest years for BR but have fond memories of my colleagues and companions.
You're very lucky.
Great video again. So amazed at the hard work that went into it, especially how they smoothed the asphalt - so hot! P.S., had a laugh at the crotch shot at 12:33, nice hole in the pants, mate.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very good …. Thank u
This being the early 70s, one can see the vast changes having taken place within London and the United Kingdom generally. It has not all been an improvement - not by any measure.
I was born in 1967 in Bermondsey and god I loved my London and still do good and bad . Greatest city in the WORLD . 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Amazing to see it done all over again a few years ago
It's weird to see them talking in the past tense in a documentary. They don't do that anymore. Now they describe what is happening on the screen in present tense, even though it did indeed actually occur in the past
In the 70's almost by Sarson's there remained a lone coaler/water station on the left most line that lingered on forgotten til one day it was quietly removed, I also remember the two water and coal stations at either end of Hither Green marshalling yard that BR ignored calls to preserve and just demolished :( I remember when me father was put onto Hither Green box a couple times I went into work with him and I got to play in the old HA's 3 of parked behind the fuel line next to HG box then one day me father comes home from work at Wimbledon A to tell me the three had been towed off to Eastleigh and every driver who saw them old girls pass would give a two tone salute. I used to get a train from LB to Sydenham to go to school and the trains were the 4SUB's with two compartment corridor central coaches, was so cool you could sit in a compartment all to yourself AND go for a widdle and the 4SUB's had those delightful whistles instead of 2 tone horns... happy days :D
Does anyone know if a recording of the orchestral soundtrack exists? It is a very interesting and quite pleasing arrangement to listen to.
Before all the ticketing security my father remembered nearly missing his train. He ran down the platform at London Bridge to get on a moving train. He had to wrestle the door open, get in and shut the door. Not unusual in those days, but challenging if you had a bowler hat, a brolly and a copy of the The Times.
i delivered to the new london bridge station glad people seem to like it
Each decade just pushes the problem along
Fantastic video, thanks for posting. On the sped up video of Borough Market I can't help but notice the trains using the curve from Cannon Street and Charing Cross - seems like a short service but presumably it was used at some point?
Fabulous to see this. People seemed to appear less frustrated.
Amazing Thank you
Very sad song that was London Bridge that song makes me cry London Bridge is falling down . Let that sing rest in peice it brings sorrow to me .
I used to live on the Hayes route to LB. My stop was Eden Park. And yes the old Cannon Street -Waterloo East conundrum
Great stuff. I really love the soundtrack, it's like Ben Hur 😂
o' to be a post-war television composer, you clock into work one day and you're asked to write 15 minutes of good-enough orchestral soundtrack that continually references London Bridge is Falling Down in how many creative ways you can imagine. And that's like you're whole job, or maybe if you play in the orchestra and you just go in every day to record how many ever random tv programs need an orchestral score - completely unthinkable
Used to work in New London Bridge House , 22 storey office block where all the aerial shots must have been filmed. Demolished 2009 for the building of the Shard
Imagine the train and car were invented yesterday and having to build a rail or road network from scratch today. Unless the whole lot was put underground or on stilts I cant. Then when your out of the cities the old idea of as rte crow flies would be a no no. There would be rare snails worms and the odd strange shaped blades of grass to be avoided. Here in Ireland the route of a motorway was changed because of a rare moss.Love this stuff thanks
There was plenty of opposition to railway building back in the 19th century. It was mostly landowners who didn't want a great big dirty and body train going past every few minutes.
The viaducts we now consider national monuments were fought just like people fight concrete flyovers now.
Noisy, not body. Sorry forgot to read before hitting reply...
15:07 Mondial House - the computer building. Missed icon.
Great , superb
My Father was involved in some of this. Divisional offices Beckenham. Assistant to the Divisional Civil Engineer Works and General.
Oh, those beautiful victorian castings being cut up!
Can you do the driver view of the freight train carrying containers between Kewdale to Fremantle
I'll try!
By 2015 the London Bridge area was completely remodelled and by 2020 the London Bridge ASC closed.
Borough Market Signal Box has been preserved at NRM York
As a millennial, it seems strange to think that as late as the 70s the railway was a set of rickety slam door trains being controlled by humans, let's face it men, pulling levers and tugging on semaphore signals. I swear our train are always 30 or so years out if date
We still had slam door trains on that line in to the 2000’s. I used to get one every morning from forest hill into Charing Cross!
Indeed, it wasn't that long ago that they finally went. Aside from the fact you could open them while the train was still moving, the carriages were death traps. Because of all the doors and being constructed from a combination of matchsticks and tin cans, they collapsed immediately in an accident.
There are still plenty of semaphore signals and levers on the railway. In fact, there is still at least one of those signal boxes in London (or there was when I worked on the Western Area at Greenford?). I’m a millennial, and it’s my job to keep some of that stuff running. Most of the “modern” electronic equipment I am responsible for is at least 10 years older than me. In fact, I done a training course last year for equipment designed in the early 60s, still doing sterling service across the network. If it ain’t broke….
@@acciid Please get your facts right. The London suburban trains were built on strong steel underframes with steel bodies that met the requirements of the day. Safety standards are always being updated, and more modern stock is more strongly constructed. That doesn't mean these trains were death traps - that's a very emotive statement that is untrue.
And on the radio: "Back in the USSR !" and oldies like " Please Please Me !" and "Nowhere Man" !!! Check out the bell bottoms and long hair !! "England Swings Like a Pendulum Do" from Roger Miller here in the US !! This is all before the internet folks or the very beginnings of !!! I think CDs were coming in as well...
Thanks for this download...I love trains and earlier documentaries like these...
Wow! That's some alternate history you got there!
I think CD's first went on the market about 7 years later (1982). I didn't get my first CD player til about '95 or '96, so, not what you'd call an 'early adopter'...
@@richiehoyt8487 Exactly! The Beatles in the 1960's, CD's in the 1980's and this film right the middle of the 1970's.
The internet's been around since the 60s. The general public didn't use it, granted, and the world wide web was a long way off, but it was there.
@@acciid "The general public didn't use it, " Don't you mean COULDN'T use it?
one thing that struck me was london bridge was always empty from tunbridge wells to charring cross the platforms looked miles too long they should have spent the money on fare doggers x
Cool
And not a hi viz jacket in sight anywhere! Health and Safety would have a fit.
At least some were wearing yellow vests by the 1970's.
Ah, those were the days, not a single woman in the boardroom so you could swear as much as you wanted to - bliss!
Should come to my work; we still do. 🤣👍
Notice total lack of safety equipment?
No PPE in sight!!
Can you do transperth trains at night Perth to thornlie and thornlie to Perth
Those kiddies are in their fifties …
Wow
Them were the days, safety fifth.
Interesting video. But at 240p resolution? Horrible. Can't even read the credits.
Build it up with Lego bricks … my fair lady!
If the "Bridge" is the Station, are there any Stations that are Bridges?
Deptford
Charing cross is partially on the bridge
the new Blackfriars
VSC at Clapham junction was a disaster!
I remember all of this, my first memory of London Bridge was standing on platform 5 holding my dad's hand when the last steam train to go into Cannon St thundered through platform 4 I seem to remember then we sat in the Traveller's Fare for it to go back down again and then we hopped onto the train back to Gravesend and home.
Its ironic too in that me father started his signalling career at North Kent Junction signal box and ended it at London Bridge working the "widowmaker" 1-6 Platforms panel which withered him physically, he went in from Wimbledon A hale and hearty and left ill, white haired and haggard but he was given a second chance when Swanage Railway offered him a paid senior position and he returned to lever workings like a duck to water. I suspect it was a blessing he died before he saw what BlowJo and Co did to poor old London Bridge station as it was a case of criminal vandalism destroying the worlds first terminus station like that grr grr
14:00
the dude on the left,
looks hungry
Not sure about the Health and safety conditions of workers at the time... No high visibility vests, and not many safety helmets...
Driver view
Health and Safety! What's that? .... It's the clothes that the workers are wearing that gets me in these old films. Just normal leisure wear, same as they would go out for the evening in. There's even one guy doing physical work in a shirt and tie!
Not to mention leaning over hot asphalt smoothing it with a bare chest...
I know it was to make things more efficient but can’t help think when I heard ‘16 signal boxes reduced to one’ that was 100 jobs reduced to 25. These improvements were the beginning of the job problems. Fine improving things; but if there’s no jobs to travel to it’s a moot point.
50% jobs for the boys, 50% new technology = 100% progress. I'm sure most of them found alternate employment.
Its important that terrorists do not know about track circuits.
Is 240p the best definition you can manage?
Chill!
Great film. I worked at London Bridge in the early 90's. Maybe you can do something with the new London Bridge
Given it was made in 1975 I’m guessing the quality of the tape it came from was dodgy. No amount of 21st century computer programmes can make a fuzzy colour faded tape look 1080p unless you want it to look fake.
@@andyrob3259 You assume that this was from a tape. The original would have been shot on colour film. Hence British Transport "Films". It's in the name?
Hmm
No hi vis jackets multi coloured hats and a myriad of other non essential junk and the job was done!
And if you were killed on the job nobody gave a shit.
I'll be honest with you mate, the 1970s weren't exactly the time of "just getting the job done and doing whatever the boss wants"
There's nowhere near enough diversity in that meeting! No wonder it took a long time to sort out.
It doesn't look much like the London of today. 😪
Lot of tobacco pipes on the go.
@@richiehoyt8487 Tobacco only!
Construction workers in shirt and tie 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Gotta love the H and S from those men lol !!!
Can't remember any toilets on site before the early 70's. We had to train ourselves to do all that before we left for work. But hey it was a long time ago.
Slam-door rolling-stock, not a hard hat or hi-viz jacket in sight!
Not too many pipe smokers around today.... disgusting habit!
Look Look No sodding PPE. 🤣