Vintage railway film - Elizabethan express - 1954
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- Опубліковано 15 сер 2020
- This vintage railway film, produced in 1954 by British Transport Films, follows The Elizabethan, a non-stop British Railways service from London King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley via the East Coast Main Line.
More information on The Elizabethan;
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eli...
The narration is not less than a poetry in itself ❤ Vintage British accent is love.
By all means, this is one of the best railroad documentaries ever made, creative with the photo work, narration and music.
Storing uncooked fish and poultry on top of the gateaux - unbelievable (2.20)!!
@@alanlangridge7819 9
@@alanlangridge7819not very healthy.
Hardy stomachs, those Brits in the 1950s@@robertmatthews8302
Wow...Look at the styles of people ..They look decent,elegant and awesome......Wish it was today's.....
love the fact the station tannoy voice sounds like the queen, what a totally different time we all live in now, just imagine hundreds of steam engines passing through kingscross daily, i could'nt even imagine it.
I had to smile seeing them loading the cooler @2:21 salmon top shelf, raw chicken next and dessert cakes etc underneath lol, I've traveled by steam trains through the 50's and 60's and I'm still here, never got food poisoning!!.
I thought salmonella
... Salmonella was The Fashion Back Then Eh... EVERYTHING UNDER THE RAW CHICKEN 🍗.... Splendiferous Indeed Old Bean 🏴 0:25
I used to visit my grandparents in Edinburgh during the fifties and sixties, and frequently rode this train. Such memories.
I think Britain designed and built the most beautiful looking steam engines in the world. Thank you for this.
graham frear Agreed. Though I also love foreign engines as well.
Johnny RoadTrain Actually I mean the ones built outside of the UK, such as American and African Ones.
@Johnny RoadTrain did you see the T V program about. Restoration of Welsh railway 🚂 did you say most of the volunteers who restored them came from England. I don't think Welsh trains foreign. Foreign is overseas.
@@josephmarrison4606 yes the Americans some huge not streamlined and elegant but beautiful.
@Johnny RoadTrain yes I experience that in India years ago just hanging on to the train and carriages.
Absolutely stunning! When travelling was utterly glamorous
Excellent portrayal of what life used to be like ,much more relaxed than today’s mad rush 😊
no "mad rush" going 120 mph non-stop King's Cross to York with no time to stop for water because they have to be there on time, the driver has to constantly watch every inch of the track and the firemen have to do back breaking work the whole time. It may be have been relaxing for the passengers, but for the crew it was incredibly hard and tiring work
@@thesteelrodent1796 totally agree with you on that
I live in a time warp this is the britain I loved.
yep back then you didn't have to keep looking behind you every second to make sure some little shitfuck didn't come up behind you to mug you at gunpoint or knife you in the back... because back then England and scotland still had the death penalty
Me too
While the rhymes grew a bit overbearing,
They at least did not lead me to swearing;
The main matter at hand were these old scenes so grand,
For these old ways I find myself caring...
The great days of steam
Man and machine a perfect team
The days of black and white
Not a woman in sight
I long for those days and more
I wish it was 1954
🏆🏆 🅱🅴🆂🆃 🅲🅾🅼🅼🅴🅽🆃 🅰🆆🅰🆁🅳 🏆🏆
*Paul le Saux* wrote some rather _twee_ commentaries for *BTF* - this is one.
But the film is OK, just not as good as most *BTF* films for public release.
This was kind of hypnotic for me. It portrays a cheerful, energetic, yet relaxed life - something quite apart from what most of us experience today. What strikes me is how, despite lack of computers & modern communication, everything seems to function just as well as any modern railway. The passengers seem totally comfortable, & they reach their destination without incident. Sure beats negotiating a modern airport!
Not only that but there were jobs for everyone who wanted one.
Jobs gone because of two thing: 1) West layed it's weapons down, while others where rising; 2) People wanted cheap, no matter what the cost.
@@grevberg Hm, I don't really have the perspective or statistics to confidently assume that employment was easy. We only know what we see from this film & other media that remains from that era. This film strikes a certain mood, one of cheerful British get-on-with-it-ness. But the world was changing so quickly. Britain was still poor from the war; youth was disaffected and starting to get rebellious. Immigration from the Carribean was shaking up the social order, while the traditional poorer classes were busting out of their 'places' and insisting on upward mobility. Nobility was finding it harder to staff & heat their ancient manors, & to hold onto their privileges. New technologies were putting the squeeze on traditional trades. Things were not as harmonious as this film portrays!
This is the most British thing Ive ever seen.
Absolutely splendid footage of this this great old express and regards the engine the A4 Silver Fox, considering it was only a 3 cylinder loco and it was usually a 15 coach train, it had tremendous power and acceleration and regarding the whole journey, 6hrs 30 mins, you still had plenty of time to admire the British countryside, my wife and I travelled on the Scotch Pullman back in 2007 from Kings Cross to Edinburgh and regards the scenery, you can't take it in the same, for most part it seemed a bit of a blur, with the express travelling then at nearly 140 mph in most parts of the journey, it somewhat spoils the pleasure of the journey, it seems in todays world, everybody wants to get from A to B in the shortest possible time, in many ways sadly this is to our loss.
An oldie but a goodie. I never tire of watching this film. Excellent filming all along the East Coast main line.
Very beautiful train journey.Thanks for uploading such beautiful legendary Train journey.
Faster than fairies faster then witches.
Was the first poem of my poems book when I was in class 10th in 1975, I think this the best poem ever written about a train..
Thanks to it's writer Robert Louis Stevenson.
Excellent documentory. Good olden days.. will never comeback
Loved every minute of it wish the UK was like this today, sadly not.
I know how you feel about this mate
All that coal burning in 1954 just caused killer smogs in winter.
Know what you mean mate. Okay, as someone said on the comments the smoke from these old engines must have been some sort of pollutant, but whether they were enough to cause the smogs I'm not qualified to comment. But I guess you were referring to more than just the characterful old engines, to a whole way of life, a whole ethos that existed in the those days? A sort of decency and solid values which have largely disappeared?
We're all with you on that one Peter.
@@martm216
I think so and our friend missed the point
(no pun).
The food served looks better then the infamous British Rail ham sandwiches served onboard the HSTs in the 1970s!
Even as a GWR aficionado, I have to say that Gresley’s A4 is the most beautiful locomotive
Mallard herself is a piece of my family’s history and heritage. Our pickup is painted in the exact LNER Garter Blue as Mallard, and we live here in the states. So we proudly own America’s Mallard.
I've never seen a tender with a passage to walk through.
The men just wore regular shoes, no work boots to shovel coal.
Marvelous! A wonderful documentary! Thanks a lot for showing it!
This whole film is so terribly clever. I literally watched a history documentary on the London-Edinburgh express yesterday. It specifically mentioned the ingenuity of the specially designed tender with a corridor through it, and the water trough between the tracks so the train could make the trip nonstop.
I wondered about the corridor too. Never thaught such thing existed.
In my badge collection in Spain have "The Elizabeathen & Coronation , & my Gollie badges " about 50 in total , love steam ! The Cornish Riviera Express & those magnificent King classs in 1952 !
A very enjoyable 19 minutes. A magnificent film and a commentary that had me chuckling.
I simply love it.3 of brothers served Indian Railways as officers for a long time.I too did a short stint in Railways as a sportsman! Thank u for this video.--Love.
An old joke about Indian railways. A man goes to the travel agent in London for a train ticket to Bombay (it is and OLD joke), he's told they can't get him one but they could get him to Boulogne by train and ferry. At Boulogne he asks again and the ticket office tell him they get him as far as Paris and it repeats. Having stayed some months in India he goes to the railwa ticket office in Delhi and asks, in some trepidation for a ticket to London. "Ohh, most certainly sahib, would that be Victoria or Charing Cross you would be requiring"
A man delivering fish and chicken dressed in a flannel suit and hat. The fireman in brogues. Seems like all this happened in some time and place so different that it's unimaginable.
Wooooow!!! Amazing, incredible. It's a completely unique way to define Railway and showcasing a train. This video takes his viewers into that era of black and white smoke, rhythmic sound of locomotive and well known music of whistle as well as appreciating the hard work of each and every person. The narration is so poetic and dramatic. Awesome video👍🏻
The two narrators of this film were accomplished actors. Howard Marion Crawford played Dr, Watson In a Sherlock Holmes series amongst his many other roles and Alan Wheatley was the Sheriff of Nottingham in the Robin Hood series alongside Richard Greene who played Robin Hood. Both actors were never super stars but played all their roles very well.
Thank you for sending these films.
One you tube channel, all the old films.
I wish these times back just so very British I loved it
Very nice. A very comfortable train with good refreshment facilities. The dining car, although composed of a first class coach, was available to all passengers, 2nd class passengers being admitted on condition that they vacated upon completion of their meal. Also notice that the dining car is full. This is because in those days the price of the meals was such that passengers could afford them, not the expense account pricing that we see in such restaurant cars (on the Great Western for example) today, although the actual meals seem quite simple - soup and a roast dinner by the looks of it. I wonder how many of today's train catering staff could serve a meal the way that these stewards do without spilling any with the train running at speed.
The last time I saw the Elizabethan was at Hatfield station footbridge in the 60s pulled by a brand new Deltic. As for steam A4s,A1s and A3s.were usual locomotives. Real friendly shed Kings Cross for train spotters although hard to gain access,
Yes, as remarked before, the 'Silver Fox' A4 class of locos was immensely powerful. During WW2 when locos were scarce they would 'double-load' the train so in addition to 15 standard carriage trains they would add another 10 by reversing it at Kings Cross on to another platform. It would then make the journey at barely 30mph but get there, sometimes with 1,000 servicemen on board. By the end of the war most of the A4s were in desperate need of renovation after that excess strain which, thankfully, they did receive.
The non-stop to Edinburgh would not have been possible without the water troughs between the tracks which, at intervals, allowed the engine to draw much needed water. It was water, not coal, that limited range in those days. Passengers in the first few carriages knew when the troughs were coming and would close the windows - those who didn't might get a soaking from the spray.
Super , great memories , thanks so much 🇨🇦
Superb engineering with the bridges and viaducts.
A real gem among the BTF crown. So glad I have all the DVDs, they will never be on streaming services.
Wonderful and a great film thank you.
When great britain was a great county ... i was born thair in 62 ... lived in ireland most my life been back a few times working ... got relations there ...helo from ireland..
I think it still is a Great country.🇬🇧🇨🇮.
Superb. My grandfather was a travelling ticket inspector on the great east coast steam-hauled long distance expresses of the the '40s and '50s. When I was a boy and he was off-duty he would take me to see the A4 and A1 locos that hauled them and to speak to their crews. This film brought back many memories.
Just love the poetry and rhyme. An art seldom used in videos today.
Wonderful film great seeing the A4 hard at work
Looking to see very beautiful video of train journey, a lots of thanks for uploading such kind of video-----
The film's the same vintage as me, high quality film.
The hats. Just the hats! I was about six when this film was made, and I can remember those hats. Worn by my grandmothers and great aunts, not so much by my mother. Gentlemen, of course, never wore a hat indoors, but going outside without one was just a bit disreputable.
Did anyone one had top hats?
Zeeteava Thepipe my grandfathers might have. I know one of my great grandfathers did. My grandmother showed it to me, and there’s a photo of him wearing it. Very dapper.
Absolutely wonderful
The unmistakable voice of Alan Wheatley (aka 'the sheriff of Nottingham').
and Howard Marion Crawford (aka 'Dr Watson')
Really enjoyed this film! 👍
I returned to this in the easy info age and Clifton Parker composed the music for Sink the Bismark and Disney's Treasure Island amongst others.
Wonderful
when traveling via British Railways was at its finest, with pure steam power heading the consists, I would love to have the A4's brought back into revenue service. But today with modernization and electronics, traveling via train has all gone to shit sadly.
Thank you for these wonderful films. The food looks yummy delicious 😋! A far sight better than current airline food 🤢.
What a beautiful train she was! I wish we had such beauty here in America, but alas we didn't. We're just too addicted to our automobiles. How I would have loved to travel on The Elizabethan! Thank you for the wonderful film!
Check these out 4449 daylight and n&w 611.
Wonderful !
Very good, thanks.
Wonderful ~ thank you :o)
This is amazing
I was 3 years old when this was made.
britain self destructed..things will never never be this good again...
Other civlizied countries started to destroy themselfs as well.
No, she was wantonly destroyed by the politicians (mostly Labour politicians).
@@Maelli535 you mean conservatives not Labor
@@zakmatew Look again! Labour just keeps taking from the pot, the Tories put some back in. But it's time for totally new politicians, Boris is also f***ing useless.
Historian of the postwar period here. Things went out of control because it got so good. Wages went up, inflation went up, attempts to control it failed and led to industrial action. Attempts to control that failed, and left us broke. Then, ultimately, this Britain was killed off in the Thatcher years as it wasn't profitable. Then again, what's for the best, and what's profitable are two entirely different things. (massively simplified of course, I'm not going to run a seminar on "why is Britain a Tory tax haven?" here and now.)
I call the Britain depicted in this video "Attlee's Britain", because that is truly what it was. We'd probably still be living this life if Heath had lost the 1970 election, because measures to control inflation and democratise Trade Unions were a core part of Barbara Castle's "In Place of Strife" white paper that'd have likely been implemented if Wilson had won his third term. Labour would've almost certainly been emboldened by that win to confront its Trade Union base before things got out of hand. We'd also have probably seen Castle be our first female PM in that alternative reality, and its likely that our oil wealth would've been nationalised too, making us all a LOT better off. Alas, its just a Historian's daydream now.
In short though, there is 100% concrete proof that the Conservative party are the reason we don't have the means to be taking a fancy top-rate express to Edinburgh. They're the ones who failed to get things under control, they're the ones who cut back public spending to within an inch of its life whilst letting their mates put nothing back into this country, and they're the ones who were more than happy to sell off our services to foreign companies to run into the ground at an increased cost to us. But because people of a certain age were effectively bribed a council house, that's all totally fine. The Conservative Party has not had a good leader since Eden, and Labour has not had a good one since Wilson.
Reminds me of travelling as a child from King’s Cross back home to Newcastle. My grandfather worked for British Rail and on one trip he took me up to meet the engine driver and I got to stand on the footplate. The engine was similar to this with a streamlined cowling.
that sir is a A4 Pacific
Before
Crazy music, silly rhymes, but very interesting footage. Excellent quality. Thanks for the upload!
At the beginning bringing the food in, they stack the chickens directly above the cakes and strudels lol good food edict.
at this time there was very little understanding of food safety and hygiene , how the journey of time has show us to be sharp eyed like yourself and see the hazard
The strange thing is that they survived and literally did fight another day two year later.
@@MikeJones-hi8fd Prob good for immune system give it a work out and for sure they didnt know back then
Wasn't that one of the health inspector's main objections in Fawlty Towers' final "Basil the Rat" episode?
@@notroll1279 yes i think so lol
Wonderful film about the might of our Transport rail system, We really were world leaders in the field.
Superb.
Super documentry
15:05 Fireman with shiny shoes!
A4 60017 Silver Fox: *"Im about to end this man's whole career"*
In my badge collection in Spain have the Coronation & Elizabeathan . Brass & coloured enamel . My Sunday wear !
How smartly dressed and "grown up" everyone looked then, unlike the scruffy Juvenilia which infests everywhere today. A rail journey in those days, which I can just remember, though not one so long as this, was an occasion to be cherished with excitement - at least for me as a young boy in the 1950s who dearly loved steam engines and would have loved to be on the footplate. Alas it was not to be
The days when people took a pride in their appearance and dressed up to travel. I remember those days. My earliest memory is travelling on the Golden Arrow from Victoria. The lovely Pullman carriages and good food. Must have been about 1959, maybe 1960. Trains now are about as comfortable as buses.
Just one word, pride
Nice video
Super time capsule what a great time iwork at the x till late 80's atmosphere great not same now
Crew switch while underway - the A4 must be equipped with a corridor tender.
The way the chef was storing foods in the fridge
4:33 This LNER A4 Pacific Locomotive Is A Bit Like Mallard. Thanks Mate. X
I wonder if anyone in this film knew that in 20 years it would all be gone.
I remember travelling on this train when it was called'The Captials Limited' in about 1949, the engine being Empire of India - A friend and I travelled alone - imagine that happening nowadays
How old were you? What kind of adventure were you on?
@@gregorymalchuk272 I was 12 and I was going to Aberdeen with my friend to have a holiday with some of his relatives - his name was Michael Imlach and we lived in Luton - our parents had no problem with us two travelling on our own that far - how times have changed !!!
@@clivehughes2179 In some part of the worl childern (probably not 12) still do travel for some distance without parents.
But how was the train ride?
@@zeeteavathepipe3184 The ride was exciting for us seeing so many different places such as York etc. - we had to change at Edinburgh to go on to Aberdeen - I still have photos taken with a Box Brownie - Happy memories
@@clivehughes2179 Maybe one day you will scan the film and put the pictures on a blog or onto a site.
No problems with the wrong type of leaves on the track ,all weather locos , the crew determined to run to time !
Love trains!!
Did I get this right? This train picked up hundreds of gallons of water on the fly??? With no stopping or slacking of speed??? How was THAT done? Wow...
A lot of straws - not plastic ones of course.
A trough down the middle of the track and a scoop.
@@melanierhianna thanx! ingenious......
New York Central Railroad from USA used scoops too.
Its sad that the Silver Fox A4 Pacific was cut up , being a serious marketing tool of the time , it would have been nice to have it on heritage steam .
if we can build a A1 from the ground up (Tornado), as well as a P2 (Prince Of Wales), we can sure as hell build a brand new A4 also!
Gone are the days of adventure, we live in a sick and a sadistic world!!
Oh those days are over now the memory of our time . forgot.....
People are commenting about food safety. Did anybody notice the shunter putting his hand between the buffers at 2:32 just after the locomotive had bounced off the train? Blokes were tough back then
Well the driver did apply the steam brake after the A4’s tender buffers pushed her away from the consist. The driver probably signaled to the shunter that he was ready to couple up and the engine was secure.
To drive the A4 locomotives must have been the best job in the world
Raw chicken stored above cream cakes, lovely!!
health and safety would be all over that shit if it was here in the states. 🤣
The locomotive is so BADASS !!!! I really love it !
the station announcer sounds like the queen
Rode The Flying Scotsman train in 1979 with BR on an InterCity 125, same route.
And how it was?
The Elizabethan the fastest timed E C M. Train of them all...they always put the best A4 on it when possible commonly known as the FOX
I have spent some time, and arguably need to spend some more... trying to figure out how to tell this "softly"; but since I'm in my 60's myself, I'm just going to say it outright: Why is it that so many of the workers on the railway look to be easily in their 50s if not older!?!?
back when planning was so much harder
...and narration by the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Wheatley.)
I saw Silver Fox in Doncaster sidings sometime early sixties...and that line up of armoured cars teh army had forgotte about.
Is the narrator the Sherrif of Nottingham?
I saw Silver Fox and many other Gresley A4s at Hadley Wood, Barnet in the late 50s.
@davidrees7978 you did...as did I ...Great site and sound by I loved the Deltics too
If only rail service still rhymed nowadays!
If only they were as comfortable
💖💖💖💖💖💖
Oh narrator? the sheriff of Nottingham? Alan wheatley Robin Hood series ? on t.v .I love the film , A.4. loco Silver fox beautiful.
Playing less of a bastard than when he was chasing Richard Greene
Silver Fox's chime whistle sounds melodic and wonderful, does anyone know if it still survives?
Silver Fox unfortunately was scrapped but 6 of her sister engines still survive .
One , Sir Nigel Gresley is now back on the main line and you can hear that lovely chime whistle in action
@@clairefrancis7640 Thanks, but I know that I have ridden on 2 A4's now.
I was asking anybody who knows if the actual whistle from Silver Fox still survives somewhere?
I do know that an A4 whistle is fitted to one of the large garratt engines at the Welsh Highland Railway in Wales.
Major H&S infraction at 2:38.
I often wonder seeing early post war films about ordinary life where many of the people seen on screen are now dead what they would think if they saw our modern world. Were the sacrifices of WW2 worth it and is our crazy modern world and all its changes worth living in.