Vintage LMS railway film - Carrying the load - 1946

Little did they know what was to come, starting less than 10 years after victory, station closures, staff cuts and finally tracks uprooted, then the final indignity Dr Beeching. It was said that the railways won the war, a little exaggeration but not far off, its a pity they were run down, and almost thrown away in favour of road traffic, look at where that led!

Note the use of the term United Nations which was the legal term for the nations fighting in alliance, the Soviet Union was a co belingerent partner not an ally as it was not part of the allied command. The UN owes it's origin to the participants of ww2 and NATO is derived from allied Europe command

The accent of the narrator is an interesting example of how language has changed over less than 80 years.

When people talk about the war, they always mention the Airmen, Soldiers and Sailors, sometimes the women workers or the firemen etc, you never hear anything of the railwaymen. What a colossal effort that whole logistical nightmare was. With not a computer in sight, all done with pencil, paper and grey matter, and with a railway system that was essentially clapped right out towards the end (and a long time after). When you throw in the fact they were also a target and being bombed it's all the more remarkable.

Great to see & hear, these old video's of a past day,. Thanks to all those who made this great video.

And what reward did those companies get for their maximim effort and running down of maintenance? - Compensation based upon 1939 receipts and then Nationalisation as a punishment for being unacceptably run-down.

Marveless ai'nt it, I remember that time when the Jerman's tried to kill us. 🤡🤡

Not so much where did it go wrong but when.

I love trains and want to travel back in time on one. Start off at Waterloo in 2023 and travel to the south coast and reach Bognor in 1965. That would be great! Great vid here, thanks for posting.

BR was worn out after the war, maintenance was by necessity a matter of fixing things when they went wrong, rather that more planned' and substantial work.

LMS made some fantastic locos
royal scots
jubilees
8fs
fairburn tanks
ivatt class 2-6-0s and 2-6-2 tanks

Brilliant a long lost view of the Eastern railway

And after the war the railways were told to go forth and multiply.

🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🏨⛩️⛩️⛩️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🚂🚞🚃🚃🚄🚄🚂🚂🚂🚃🚃🚞🚃🛤️🚋🛤️🛤️🚞🚄🚄🚞🚃🛤️🚋🚋🚋🚋🛤️🛤️🛤️🛣️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🛤️🛤️🚋🛤️🚃🚞🚃🛤️🚋🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🛤️🚂🚃🚃🚞🚞

I feel like I've heard the music somewhere eles before...

British man

does anybody know what the music is? I swear I heard it in another archived railway film

What an incredible piece of history thanks for posting this

Interesting film always enjoy the Public information films... My father was in the second world war and won an Iron Cross he was on the other side

Fact is that the second world war knackered the UK railways. They never recovered from it. Locomotives, coaches, and freight rolling stock were simply worn out after it.

Right up to the 1960's BR was still reliant on a railway, locomotives, rolling stock, and infrastructure that were simply clapped out. And when BR decided to do away with steam it was a shame to see so many locomotives that had done their bit over the years simply run into the ground and scrapped without a second thought.

Right after that we had the likes of Marples and Beeching hand in glove cutting the UK railways to shreds to force freight onto the roads.

Hell I have even got 63776's (a Langwith Junction loco) smokebox number plate on my wall (along with her photo). She was a 2-8-0 Robinson 02. These locomotives could pull a house down! She was scrapped on 24th December 1962, but the surprising thing was that she was built in 1918. Worn out. Knackered! The thousands of miles that engine must have travelled mainly hauling coal.

But some engines like 2-10-0 9F's (Spaceships) were only 5 years old when BR scrapped steam. Why did they ever build them? What a waste. Scrapping them was sacrilege.

Thank you for posting these magnificent films! They are a great time capsule of an era that needs to be remembered.

Nostalgia pure everybody all together galvanised the country. Railways bankruptcy after the war…

God to be an essential worker then running the trains. Heck at least you could see the enemy.

Priceless

The powers that be have decided that the burning of coal and petrol is harming the planet,, of course this is obviously a problem,, and yet Airport expansions seem to be the norm these days, do we really need two or three foreign holidays a year? with an aeroplane burning tons of aviation fuel (yes a fossil fuel) on in my candid opinion needless flights!

Might have helped to get industry going first ,like the railways, which is what the French and Germans did. We didn’t we spent our Marshall aid on New houses and the NHS .Backwards thinking no change there then.

And after the war the Government said ~~~~~ we don't want you now, but don't go away in case there's another war.

Thanks for sharing...

fantastic video. I was 9 years old when this was made. Just started trainspotting..Now look at the state of the country..

This is fascinating viewing! Naturally a bit rosy tinted, but it's a great window on the sights and stories of the war years. Thanks for posting.

They made jolly good films then. Really informative with no moaning or carping. Unlike nowadays. What a dump now the UK is.

We taught the world, we led the world in innovation, saved Europe from tyranny and now we’re treated as a second class country, what happened? We had to pay our war debts the defeated and repatriated didn’t, they put their money into electrification and modernisation and Britain suffered no investment, but a lovely slice of life nonetheless

Keep calm and carry on.

God Save The British Steam Railways.

How did signals function during the blackout? Were colour lights exempt?

A wonderful film - but people complain about intrusive background music nowadays, seems they were suffering from the same problem in the 40s!

This is amazing.

Railway propaganda at its best !!

Although, despite the voice-over, the railways in 1939 were still in a fairly dire state after the ravages of the previous war, 20 years earlier. They were suffering too from the decline in passenger numbers and freight, revenue all being diverted by the growing numbers of private cars and ex-WWI lorries. Still, makes for good propaganda...good images though.

God save Britain's railways

I love these old railway films. And wartime kinda puts this current pandemic into perspective.

What a fantastic piece of history. So many great scenes for railway enthusiasts but more broadly a great reminder of the
unbelievable efforts carried out by the British people during the war.
I hope all these historical films are being archived the way our National film and sound archive does here in Australia.
Thank you so much for sharing this.👍

Very good film!!

These films are so inspirational, but then I look out the window, look at society and think where did it all go wrong! Thanks for uploading this classic.