Customer Reviews

Back to the 70s...... - By: Richard Burningham, 07 Jul 2008
Completely agree with Paul's excellent review above. This is a really good new addition to the BFI's British Transport Films' collection.

If, like me, you grew upin the 1970s & first encountered trains then as a child, this will take you right back. Fabulous nostalgia & capped off with the great Sir Peter Parker & mad Sir Jimmy (pre-Sir days) at the end.

Well worth the moneyin my book. Roll on the next one.

---

Back on track - By: Paul, 17 Jun 2008
I was somewhat disappointed with Volumes 5 & 6 as they didn't have much railway content. Volume 7 is almost exclusively about the railways & the content is excellent.

This collection brings together a number of films roughly connected with the "new age" of railway travelin the UKin the 1970s & early 1980s. The first film "The North Eastern Goes Forward" is from 1962 & one of the best, although sadly the enthusiasm shownin the film was to be short-lived with the pending Beeching Axe closures & loss of freight traffic to roads.

There are also some technical films covering such topics as brake blocks (quite interesting, honest!) electrification, & the construction of the HST power cars. Watching many of the movies you get the feeling thatin the 1970s, BR were trying to make the best of a bad lot - permanently strapped for cash & depised by most of their users. This is most noticeablein the film "A New Age for Railways" which compares the railway renaissancein a number of countries: whilst Japan, France, Germany, Poland & Italy were pushing on with bold new schemes involving the construction of brand new high-speed electrified routes, the best the UK could bring to the table was the diesel HST (marvellous though it was, it seemed to be a poor relation).

There's also a number of safety films aimed at children & a final interview with Sir Peter Parker with well-known railway-nut Jimmy Saville. As usual the package is excellently presented & I hope there are more volumes from this series to come.