British Transport Films

[grumbeast]

Hi All,

  Just wanted to share something wonderful. So my wife wanted to get some early animations from the British Film Institute (she's an animator) and as she was ordering noticed that the BFI also have a bunch of BTF DVDs so suggested I get a couple.

That has to be some of the best money I've spent and so far I've only watched the first DVD of two 6 disk sets!  They are amazing, and while I may have seen a few on YouTube, I don't think those uploaded are as good quality or complete.

I know the BTF was effectively the propaganda arm of BR, but the visions of the future I've just watched ('Blue Pullman', 'Cybernetica' & 'The Elizabethan' to name a few) is the one that inspires my own N Gauge worlds.  If you can accept that these are 'of a time' and just immerse yourself they are absolute magic, I found myself desperately wanting a time machine.

Ontop of that there is of course extremely high quality footage of trains and their environs and infrastructure, in Cybernetica (which was distinctly European) there was even footage of numerous TEE trains (a love of mine), an Italian Settebello, The Mistrale, The Capitole. I was just so happy!!!

'The Elizabethan' showed A4 Silver Fox running at speed in high quality black and white not to mention all the other things that surround preparing and running the train.

And after 'Blue Pullman' I had to go see if I could find someone selling a Nanking Blue Blue Pullman set... and I was seriously tempted to sell one of my kidneys so I could afford one.

Anyway, the long and short of it, if you are interested in the railway history of BR, I think these films are a must

G.

[Bealman]

Anything with a BP in it is cool with me! 

[Newportnobby]

I have a couple of sets of BTF films and there are some little gems in them. They really do give the atmosphere of (especially) steam days and earlier times

[Yet_Another]

Just be careful if you're buying a few. I nearly bought a 2 disc set that was actually two of the discs in a 6 pack that I already had.

Totally agree that there's some really good stuff in them, though. Some are immensely evocative.