I'm a soft southerner but my family came from Darlington and my uncle, who was a driver based in the town, took me to the marshalling yard, where, aged about 10, I got to clamber about on the locos and even took a brief ride on the footplate of one. I guess this would have been in 1959, just a year before they made this film. Brings it all back!
As one of the hundreds of teenage boys who spent their weekends in the 60,s visiting sheds and works, absolutely fantastic footage. Should I have done something more worthwhile? Definitely not. I am so glad I saw it. So many great memories. Thanks for posting
Yes i remember brilliant golden days so sad to se it all go overnight i live in Peterborough England we lost how steam locomotives early when deltics took over still miss steam to this day ian
That's how it was all over the UK, not just Darlington. Did you notice the p/w gangs? No hard hats, no high viz, no gloves, no steel toe cap boots. Just wellies and woolly hats! A good historical insight to how the working man dressed, drank and played in his time off. All round historical footage, not just for railway buffs.
Very good. A true documentary of how things were. I travelled King´s X-Darlington-King´s X, one day in May, 1959. Coming back, the locomotive was a D200 diesel; going there, it was No. 60022, "Mallard".
Wonderful stuff- enjoyed the songs. "Remember the blokes on the old footplate, a'workin' through the night." Really captured what is was like in the transition years from steam to diesel, on one of the most famous railways in the world. Hats off to the Darlington retirees and current workers, from a Yank across the pond.
a lot of people think a BR standard 9F named after a GWR broad gauge engine was the last steam locomotive built in England this is not true as the real ones I have read was built in 1965 and 1971
Thank you for posting! At the time this film was made I lived at Eaglescliffe, our house backed onto the then 4 track main line. I spent many hours in the signal box at both Eaglescliffe and Darlington. At age 10 I could barely reach the signal levers let alone operate one of them! What I did enjoy was the tea, made in an enormous aluminium pot complete with milk and sugar! Great memories brought back to life by your post - cheers!
My father was a signalman at Saltburn until it’s closure, us wee bairns used to visit the box on Saturday mornings and setup our train set on the window sill, my father called Darlington Darlo. Summer holidays the same wee bairns used to travel to York, no adult supervision required, to stay with aunts and uncles, happy days.
A brilliant clip, thanks. It is unfortunate that we had to lose so much but this is the price we pay for selfish politics. The current rail system has never, ever carried so many people so quickly but so little freight. Had we had more reasonable unions, more understanding governments and a more educated public who were proud of what we had things would be different now.
The actual facts are the majority of people would rather drive their own car, car ownership and fuel are very affordable, and goods that go door to door in a truck are better for many.
Unions have nothing to do with us having sold our heritage, quite the opposite. Throw your tabloid Tory prejudice away and wake up to the facts, the ruling parties have sold BP, the railways, telecoms, post office, gas, steel, Land Rover, British airways, council housing, electricity...I could go on here but you know this has NOTHING to do with trade unions without whom you would have fewer rights and terrible working conditions. Funny isn’t it, how those who seek to take more from you are so quick to blame any wrong on those who seek to help you most? It’s an accident of circumstance that puts us here in our privileged place, don’t be so quick to denigrate achievement and success. “Blame the unions?” Shame on you.
@@DepakoteMeister The actual facts is that railways are far more efficient at mass transit and overal cheaper for the traveller. The average car can transport 5 people max, with the average train carrying 500 or more.
@@DepakoteMeister Cars soon won't be affordable,in fact for many they are already not. I can also remember as a youngster two and a half gallons of petrol for a pound, not ten pounds a gallon. Dozens of efficient railways and the way in which they were mendaciously destroyed to suit the agenda.s of one man and his pals. Who all made fortunes at the taxpayers expense. The main culprit fleeing to Luxumbourg overnight and eventually ending up in France, where he had a Chateau. No doubt funded by the British taxpayer. He was already being investigated by Lord Denning for non payment of tax. This individual,was also a slum landlord (property makes great landbanks,hence demolish railway property and sell it back to the taxpayer for motorways) and reputed also to be on the periphery of the Profumo Scandal.And people thought the Banking Scandal of the noughties was a biggie?
Evocative of a time long gone and replaced with electronic gadgets and a world obsessed with things juvenile - no stupid meerkat adverts in 1960. Great accompaniment with Ewan McColl - if you liked this look for 'The Ballad of John Axon' which also features some of these songs. Thanks for uploading!
I remember getting Home on a Sunday Morning looking forward to Bed after a hard Saturday Night Shift working in the P Way, after 10 Hours knocking out Clips with a Key Hammer, hard Work but wonderful Days back when we had a proper Railway.
My late dad was a guard in 1960. I was born in Pensbury Street that runs alongside the station that year. Never worked the railways but I was a "stoker" in the Royal Navy...
I want to see the country which has built railway projects with great effort and laid railway lines I salute these workers, drivers, engineers, who have delivered big, heavy goods hundreds of miles away. I want to go to this country, I'm sure there won't be enough of these people now, I want to meet their descendants. Will someone help please? I am from Pakistan, a poor painter, I want to see you all, how interesting people are
I'm from Darlington (Firthmoor) and I remember my Dad telling me that he worked on a Darlo track maintenance crew for six months before joining up to see the world, just in time to get posted to Belfast in 69. 😣
The engineers don't wave from the trains anymore, not like they did back in 1954.
4 года назад
For many years I worked on the local/national newspaper The Northern Echo in Darlington, (whose earlier editor drowned on the Titanic and made Va liar of Queen Victoria). My home was in lived in a terrace house on Harcourt Street, facing the Whessoe works. I full remember 'Locomotion No 1' on the station platform, and the huge covered market under the "town Clock". Great days, and alas we'll see them no more....
+HailAnts Still in use on the mainline until 1968 in England, and until 1971 in Northern Ireland. Narrow gauge steam was in use till 1989, and industrial steam was still on the books until 1994! We had good quality coal and plenty of it, might as well use it.
BR planned to keep the standard steam locomotive designs running into the 80s. Then Beeching sped it all up. God dammit Beeeching. Whats worse is that European railroads followed his example. Thus, steam hauling ended in 1974 is Slovenia when it could have lasted into the 80s and maybe some more engines would have been preserved.
Thx for this wonderful experience. I am a big steam fan and especially the British locomotives are such beauties. I still wonder why we traded this harmonious and structured life for such a torn and hectic one we have today. Also wonder if there a possibilities to develope a steam locomotive that would fit in our current traffic plans.
Such a brilliant video. I was brought up in the steam era, and through the change to diesels & electrics, and I still prefer steam. Not enough was done to modernise it, steam locomotives can be made far more efficient than the generally accepted type with a standard locomotive type boiler. More efficient in fact, than most diesels (see the Garrett type loco's with L D Porta Secondary Air admission type boilers on "The railway at the end of the world" in Tierra Del Fuego).
Agree,if I didn't know I'd guess the songs came from the other side of the Pond. Having grown up sitting on the fence counting the number of wheels on the trains going past (1947) And the youngsters of today are told they're "wasting their time"
Steam was supposed to last into the 1980s in the UK, untill the entire system could be electrified. Unfortunately, Dr. Beeching happened, and it all ended far sooner.
General Skalinera // Neon Silver British Rail scrapped locomotives than had barely been run in. 150,000-200,000 miles is nothing to a brand new loco. What did this stupid mass execution of steam cost the taxpayer. And the result A Plethora of diesel classes that cost 4 times as much to built and last 10-14 years. Very economical I don’t think
Sorry, but I had to turn off the 'country' music ... I feared ye-harring might follow. Odd choice that. At first I thought it might be an intro to something Benny Hill or Rambling Sid Rumpo might have conjuered up ... excellent library footage of the 1950s though.
"Country Music", really? Your profile name suggests your'e a veteran film maker but thinking this was country music makes me think you are far from old enough to be a veteran anything,this is folk music, not country and not even close.
Wonderful film, but oh that soundtrack. Was it Ewan McColl? A brilliant left-wing song writer (Dirty Old Town for example) but his heavy, stentorian delivery gets monotonous after a few minutes...just my opinion.
It was Ewen yes. I have never heard this version of the songs. They were first written for a BBC radio programme about a runaway train 'The Ballad of John Axon' written in 1957 He was one of only 2 railway men to be awarded the George Cross after staying on his runaway locomotive in appalling conditions, when the steam brake pipe fitting broke, knowing death was almost a certainty. The regulator was wide open on a steep falling gradient.
@@cedarcam just seen your note and read up about the accident on Wikipedia, quite nasty that one. Poor old driver and guard, what a horrible way to die.
It was about the worst thing that could of happened on a steam locomotive You can find the radio programme on youtube here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4qpQoLE21Js.html
It would have been better without the music and some commentary added to explain what was going on to younger viewers who did not know the Railways as they were.