Thanx Laurance for the memories. My father was a booking clerk at Quakers high and low level in the 1950s. He would have loved to have seen these films.
Looking back, it's almost impossible to imagine that these lines, communities and scenery ever really existed; apart from the grime, which I personally like, it is almost a mind numbingly complex fairyland. Thanks so much for uploading this!
I grew up in Pontypool (I live in the United States now) and was a young lad when this was filmed. I remember the trains at Pontypool Road. Thank you for rekindling my memories and nostalgia.
I grew up in Newbridge and Pontllanfraith, regularly walked the Bryn tunnels late 70s . I now have a headache trying to follow the route pontypool to Pontllanfraith. Thank you for uploading, top film👍
19/03/2023 the 4110 engine shown has just been renovated at East Somerset railway preservation site and was presented today at The ES spring steam gala..As a boy I would have seen it running at Radyr and steaming through Llandaff North for Whitchurch where I still live..it has been superbly restored..thank you for this video
This is the most amazing film of the Welsh Industrial scene. The quality, editing, narration..everything. I have been glued to my Mac watching the historical capture of a very, very busy industrial landscape during its demise. Fascinating historical piece of work by talented film maker in my opinion. Big thank you Mr. Sharpe!!!
What a great film, how I wish I could have travelled that route, along with others in South Wales, such rich heritage, such a shame that they took down the Crumlin viaduct, it was majestic.
My father was a bit of a rail enthusiast and every time we went on the once a year visit to Bryncethin he would use a different route. I remember (just) we came from Bury Lancs via Manchester, Crewe and alighted at Pontypool and then we went.... well I really had very little idea until I saw this vid.
This is pretty amazing footage. Some very prescient amateurs who were really keen have been quite able to produce good quality footage with what they had. People have no idea of the effort involved. Today it is all instant. And it is really warming that some people had the interests and dedication to produce what they well knew would be a valuable historical document. But then it took a bit more effort, especially if it was sound. You had to be sure what you did would work. You couldn’t see your results for maybe three weeks afterwards during the summer rush, while everyone else’s film was being developed. Plus if it was standard 8mm, you only 50 feet of film, about 4 ½ mins worth at 18 fps. It came as 25 foot rolls of 16mm wide film with sprocket holes running along both edges. You exposed half the width and then, in the dark, turned the film over in the camera, re threading it through the gate and onto the take up spool, and exposed the other half. It was slit lengthways in the lab and joined in the middle. I’m pretty sure this is standard 8mm we’re watching. Super 8 didn’t come out till the mid 60’s and the picture size had a different, a bigger, aspect ratio. Colour was more expensive and less reactive to light than black and white, so it was grainier. It was grainier anyway because the 8mm frame was ¼ the size of a 16mm frame and had to be projected at 4 times the magnification to be the same size. 16mm is semi professional. Sound was really difficult to add. It had to be recorded separately on tape. The film and the tape had to be edited and then synchronised. A stripe of very thin tape could be added to the edited film and then the sound recorded. Another way was to sync a tape to the projector. Another thing entirely. Even a constant 18 fps is never constant as the film needs to have loops above and below the gate. These are springs to compensate for the judder as the claw pulls he film through the gate, pauses, and releases it. The loops could drift up or down and thus the picture was up or down a couple of frames from before. Not that you would notice if silent, but if sound, then the tape, if separate, would not be synched.
Thanks for uploading this. I spent years living near Pontypool and in the Cynon Valley but well after the line had closed and Crumlin viaduct was gone. It's good to see how it all looked.
What an excellent video! I always wondered whether a filming was ever done of a steam train journey along the V.O.N. line between Pontypool & Neath, and here it is, in colour too! I was very young when this line closed but still have memories of the trains passing through Treharris area, also our family used to catch trains from Treharris to Pontypool to visit relatives in Albion Road. Shame there's so little evidence of this line's existence left today... How I would love to be able to go back in time & travel on it as an adult!
I never had a movie camera when the main line trains in South Wales were mostly steam hauled so it was great to see them recorded here. After the end of BR steam, I did film the NCB locos at Mountain Ash, including "Sir John". I always thought that its chimney was a strange shape, and I now know why, over 50 years later, thanks to your commentary. Fascinating.
You’ve brought back a lot of memories! A few years ago, someone posted a series of beautiful videos, featuring one of the last heritage trains to ride the upper line from Blaenavon High Level to Pontypool. Sadly, they seem to have been taken down!
COAL-OWNERS ??? The 'Coal-owners' were not the Colliery Owners (generally speaking) Reference here to The Cory-s . The Coal Owners were the Landowners, who were paid a Royalty on every tone of coal mined from every seam worked below their land.
Ole Nessie derailed on the way to Croindaile-on-Webon in 1952 after leaving Cultross-Waynille, and a 14 year old lad was crushed while his girlfriend was taking pictures. She went on to marry the engineer, she was 13 and he was 59.
Dust, dirt, coal fires belching smoke, from all the terraced houses. Dirty grey sheep everywhere. Your shirt collar would be dirty after one day of wearing, due to the pollution. You died at a fairly young age if you worked in the coal mines.
