Vintage railway film - Giants of steam - 1963 

This is one of the best movies ever made.

The poetry and music in these older films is just so timeless and gives them so much more class and grandeur than the nonsense we see in more modern productions.

WHAT A SHOW AND NARRATION!! BRINGS TEARS FROM WHEN PEOPLE WERE REAL IN NATURE !!! THE MUSICAL SCORE WAS SECOND TO NONE!!! AND YOU CAN ADD THE BRITISH SPECIAL EFFECTS ,TOO!!!! EXCELLENT ON ALL COUNTS!!!!! Earl of El Barrio,NYC,NY. 8/27/23

Fabulous film and music from a time when pride mattered in England.

Oh how I’d love to see this in colour

What a wonderful film and the poem at the end, oh my!

this is my favorite documentary period, music 10/10, narration 10/10, and overall gets 100 out of 100 flying Scotsman's, also the bounciness of 11:00s music deservers more recognition.

It is said that when you die your life passes before you. When I die I am sure that my memories of the steam locomotives which I witnessed many times at the old Union Station in Columbus Ohio will be in that memory. The steam blasting in my face, the acrid aroma of the belching smoke filling my nose are memories I will never forget. Excellent video, I learned a lot today. Thank you ever so much for posting.

my Mum was a baby when this film was made. my Granny witnessed the last days of steam on BR

I witnessed the end of steam but most people in the sixties young and old wanted to sweep away anything old for the new so we ruined our environment with brutalistic high rise architecture as we sprinted into the future. I was one of those people but now realise how wrong we were. Thank goodness for Woodhams scrapyard and the heritage railway movement who have enabled us to have so many heritage steam railways in the UK. Modern build architecture can be attractive too.

Fitting score by Ron Grainer - who went on to do The Prisoner...

A grand film that has stood up very well over 60 years

How have I not seen this before? What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Brings a tear to ones eye

Just listen to that Ron Grainer sound track. Suits the subject down to the ground!

Love this film. Being about ten years old at the time back in the sixties I remember this film being broadcast on TV.

Fantastic, I am 33 so I never got to see the glory days. Films like this are great for showing how it was!

Ah this takes me back to my old trainspotting days, sadly when this was done from 1963 my days were over, I did all my trainspotting back through the 1950s and what a great era, I just love these old memories and reminiscing, touring old sheds in the middle of the night around Glasgow and the London area, back then health and safety took a back seat, there was nothing more exciting than being on Doncaster station and hearing and then seeing the `streaks` speed by on their scotch expresses, sadly British railway steam engines were not very well maintained in those days, this is why today 2022 I'm amazed to see 3 cyl `jubs` pulling 10 and 11 coach trains unassisted, it speak volumes for the staff who maintain these beautiful engines.

Absolutely brilliant. To think that I lived in the dying days of steam and remember those mighty beasts. Ron Grainger's music was superb for this outstanding documentary. I laughed at Wellington's remark about the common folk being able to get about. Tutt tutt!

Plenty of Heritage Railways left fortunately. I live near the Great Central. A great day out and today's gala had 8 different locos in steam.

Great video. Thanks!

Wow. I've never seen this before. Wonderful.

That was great! I felt like I was back in the classroom again watching a cross between "The Avengers" and National Geographic.

Beautiful! Reminds me of the days when I was young and handsome.

I remember this being broadcast when I was a 9 year old kid, the music stuck in my head and I've never seen it since despite trying to find it, neither the music, nor the film. Certainly a blast from the past!!

superb

Charles Dickin's reaction to the railway strikes a chord as to what is happening with HS2.

John Slater who did the narration was in the film Passport to Pimlico in the late 40s and finished off his career in Z cars.

Fantastic. Many thanks.

Remarkable film, thanks for making it available. And congratulations for your excellent channel

Thought I recognised the voice (John Slater) although it's much more RP than many of the characters he played.

I have strong memories from the early to mid 60's towards the end of steam. Particularly remember the Duchesses and on holidays, the King's, Castles and Bulleid Pacifics. At the age of 7, I saw our station pilot at Cleethorpes going to the scrapyard under it's own power leaking steam badly. I was more than happy in 1991 to be part of the crew rebuilding her to main line standards. Wasn't happy on first post restoration movement under steam ...... I was bloody ecstatic.

Richard Trevithick actually receives the credit he deserves for being the first in 1802 !!! A very rare happening!! Even more so in modern times !!!

i love the renditions of ron grainer's music in this

Very nice! I love all the music

Hi my name is Phil I did 50 years on footplate i started on 4 April 1961 at edgeley shed I finished my time out at longsight in 2011 Regards Phil.

Fantastic

Oh those lefthand drives!

Thanks for the cool film - greets from South Oz

I was 13 yrs old in 1963,my uncle was a steam train driver at Boston Lincolnshire who lost his job when dr Richard beeching closed so man6 line’s east coast ,having the same surname was a nightmare for me and dad in those days.

Indeed.

The loss of the magnificent Stanier Pacific's in the early 1960s was sad moment in railway history.

lower the light on your screen for sharper black and white and glossiness of rails and liveries.

Interesting to see a video from 1963, as opposed to a film. I'm surprised at the image quality. It certainly has a different "feel" from film: no dust or jitter, and a very clean soundtrack. I guess this must have been one of those rare tapes that didn't get erased and reused.

*railroads are the backbone of every nation!* From here in Florida in the United States, to the grand station of Kings Cross in Britain, to Moscow in Russia, the railroads keep the world going.

John Slater, not heard his name for many years !

Today in Camborne Cornwall is Trevithick Day, April 27, 2024.

An excellent historical documentary, but surely incorrect concerning the Euston arch, which was built by Philip Hardwicke; not the Cubitts, if I heard that correctly. Lewis Cubitt was best known for his neighbouring King's Cross station.

George Stephenson was me wifes great great grandfather

The engineers don't wave from the trains anymore, not like they did back in 1954. From a mansion to the rails.from all that fortune to a county jail.

Wonderful film. I don't understand why the first locomotives and even further had no cover for driver's protection against wind, rain or snow.

If its time but a great film. Might be worth saying that the number of horses increased rather than decreased with the growth of the railway; at least to begin with…. Because they were needed to move goods to and from railway stations.

Clock the Lion loco near beginning which had been rebuit for the movies

The fireman surely doesn't see poetry in his tiresome job of feeding that beast

So if the Santa's bridge was such a great idea why was it not repeated elsewhere?

The glory of steam may be gone but not for good. Steam locomotives had a greater tractive power than the diesels that replaced them. If another heat source other than coal could be found, steam could return in a more modern form and usurp diesels that are becoming more expensive to operate as oil resources decline.

I'm sad I never saw the Steam Age, but I sure wish we had kept passenger lines around. That saddens me more. Edit: I am, of course, speaking from the American Experience.

Correction, highest point in railways is the Scottish Highlands 😊. Well above what the blinkered narrator says 😊

Any chance that anyone knows the soundtrack to this?

"The railways changed the face of England." Nothing going on in Ireland, Scotland & Wales then.

The voice sounds familiar. Who is the narrator? Anybody?

Can anyone identify the artwork at 1105?

7:41 Why it was called "sea coal" back then.

Good vid. I would have enjoyed it more without all the cloying adulation from the narrator. That said, the style is part of the time, which makes it a bit of self-documentary.

So a Geordie gave us the railway? And the North West got the first mainline railway

Was this really this bleary and dark, or did you add that? I've seen movies from 1896 on paper prints that look better than this.

“… will allow th3 lower classes to move about…” - Klaus Schwab and his WEF minions are still singing the same tune.

Jolly good..... excellent footage.... are the splendour of the steam loco... you do realise they just dug most of the infrastructure out of the mud and many of the bridges and tunnels were already there.... their narrative is B.S.

The music makes this unbearable

"By the second half of the18 th century , the country round Newcastle was thriving on its coal , waggonways and access to the sea " - so that would be many years AFTER the Cockenzie waggonway opened in 1722 ! Again English bias ignoring Scottish supremacy in anything related to technology and science .

More romantic nonsense

1st clip - 'I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, says the loco puffing up the bank