Vintage railway film - Second Nature - 1967 

Most of that electrification equipment is still serving the WCML 50+ years later! ...admittely refurbished and updated a bit since then, but you'd still recognise it. The class 86s (AL6s as they were when this was filmed) were also still in regular service (on freight) until a few years ago. Truly flexible, durable and versatile machines that paid for themselves many times over. For all the jokes and public dislike toward BR, they did, sometimes, get it right!

Great film and a rare early glimpse of Austin Powers as a tea boy before he became an international man of mystery!

Suits, egos, hierarchy and those amazing haircuts......brilliant!!

16:10 I love how he takes a piece of gum and gives the other guy the empty wrapper back lol

Loved driving AL6s/86s. Thankfully, two still operate regularly here and even better, the Eastern Europeans recognised a bargain when they became available for use there.

That music sounds like it should be in a horror movie, I was half expecting workers to meet grisly ends on overhead wires or get hit by trains!

2:07 Richard Sell, research engineer, gets out of his Vauxhall Viva Mk 1. (HA). That's quite a humble car for a man with his position. But then again he does smoke a pipe so his status is intact.

Excellent. An echo from an earlier time.

Excellent, and so nice to see views of Rugby station and surrounding areas back in 1967 too, thanks 👍

Health and safety would have a field day these days seeing the 2 gangers working on those wooden ladders 🤣 loved the video 😀

It's like Hitchcock meets rail modernisation.

When we had a proper railway

Thanks again for a great upload. I love these old films and especially as I used to be a driver, the class 86 was my favorite. Great days.

Love these old British Transport Films. Thanks for posting them.

Fascinating. Also such diversity of accents. Really enjoyed that.

You'd have to drag this out of the average bloke, but if you got to the heart of it you would find that he does live railway, hes got to live railways. He gives to his job all he has. That is a fine sentiment that is lacking these days.

The irony is that those Rooks have probably been nesting in those same trees long before the overhead wires came along.

These old films are a great source of knowledge, systems , attitudes , uniform and elf and fairies . When I started on the tracks it was a yellow vest over blue overalls boots and a flat hat . Everyone for everyone else, kept us safe . Great video 👍🇬🇧 . Nice of the rooks to help .

Very interesting indeed how smooth things seemed to operate on the railway over 50 years ago.

In the distance, the old Railway Inn pub, near Brinklow Marina, to the left side of the over-bridge at 20m 50s in the film. Pub closed back in 2000, I believe. As a kid in the late '70s, it was a great place to watch trains through the rear window, while sipping a glass of coke.

Grew up around where this was filmed and even remember being scared by the PW horn going off at 2:46 because we used to sit on the embankment in the background on Sunday afternoons having a picnic when the weather allowed it. Still spend many happy hours in this part of the world, walking for fitness and hoping something a bit more interesting than a unit or intermodal might be going past

Top notch documentary right there!

3:53 now there’s an expression to fill you with confidence! “Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring.”

Bit of a repeat comment, but this is one I have been watching out for. Saw this a few years ago on another channel, then it was deleted. Nice to see it back again.

The signaler with the IC Swallow tattooed on his hand at the start is dedicated!

There were definite echoes of the military there in terms of "officers" and "men". The chap demonstrating the springy insulator was hilarious with his smug manner. So interesting to see the changes in technology and attitudes compared with today. And the liberally applied Brylcreem!

Nice simple video.

I love how the station announcer at about 4' in over-pronounces the names.

Intriguing music.

12.35 to avoid spending a million we've spent a fiver on this contraption.

Love these vintage films, glad today’s railway uniforms are lot more visible to people bright orange

The existential signalman. And check the fancy white telephones. Posh. When the relay kicks in with a thunk it sound great. And the birth of hi viz and hard hats.

Legendary unit manager Ted Eggs of course

All right. First, first train line. Then, if the train you want to send to already collides with another train. Put Double track next to a station. Then add appropriate block signals.

In 1967 Star Trek was using eerie, skittering electronica To Boldly Go Where No Man has Gone Before! Meanwhile, in the UK it was deemed suitable for British Tranport promotional films. Now I ask, where is the real genius???

A certain amount of entertainment arises if you have the sub-titles on!

Look at the things that changed now

A wonderful piece of nostalgia for a lost world. But I agree with the comments about the music - strange and downbeat, completely at odds with the positive nature of the subject.

having a smoke in the control room lol

Those birds were nothing but trouble for them power lines!

Yeah staying in the S&T engineering department gave you a blue PT and not much else... station managers got the first class PT's and something like 20 more free tickets anywhere in Europe a year for family plus a hefty discount on Motorail and Sleepers which the blue 2nd class one didn't get. Executive grades at Euston House and other regional centres got 1st class travel anywhere, 1st class brake pass, tube travel free and a whole lot of perks the humble worker never dreamed existed... British Rail was run for the railwaymen hehe

Music by Radiophonic Workshop?

Signalling for my instance I experiment with block signals.

Hello from AW Ross Could we see the damaged component would be most welcome Our thanks to all those involved

"The oh nine hours from London Eus-ton to Manchester?" And the narrator, at particularly "in the panel hyahh" at4:09. Were they participating in a competition to see who could do the most caricature posh accent they could get away with?

I can remember Rugby station when it was like this. Even the woman announcing the trains, she did it for years. It’s interesting the way that people spoke then. By the Middle of the 1970s all them pompous old twats must have retired, because you couldn’t talk down to people like that. As for the 100mph trains, yes they were fast but you would struggle to stand up if you left your seat. They used to swaying all over the place

the sixties were twenty years after ww2 it means an evolved modern world but still tied to past and tradition. last 50 years are J.G. Ballard’s worst and most degraded nightmares

The fix, being to put rubber or plastic sleeves over the top wires at bridges? I didn't hear of a fix in the film, but presume they didn't just keep on fixing the lines over and over.

grand old video

When the railways were railways

Loving the silver BR lion and wheel on the electric locos. Shame they lost that for the stupid lines.

20.27 LOL does he say Black Bastards

The Caledonian Sleeper.

They all look ready for retirement.

When I worked S&T Clapham junction new Signalling Centre opened 1980 in stages, it was a Disaster! Area Signal Engineer was 'Wrong man for the job'had to be paid off, replacement told by Chairman BR Board that he was to be sacked in 6 months time unless failure rate dropped, bought in a man from Swanley led a task force team, found lots of bad working practices, he reduced failure rate. In

Fried crows.

AL1 AL2 AL3 AL4 AL5 AL6 10 OUT OF 10 THANKS MARK BCFC 1875

Weird. Bit like the Avengers with trains

20.25,,, thank god hes talking about the Crows. !!! Get the sack these days, for just thinking that . Lol

4:14 Austin Powers.

Why is it that whenever you hear somebody speak with a 'POSH' accent, it always sounds condescending, and as if they are reading from a script? As opposed to those who speak with localised accents, who usually always sound natural!

A

Hmm no one should mention it to the signalmen that by 2021 they are all gone pretty much as Network Rail moves to put signalling clerks in the new single signalling centre in Euston... Where the railways always had a man on the ground somewhere to deter criminals etc the station staff gone in favour of machines and cameras, criminals think its abs heaven knowing they can leisurely stroll away from robbing a passenger as the nearest old bill is 45 mins away and no station staff there for women to turn to because the drunken lad is trying to drag her down an alley. Well done Tory's for taking something that worked and turning it into a positive nightmare for many users and workers and of course if we still had all them Railfreight Depots the HGV crisis would never have happened or the fuel crisis... and STILL the benighted fools out there vote them in again and again and again!

Warrwintong wigone

Come on wooden ladders are safer , but the speed of other trains is to fast when men are working so close

Love the stilted, scripted dialogues!

When the railways actually worked without the faffing of today… Bosses got the job done without snowflakes that didn’t want to work like nowadays…Great footage..

buggers and bastards... They don't like the crows do they lol

Why do we need HS2 when we already have this fantastic line, good on the conservatives for finally cancelling this labour white elephant. Let's upgrade the WCML instead.

Very bad error the Beeching era