Watching the Trains Go By

John Betjeman revels in the pleasures of travelling along the small branch line from King's Lynn to Hunstanton.

There's an impressive line-up of preserved steam at Brighton Station in this film from the early seventies

A train journey beginning at the Cambridgeshire capital and terminating at the tiny station of Kennett, where the train staff enjoy a cup of tea.

This amazing footage captures a unique little railway at work during its declining years in the late 1920s

A young boy, fascinated by town life after being brought up in a mining village, captures on film the comings-and-goings at Carmarthen Railway Station.

The East Somerset Railway opens its cabs

Coach restoration, weed killing and Bessie Jones, wearer of Welsh costume, gathering visitors for tea at her station cottage at Tan-y-Bwlch on the Ffestiniog Railway.

Enthusiasts take their places in coal wagons for a tour of the NCB's internal rail network between Newport and Cardiff, the wagons hauled by both diesel and steam engines.

It’s all go to get the Ffestiniog Railway back on track after its 8 year closure (1946-1954). The Ffestiniog Railway Company, the new owner, is undertaking its restoration.

“It’s a living creature, not just a load of metal. It’s alive and warm - you’ve got to nurse it.” Tom fulfils his ambition to drive a steam locomotive.

A whistle-stop venture from Kings Lynn to Hunstanton via rail, in the company of Chib Thorp, amateur filmmaker and rail enthusiast from Leigh on Sea.

Amateur filmmaker Chib Thorpe clutches his train bible – a British Railways timetable, accompanied by willing travellers, wife Edna and Micky the Border Collie.

Beware the iron horse – locomotive 822 [The Earl] – lumbering through the streets of Welshpool, no barriers to keep it at bay, and emerging, ghost-like, from its shed at night!

An aptly named scrapbook film featuring a train spotter's view of King's Cross around 1937, river journeys and Home Guard training

Come to Liverpool to celebrate a century of railway history.

At a vicarage in Leicestershire a little bit of the old Great Western Railway lives on.

There's slam-door action aplenty in this film which chronicles the end of mid-Sussex expresses being routed through Dorking Station

At Stapleford Park near Melton Mowbray Lord Gretton has fulfilled a dream in running his own railway.

The last passengers to travel the Wrexham Central to Ellesmere Line on 8/9/1962 are recorded by a railway and film enthusiast.

Plumes of smoke join the clouds again as a steam train races across Northern Ireland. If steam trains retired in 1970 is this one is eighteen years late?

Amateur film maker A.H. Martin captures the SS Mona’s Isle V at work two years before the ship stars for Hugh Hudson in ‘Chariots of Fire’.

Feast your eyes on this buffet for transport lovers. Squeeze in a visit to the ‘hardboard hotel’ between your train and plane spotting.

Join these ardent amateur navvies as they attempt to double the size of the Beech Hurst Miniature Railway

Celebrate the final years of steam by chasing the Spoil Train across Antrim, as yesterday’s quarry waste becomes today’s busiest motorway.

Short extract from a home movie featuring children from King’s College School, Wimbledon, visiting the station and seeing the King’s Wimbledon locomotive.

Railways great and small, past, present and preserved - a snapshot of rail in Britain in the 1970s.

A variety of hard working Great Western motive power is on display in this impressive and atmospheric film shot during the twilight years of steam in West London

Steam, smoke, grime and oil add to the atmosphere of this award winning film about a day in the life of the Bluebell Railway

Enjoy this charming film from Trevor White which charts the birth of the Bluebell Railway - from the germ of an idea into a fully functioning steam railway

Twenty years of the Bluebell Railway are chronicled in this film - featuring open days, journeys on low-loaders, the Golden Arrow Pullman service and even Stephenson's Rocket

No money incentives required for the dedicated volunteers bringing the defunct Whitby to Pickering up to speed for re-opening, and for the arrival of the iconic Flying Scotsman.

Rails are lifted, fishplates fitted and keys hammered into place, as another Sir Nigel Gresley, saved from the scrapyard, gets a second life on the North Yorkshire Moors.

A railway year to remember, with celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Stockton to Darlington line, the opening of the National Railway Museum and steam engines aplenty.

Beeching may have had his way in devastating the railway network, but thankfully many railway enthusiasts were on hand to save at least some lines, as here on the North York Moors.

All aboard the Silver Jubilee special in the company of Leon Brittan as it wends its way across the North York Moors pulled by a steam loco with the famous name of George Stephenson.

Steam Again in Devon - the Iconic Flying Scotsman

A gleaming giant of steam and its cute Lilliputian cousin are an even match in this newsreel battle of the trains

Model husbands prove that size isn't everything as they get steamed up over Lilliput locomotives

Tri-ang model railways are a lure for children and big kids, but Kit Kat gets the grown-ups' attention

From diesel to electrification - a miscellany of railway footage in Cheshire.

The age of steam lingers on as the `Worth Valley Railway Re-Opening Special' pulls into Keighley station, and hardly an anorak in sight.

The Mid Wales Express is on tour with star attraction ‘Sir Haydn’, a Talyllyn Railway locomotive, the aim being to promote Wales as an ideal location for industry and tourism.

Down Talyllyn way, 22/5/1957, with the Rev W V Awdry of ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ fame and other Talyllyn Railway notables. J Adams films the BBC filming ‘Now’ series footage.

P B Whitehouse, an authority on railways, extols the virtues of “the little railway” – the Talyllyn - that runs from Rhydyronen to Abergynolwyn and beyond.

Charles and Diana, the Prince and Princess of Wales, take a one-station trip on one of the country’s little trains, Charles riding in the cab from Pendre to Rhydyronen.

Alan Willmott cranks up the speed on this Talyllyn Railway Special so that those visitors who wish to “do” Wales in a day can pack more in!

Giants attack steam train! Oh, hold on, it’s a miniature railway.

A journey through the Valleys on the LNWR line from Nantybwch to Risca and the SLS/RCTS Scottish Rail Tour Week.

From Ipswich depot to Hadleigh station in a brake van: there's standing room only on this Ramblers special.

Whirlwind tour across England and into Wales through the lens of renowned railway enthusiast William Arthur 'Cam' Camwell

Panniers and Prairies work valiantly to prepare coaching stock for the West of England expresses.

The wires may be up but there are plenty of steam locomotives in the Crewe area - Patriots, Black 5s and Britannias galore!

A reel of Midlands-based locomotive rail tours including a visit to the Cadbury’s shunter depot.

A man, troubled and trapped in a deserted station, misses the only train...

See through the eyes of a seagull who bemoans how easy it is for humans to have a day out at 'his' seaside.