What a great film, one of the best I’ve seen. Captures the flavour and feeling of the times, looking at it from today’s perspective makes you realise what we lost.

One must always think of those who gave their lives constructing this railway and their wives and children

Growing up in the seventies my bedroom window over looked the woodhead route , a none stop stream of electric trains , i would watch as two EM1s brought a coal train in from wath and two more were put on the rear to act as bankers for the trip up the 1 in 40 of the worsborough bank , today i cycle on the route regularly and if i close my eyes i can see and hear the electric trains as if it was yesterday, the woodhead was a fondly remembered part of my childhood and it was saddening when it closed , like saying goodbye to an old friend, the long mornful wail of the EM 1 horns prepareing to move up the bank would never be heard again .

The golden age of BBC documentary making

Superb video ,still a scandal this line ,the Woodhead closed

Great item! Wonder how much that nameplate from the electric is worth, I did a railtour over the Woodhead route in 1980...it was another world, even then.

The last time I saw this film was on 4th November 1969, and I am so grateful it's now on KZfaq. A real slice of nostalgia. I would have been 13 when I first saw it. How short sighted they were, doing away with the Woodhead route.

Hogwarts™ Express is better at Universal Studios.

Amazing that they electrified the Woodhead line but left it with a mechanical block signalling system even though there were electronic signalling systems by the start of the 20th century. I suspect that failure to properly modernise it was in the 80s when it needed upgrading to 25KV it was decided instead to close it.

What an interesting film, which gave a real insight into what life was like for all the railwaymen of my 1960's youth. Makes me rather sad never to have travelled the Woodhead route. Shame the excerpt from the Flanders & Swan song (at about 35 mins in) had to be muted out.

I worked on the railway at Derby for almost thirty years until 2022. The pride of modern railwaymen (and women) is still evident. Furthermore the vast majority are well aware of their railway forefathers and the struggles they faced and the legacy they left. Right up until I finished in 2022 I would (where time permitted) clean the nameplate on any HST I was driving during the turnaround at Sheffield.

A brilliant documentary from a time when the BBC was at the top of the game. Sadly no longer the Licence Fee no longer value for money!

What a gem! Not least because it captures working (the people AND the trains) on the old Woodhead route, which was closed to passengers just a few months later, and closed entirely just over a decade later! A real pity.

What a refreshing change from all the channels the Tube has been recommending. Amid all the Doom and Gloom, Austerity, Warfare and Suffering I came across this directive:- " Engines Must Not Enter the Potato Sidings"

Classic railway tale with the lives of those men who chose this path. Great people.

Wonder visit to a beautiful graveyard. Great video, your Georgia friends.

I remember this film so well, I was at secondary school at the time the film is excellent, I worked on British rail at Stratford depot east London, its true railway people are a very special breed of people and I had the privilege to work with these people.

Simply wonderful.

Wow, what a fantastic documentary film. The railwaymen certainly had huge pride, it was way more than just a job to them. Also of course, the navvies worked heroically to construct the line, and many lost their lives doing so.

Stunning film of a lost world such a special line that cost so much human cost no longer used i belove.