Great British Railway Journeys

This documentary short examines the special train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected on the run, and delivered in Scotland on the overnight run from Euston, London to Glasgow.

Looping, chugging and barreling by, the trains in Benning's latest monumental film map a stunning topography and a history of American development. RR comes three decades after Benning and Bette Gordon made The United States of America (1975), a cinematic journey along the country’s interstates that is keenly aware “of superhighways and railroad tracks as American public symbols.” A political essay responding to the economic histories of trains as instruments in a culture of hyper-consumption, RR articulates its concern most explicitly when Eisenhower's military-industrial complex speech is heard as a mile long coal train passes through eastern Wyoming. Benning spent two and a half years collecting two hundred and sixteen shots of trains, forty-three of which appear in RR. The locomotives' varying colors, speeds, vectors, and reverberations are charged with visual thrills, romance and a nostalgia heightened by Benning's declaration that this will be his last work in 16mm film.

Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote are back! The lovable characters have transitioned to the third dimension in the new series of animated shorts being produced by Warner Brothers. Wile E. Coyote is up to his old tricks in newfangled stereoscopic 3D. Hilarity ensues as per usual, check out the crazy antics in Looney Tunes: Rabid Rider

Set at the turn of the 20th century, The Railway Children tells the story of three Edwardian children and their mother who move to a country house in Yorkshire after their father is mysteriously taken away by the police.

A larger-than-life tale about the African-American hero born with a hammer in his hand. Join John Henry on a scenic journey from cotton country to the wilderness, where he finds men of all colors working together to build a great railroad.

Head railroad man Dan is as ugly as he is honorable. When he spots a drifter who'd hopped a freight held up by a landslide, Dan offers the man a job; then he finds the man was a railroader, too, and takes him under his wing. Engaged to Mary, Dan doesn't notice the growing attraction between his protégé and his intended but focuses instead on running the railroad.

Erich Kästner’s beloved novel has been adapted for film or television six times since its publication in 1929; this 1935 British version was the first in English. Believed lost for decades, it was recently rediscovered by the BFI and has now been restored. The film moves the action from Berlin to London, where Emil goes to stay with his grandmother and cousin. Thereafter, the tale of Emil’s adventures with a gang of streetwise London children faithfully follows the original plot.

Capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their electrifying element, 'A Hard Day's Night' is a wildly irreverent journey through this pastiche of a day in the life of The Beatles during 1964. The band have to use all their guile and wit to avoid the pursuing fans and press to reach their scheduled television performance, in spite of Paul's troublemaking grandfather and Ringo's arrest.

Philandering husband George Montfort purchases railroad tickets for a weekend tryst in the mountains with his latest paramour. When his wife Yvonne finds the tickets, George hastily explains that they were bought as an anniversary present for her. Yvonne doesn't believe George, but she decides to use her ticket anyway, while George remains behind in Paris on "business."

When British Railways announce the closure of the Titfield to Mallingford branch line a group of local residents make a bid to run it themselves, backed by a monied member of the community who is attracted by the complete lack of licensing hours on trains. Unfortunately the local bus company starts to use methods that can hardly be seen as fair competition.

A soldier returns from Vietnam on special assignment, accompanying the body of his friend by train to California for burial. During the trip, he falls in love with a gentle college student. But their relationship is shattered by his flashbacks to combat.

Jim Vesser and his team of railroading men try to build a rail line through a mountain pass, while a group of less scrupulous construction workers sabotages the entire operation in the hopes that they can get their tracks laid first and get the money from the railroad.

In this crime drama, an escaped convict is recaptured and charged with killing two people in a lonely waystation during a snowstorm. Fortunately, a novelist is around to prove him innocent.

Part documentary, part recreation, this movie is an exploration of Britain's first railway murder. Based on the book by Kate Colquhoun.

Brandon, a surveyor, dreams of building a railway to the west. He sets off with his son, Davy, to survey a route. They discover a new pass which will shave 200 miles off the expected distance, but they are set upon by a party of Cheyenne. One of them, a white renegade with only two fingers on his right hand, kills Brandon and scalps him. Davy is all alone now.

Tracks Ahead is a television series about railroading, produced by Milwaukee Public Television for public television stations. Season 9 was aired in 2015.

Paul Murton follows in the footsteps of the first tourists to Scotland. With a Victorian guidebook in his hands, he travels across the country tracing the changes that have taken place since the birth of Scottish tourism 200 years ago.

The year 2004 saw two hundred years of railways in Great Britain and to celebrate this historic landmark year, dedicated train enthusiast Mark Williams traveled the length and breadth of Britain in an exciting new TV series. Travelling the length and breadth of Britain, Mark tracks down the nation's fascinating railway heritage and gets to grips with locos such as the magnificent 160 ton Duchess of Sutherland. From the earliest designs of Richard Trevithick and George and Robert Stephenson to the advent of Class 31s, and from the development of London's Underground to the evolution of railway coaches, he reveals how our railways have changed over 200 years of history.

Michael Portillo travels on the great train routes of Europe, as he retraces the journeys featured in George Bradshaw's 1913 Continental Railway Guide.

Documentary series revealing the inner workings of Britain's railways, introducing the track-workers, train guards, drivers, police officers and management teams determined to keep the country moving.

Michael Portillo examines the role of the railways in World War I and travels through Britain and Europe uncovering stories from the Great War.

More than 150 of Britain’s railway stations are request stops. You have to put out your arm to get the train to stop at the platform. In this series, Paul Merton will travel around the country by train, only getting off at request stops. He’ll explore the history of the stations, and meet the people who live and work around them to learn more about at these unusual and often-overlooked stations.

Actor Julie Walters rides upon the UK's most beautiful coastal railways.

Modern day treasure hunter, Drew Pritchard is one of Britain's leading architectural salvage dealers, traveling the length and breadth of the country in search of weird and wonderful objects. Drew loves the thrill of the hunt and while he gets his hands dirty in the country's architectural backwaters, a crack team of restorers are back at base giving old and rare finds a new lease of life. We've seen them at work on Salvage Hunters, restoring, repairing and refining Drew's finds but for the first time, Salvage Hunters: The Restorers is going behind-the-scenes with this expert team to see what it really takes to transform junk into gems.

This series travels the length and breadth of Britain to find out how the Victorians built Britain. It uncovers the incredible and surprising stories behind iconic landmarks; discovers the hidden heroes behind the epic constructions; and finds out how the incredible advances made by the Victorians forged the world we live in today.

Rob Bell explores the lost landscapes and infrastructure of some of Britain's former railway lines. From the 1960's the axe fell on 4,000 miles of Britain's rail network. Now, decades later, Rob Bell is going on journey to uncover those lost railway lines. Every week Rob will explore a different line; experiencing the hidden landscapes, lost infrastructure and forgotten worlds that disappeared when the line closed.

Armed with his 1913 Bradshaw’s Handbook to the Chief Cities of the World, Michael embarks on six new railway journeys across spectacular Australia.

Michael Portillo is in Southeast Asia, armed with his 1913 Bradshaw's Handbook. It will lead him on a spectacular 2,500-mile railway adventure across six countries. He explores towering megacities and magnificent mosques.

Investigating the most notorious murders ever to take place on the British railways. The cases start from 1864 with the the first murder on a British railway.

From the sea lochs of Scotland to the Jurassic Coast of Dorset, seasoned train traveller Michael Portillo immerses himself in the magnificent scenery of the nation's coastal regions.