1960: WEST HIGHLAND RAILWAY - A Day in the Life | Classic BBC Documentary | BBC Archive

It's odd to think of the recent furore over the "slam door" trains that used this line recently and the fitting of a central locking system
while we see children clambering up and into and out of the same BR Mark I carriages back in 1960! A more robust world, for sure and a lot less bureaucracy. One rail buff comment. The observation car we see was one of two built in 1937 for the LNER Coronation train- they were put into store for many years but were rebuilt- (and their ends were originally known as "beaver tail") to provide better views and transferred to this most scenic line.

I would love to have been born in the year 1960, instead of in the year 1969 and had I been born in 1960 I would now be aged 65.

Very nice heavy highland Railway nice old video great

@GeoffMarshall needs to watch this.

Amazing. Different time and place.

Heartachingly beautiful.

Low-key obsessed? Idiot

What a fantastic bit of footage, I’ve fired that lined form Fort William To Mallaig several times

stunning. stunned. goergeous. beautiful. mezmerizing. wonderful. every part of the production and content. thank you for this. thank you. (i took the caledonian sleeper from london to ft william a few years back. it was breathtaking. but to see this from not too long before i was born melted my heart. times gone by. when my parents were still teens. thank you.)

Now we ride our bikes on those railways. Visit Lochearnhead if you want to see a perfectly preserved station.

Fabulous documentary. While we may not have restaurant and observation cars today, the line is of course still as beautiful as ever and very well worth a trip. My last one (to date) was in June 2023.

Ssaw that lovely old LNER observation car on the Strathspey Railway this year

A Day in the Life...

Wonderful documentary from bygone age

I've just spent half an hour living in the Highlands of Scotland two generations ago from the other side of the world. Delightful!

In thr sixties had a 7 day Freedom of Scotland ticket for 2 years running.
I visited all the engine sheds in Carlisle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Aberdeen etc.
At that time there were all the Gresley pacifics displaced from the south working the Glasgow Aberdeen 3 hour trains.
In those days if you behaved yourself you could go round any shed. I went round all of them in London, Manchester, Birmingham Sheffield etc.
Freedom! I was only 10 to 13 years old. My parents taught me about life and let me make my own way.
This film brings all that back.

It must have been fantastic to live so far out that the train stopped to take you to school !

I love this video. The old Railways the steam poered crain at the harbor the double decker trolly. Beautiful countryside and the music. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you.

Brilliant! I had a fantastic New Year across the loch from Fort William (in Trislaig) 1971/72 having journeyed by rail from Peterborough station to Fort William overnight. What a memorable journey that was, as indeed was the trip home a few days later.

Excellent film, fantastic scenery, love the way children picked up at line side.

Great film.Looks like the stock from the "Queen of Scots" at Queen Street.

Got teary eyed watching this. 🥲

I would go back to that world in a heartbeat, it's like a calling from god

I am lucky enough to have been able to look back 2 generations, my great, great aunty lived out in the middle of nowhere (1980's), no gas, electricity, running water. The local farmer charged a car battery for her so she did have a portable TV. I would go back to that without thinking twice.

Someone get in touch with Geoff Marshall to make an updated version of this.

Interesting to know that the Fort William to Mallaig section is now The Jacobite tourist rail journey. Considered one of the most picturesque in the world.
When it was simply constructed to service the fishing and mining industries of the area.

Wow! What a fantastic documentary! And a good print you've got there! Thankyou so much for that!

A restaurant car!! A far cry from the rotten “sprinter” trains that now make this an uncomfortable journey.

Beautiful film, travelled this route overnight from Euston in 2018, one of the most scenic routes in the UK 😊

Watching this reminds me of my childhood before i immigrated to the tropics never to return.

Great documentary. Some of the sound effects on this are absolutely trippy. Do I detect the hand of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop?

This is a remarkable piece of railway filming I’ve only just discovered. It truly deserves to be more widely known as it serves, for me at any rate, as one of the best historical records of Scottish steam railways of that period.

The trains that run many of the services today, Class 156 diesel multiple units, were built in the late 1980s. That is closer to the time this film was made than it is to today.

Lovely to see the lands of my husband's ancestors. There are many generations of William Youngs in that region.

These really were the last days of steam. My dad took me on the Inverness to kyle of lacholsh in summer of 86. The beauty of the landscape is indescribable. The victorian and edwardian engineering to tame them lands is totally awe inspiring

The old FTW station was so much better than the current flat-roofed mess. Demolished so the bypass could be built.

My 21yr old now shovels coal as a weekend hobby, it is love❤❤

My last recollection of passenger steam services was meeting my father on the platform at West Green station on the Palace Gates line. The line and station are long gone but there's still evidence of a railway service running through the area if you know where to look.

Anyone know the station at 15.48 please?

Cracking footage.
Thanks for posting.
Points to note.
These ol boys knew their job.
Firemen on top of job, white feather at the safety’s.
Driver of the pilot looking back to make sure fireman on the train engine didn’t miss the token. If he did it was drop the handle time, walk back & cause a delay!
Please explain ?
Those were the days!!
The ol Southern pmv’s got everywhere!!

Fantastic xpat from Arbroath living in New Zealand 64yrs breathtaking my heart will always belong to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇳🇿 many thanks

Marvellous footage when the railways offered a proper service.

NOWDAYS ALSO IAM STEAM ENGINE DRIVER IN TRAINZ SIMULATOR ANDROID THANKS TO ANDROID

👏👏👏

Needs subtitles! This priceless, classic piece of history would be far more enjoyable to watch if I knew what was being said. Half of it just sounded like gibberish to me... and apparently so to the auto-caption algorithms.

I wish I could take this journey, amazing, I wouldn't sleep a second (all classes)