Added: Nov 18, 2008
From: BFIfilms
Duration: 7:49
Please note that we are currently experiencing sound problems with this title. We hope to correct this as soon as possible.Comprising train and track footage quickly shot just before a heavy winter's snowfall was melting, the award-winning classic that emerged from the cutting-room compresses British Rail's dedication to blizzard-battling into a thrilling eight-minute montage cut to music. Tough-as-boots workers struggling to keep the line clear are counterpointed with passengers' buffet-car comforts. In a mere half-dozen films released between 1959 and 1975, director Geoffrey Jones revealed himself as an outstanding talent, embracing industrial filmmaking as consistent with a personal style, blending movement and sound into a joyous, rhythmic whole. Brilliantly aided by Wolfgang Suschitzky's shimmering camerawork, the Oscar-nominated 'Snow' is Jones' masterpiece. It's crisply invigorating enough to induce brief amnesia about our trains' notorious inability to cope with the white stuff - then and now. (Patrick Russell)For more information about 'Snow' see http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1234415/index.html'Snow' is available to buy as part of the BFI DVD 'Geoffrey Jones: The Rhythm of Film' - http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_59.html . For details of other British Transport Films available for sale see http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/BFI_Filmstore_British_Transport_Films_28.htmlYou can watch almost 1000 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge at the new BFI Mediatheque - http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque
Channel: Autos
Tags: bfi british btf countryside films railways scotland snow steam trains transport tyndrum winter
Rating: 4.97 (106 ratings) Views: 42505' favoriteCount='300 Comments: 25
3piper Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - 5:05 those guys had bare hands ,no gloves.Yikes!Love this vid as one of my favorites but didn't like the flashing at end minute of the film
raherecolston Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - I too remember 1963. It was my 13 th birthday and I'd started a paper round just in time for one of the coldest hardest winters for years!If we had snow like that now, would anyone attempt to clear it or would it just be left and trains cancelled en-masse? Wasnt '63 also the year that Dr Beeching started to close so many of Britains railways? I was told that The Road Haulage Assn gave him a directorship for that, but dont know how true that is? Thanks BFI, a great vid of a lost world
dpaajones Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - And to think that today trains don't run in England when a centimetre of snow has fallen!
Jonny7trainspotting Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - Man oh man, I remember the snows of 1963 and my mother's face when she opened the frond door, the snow was up to the letterbox and was packed solid, she would not let me out in it, boy did I have a sulk on..he he Thanks for posting this memorable video
jesstheone23 Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - my 2yr old loved this-train addict- it has some head-on passes where I lean him out of the way and he thought that was the greatest
jesstheone23 Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - I have lived in TX, USA my whole life and fear cold. No gloves brings up an interesting point
rednibs Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - I was 4 at the time - It snowed on Boxing Day and then every day after that for three months. Heaven for kids! What a load of old tosh about trains running on time though - they were regularly late then, snow or no snow, and a small snowfall stuffed everything same as now. The difference then was that we had three months to practice clearing things and buy all the equipment needed.
bigtomlow Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - ahhh yes those were the days, I was 80 in 1963 and i walked 40 miles to work and back every day for those 3 months of snow!
chrisconil Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - There's no business like Snow..., great feel
willrs Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - The work of Johnny Hawksworth and the legendary Daphne Oram on the soundtrack to this film is fantastic. Varispeed to the power of 100.
ramrodtrike Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - is this silent ?
jackyeats88 Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - it wasnt silent a couple of days ago. the sound must have messed up
BTT125 Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - That`s really great!!! Good idea to post historical videos! Thanks.
daccasham84 Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - Ah yes the big freeze of 63. I was 4 then and our pipes froze up (so I'm told). Snow, snow glorious snow.
bluebus270 Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - Even then the drivers were miserable buggers.
nigelwright7557 Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - Far too many short clips.It gave me a headache watching it.
howunavailable Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - I remember this. Lovely to be a child then.
howunavailable Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - It started Boxing day in the South East in 1962 and eventually all melted March 1963. My sister was born at home in the January and couldn't be taken out anywhere because of the weather until March!
brucesterman Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - It was terrifyingly cold I was only 3 1/2, we had to put a paraffin heater in the footwell of the car. The engine coolant froze and dad took the cap off the radiator!! I paniced as I was lost in a cloud of steam. The buses didn't run because the diesel had turned to jelly or something. My face was so cold it hurt to open and close my mouth. You don't forget winters like '63......it was never ending.
hwame Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - I was 10 and I remember this winter well. We had wild birds sheltering in our shed and we provided them with food and water, they made no attempt to fly away when we walked in!
LarrryJoe Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - I too was 10 and during this 63 winter I lived in upper Nidderdale (North Yorkshire) The lanes were blocked for six weeks and I couldn't get to school.We lived in a 360 yr old farm cottage and I remember the snow drifting right up to the top of the roof. We would walk up theat drift and look over into our garden - until my parents caught my brother and I doing this.
LarrryJoe Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - I too was 10 and during this 63 winter, I lived in upper Nidderdale (North Yorkshire) The lanes were blocked for six weeks and I couldn't get to school.We lived in a 360 yr old farm cottage and I remember the snow drifting right up to the top of the roof.
LarrryJoe Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - We would walk up that drift and look over into our garden - until my parents caught my brother and I doing this. After week two the yellow RAF helicopter came and delivered food supplies to us and other dwellers caught out in this awful winter. Gosh what memories!
dvdhttn Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - I was a fireman on the GWR at that time, we were sent out to relieve goods trains trapped in the loops and sidings because of the snow, the backlog of trains was huge. We ourselves we relieved at the end of our shift without us moving a wheel. The trains were stuck their for days. We had to clean the firebox of all the clinker which had jammed up the firegrate before we could even move the trains something the GWR engine crews never had to do. Ah memories. Great clip.
moooksta Says:
Nov 18, 2008 - Astounding editing for 1963.Years ahead of the MTV edit!moox