Sir John Betjeman on the end of steam trains - 'Railways For Ever' (1970)

This film is available to buy as part of the 18-disc boxset 'The British Transport Films Collection' - filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_10840.html

11 August 1968 is a highly significant date in British railway history, marking the official end of regular mainline steam operation. As we see the last steam train crossing the Pennines and hear the Edwardian music-hall song 'Watching the Trains Go Out', Sir John Benjamin begins to reminisce. His nostalgic verse and prose recall the great trains of old as he moves through a photographic exhibition in Kingsway.

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