1969: The Vanishing Railway | Gone Tomorrow | Classic BBC Documentary |

Terence Carroll's documentary series Gone Tomorrow examines those aspects of Britain that are vanishing. Since the Beeching Plan, rural branch railway lines have been ripped up with as much vigour as they were originally put down in the great 'railway mania' of the 1840s. Very few are left now, and this film records the final two days of the line between King's Lynn and Dereham, twenty-six miles that served the scattered inhabitants of a lovely part of Norfolk for more than 120 years. Clip taken from Gone Tomorrow: The End of the Line, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 2 June, 1969.

 

THE FALL AND RISE OF BRITISH RAILWAYS; Eps 1 - 4 

The first documentary produced by the BBC Film Unit in Northern Ireland looks at the problems the railways are facing in NI. Can anything be done to arrest the decline of the permanent way in the face of rising competition from road traffic? Indeed, should anything be done? Clip taken from End of the Line, originally broadcast on BBC Television, 15 August, 1956.