Vintage LMS railway film - St Pancras Junction Relaying - 1947

Comments · 274

• 1C

  @1chish · 5 years ago

  &quot;1100 tons of spoil was removed ...&quot;<br>All by men with picks and shovels wearing flat caps, waistcoats and string round the leggings. And a couple wearing ex Army battledress blouses.<br>A couple of years before this most of these blokes would have been fighting a war.<br>Truly the greatest generation.

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• JO

  @JoeRailfan · 5 years ago (edited)

  Surely I can&apos;t be the only American who heard &quot;San Diego&quot; at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plDBlQLt0EA&amp;t=46">0:46</a>! &nbsp;(What the narrator actually said was &quot;Messrs. Taylor Brothers of Sandiacre&quot;, an English Midlands village conveniently located online to the LMS.)

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• ST

  @steeveedee4307 · 4 years ago

  Looking how tough that work was I&apos;m not surpised going to the pub of an evening was so popular back then.

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• IA

  @ianprince9753 · 5 years ago

  Have you noticed how slim everyone was back then

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• BR

  @brucenichols9153 · 5 years ago

  1947 the very year I was born, loved watching this.

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• CO

  @conorwhitworth5182 · 4 months ago

  Cheerful soundtrack to backbreaking work.

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• DA

  @davec1179 · 2 years ago

  Hard times indeed, total respect to the men. I was born the same year as filmed, looking back I never realised how the the atmosphere was so murky compared to today

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• AR

  @argekay1960 · 4 months ago

  That is just back breaking hard work. My hats off to all of them.

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• IO

  @IONOSPHERE77 · 5 years ago

  Just look at the manpower needed to carry out this work on the track&apos;s, my father used to do this in the 1960&apos;s up until the 80&apos;s, it was mostly manual work which was tough on the back and walking on ballast was hard on the feet, and the pay wasn&apos;t that good, but it was a job for life, and you got to bring railway sleepers home to burn on the open fire!

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• XR

  @xr6lad · 2 years ago

  These would have been the same guys that would be out the night following a blitz attack to rebuild the destroyed tracks so there was barely a delay in train services during the war a few years earlier. Well experienced.

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• AC

  @acehandler1530 · 5 years ago

  As a former CNR switchman/brakeman (T-Bay) turned Boilermaker (40 years this year) I could really relate to many aspects of this activity. &nbsp;That steam-powered crane was awesome - like a big T-Rex that rides on rails! &nbsp;Back when British labour was cheap and plentiful! &nbsp;I wondered more than once how long all these &apos;upgrades&apos; lasted - either before they fell apart or were upgrade again by newer technology. &nbsp;Excellent fun, thanks, 💖 🇨🇦

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• PA

  @PaulP567 · 1 year ago

  So nice to see the pre Hi-Vis era in action.

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