Title:THE RAILWAYS PLAY AN IMPORTANT PART IN THE BUILD UP FOR D-DAY (PART 1) [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 20-1
Other titles:
Summary: Miscellaneous railway scenes in Shropshire, Worcestershire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.
Description: I. A Royal Engineers signalman waves 'All Clear' to a passing ammunition train at Ford station. Two RE footplatemen are seen manning a WD (War Department) locomotive. The signalman sets the points for a goods train. The station master, an old Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railways employee, is seen with his scottie dog. Wagons are shunted into the station's sidings. The stationmaster's daughter cranks a crane handle to lift logs onto a wagon. A WD ammunition train leaves Hookagate near Shrewsbury. Lieutenant Handford films the scenery between Hookagate and Ford and observes a mobile railway workshop in action and engineers repairing locomotives at Kinnerley Junction.
II. Goods wagons, some loaded with pontoon bridge equipment, lie in a marshalling yard at Long Marston, Worcestershire, the site of an RE stores depot. A GWR American 'Austerity' locomotive hauls a goods train through the yard.
III. Another 'Austerity' locomotive and goods train leave Whitemoor LNER marshalling yards near March, Cambridgeshire. One man in a control tower controls the descent of goods wagons from a 'hump' into the sorting sidings by remote-controlled points and 'Froehlich' hydraulic brakes.
IV. Lieutenant Handford films the scenery between March and St Ives, Huntingdonshire.
Alternative Title:
Colour:B&W
Digitised:Yes
Object_Number:A70 20-1
Sound:Silent
Access Conditions:IWM
Featured Period:1939-1945
Production Date:1944-05-16
Production Country: GB
Production Details: Army Film Unit (Production company)
Handford, Peter1919-03-212007-11-06Handford is known as a a pioneer of location sound recording. He was an AFPU Lieutenant photographer during the Second World War. He volunteered as part of the British Expeditionary Force and went to France, though he was evacuated after the German invasion. He returned as a cameraman in the D-Day landings. He was shot during fighting two days later, saved by a diary and silver cigarette lighter in his pocket. He was informant in the "Wartime Filming" interview project. His first major film was in 1949 working for Alfred Hitchcock. However, what he is best known for is his involvment in the English new wave cinema movement of the 1960s. Later he was involved in did the sound for famous films such as Gorillas in the Mist and Dangerous Liaisons. He retired in 1988. (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations:
Keywords: GB, England & <Midlands area> (geography)
