Summary: Survey of women working on the Great Western Railway.
Description: Reel 1 (960 ft): Sequence portraying early days of war with general scenes of railway workers (men). Recruitment of women. Women as porters, driving electric trucks, cleaning carriages, ticket collector, tending draft horse, driving and maintaining road truck. More recruitment, training women guards, engineers etc.
Reel 2 (1015 ft): Women as goods train guards, shunters, signal box operators. Women in engine sheds, at docks, cleaning locomotives. Women maintaining track, making concrete sleepers, fitting sleeper chairs. Operating dockside crane, changing signal oil lamps on gantries, maintaining telephone equipment.
Reel 3 (1075 ft): More men depart to war. Women stacking timber, assisting riveters, painting vehicles, heavy engineering work. Station announcer, ticket office, "caller-up" (calling up railwaymen at home at short notice). Painting side of bridge. Stores, policewomen, whitewashing platform edge. Dismantling bogeys of railway carriage. Cloakroom attendants, catering supplies, refreshment rooms (Paddington and Exeter). Women workers' welfare - canteens, rest rooms, caring administration. Telephone enquiry office - women take cover under desks and continue to answer calls during an air raid.
