BBC2
As part of the BBC’s Nation on Film series, True North examined the history of the British railway.
From the 1930s, when new luxury trains sped passengers up and down the newly built East Coast Mainline, a certain level of mysticism fell over the railway. But life on the rails was a tale of two halves – the men in driving the engines, laying the tracks and maintaining the network led very different lives to those dining, sleeping, chatting and resting in the plush carriages.
Nation on Film uses rare, revealing archive footage and the testimony of people who played a part in the development of Britain’s railway.