16mm film, original master 'A Century of Steam: the Festiniog Railway'

Film made and produced by John Adams and Patrick Whitehouse in 1963. Full title: 'A Century of Steam: the Festiniog Railway, The World's Oldest Narrow Gauge Railway, 1863-1963'. Film celebrating the centenary of the Festiniog railway, Welsh narrow-gauge railway, using archive content (filmed still images, photographs and footage) and contemporary footage. The film includes shots of historical reenactments, crowd of passengers in historical costumes, Portmadoc station, Prince steam locomotive, Minffordd station, footage of journey with passengers in hsitorical costumes, Tan-y-Bwlch station. The film also includes contemporary scenes, with 1963 traffic and passengers at Portmadoc station (Porthmadog). This is the original master film reel, black and white and colour, silent. Duration: 11 minutes

This film is part of the Railway Roundabout collection donated by the makers of the programme, John Adams and Patrick Whitehouse. They produced films on contemporary British and foreign railways for the BBC Children's programme 'Railway Roundabout, broadcast monthly between 1958 and 1962 on BBC Television. The commentary was created and broadcast live, so the original films in the collection are silent. The Railway Roundabout collection includes the original masters, prints, some offcuts and working material for Railway Roundabout programmes as well as other films (non-Railway Roundabout) made by the John Adams and Patrick Whitehouse and a small number of films made by others. The collection also includes the original un-edited audio recordings made between 1960 and 1965 by John Adams and Patrick Whitehouse for the BBC radio programme Railway Roundup. Additionally, John Adams and Patrick Whitehouse were both photographers, their respective photographic collections are held by the National Railway Museum. This film is titled 'A Century of Steam' on title frame on film and 'A Century of steam (Festiniog)' on Railway Roundabout 16mm masters list. It was not made as part of the Railway Roundabout series.

Details

Category:
Moving Images
Object Number:
1981-7142
Materials:
cellulose acetate, plastic (unidentified) and metal (unknown)
type:
16 mm film
credit:
Adams & Whitehouse