Viewing a good archive film can be a highly enjoyable experience, showing us scenes we never expected to see again, or if made before our lifetimes, a window into the worlds of our parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents. Archive railway films have been around for years and the quality can be very variable depending, obviously, on the shooting of the original film and its editing, plus the restoration (or lack of it), and any added sound; frequently this sounds like someone rubbing sandpaper, and may well be just that. Our practice has been to vet archive films carefully and only include those of decent quality, or where the historic interest is very considerable; the obvious exceptions to this rule have been my own films, now on a single DVD. A few years back we discovered two series of archive railway films of exceptional quality, all restored, re-mastered, and given sound by a Dutch genius, Ton Pruissen - now we can offer many more of his films, covering railway scenes from the past in France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Roumania and the Netherlands, with some really mouth-watering further titles in the pipeline. We are now working with Ton on producing versions of his films, with English commentary by Peter van Zeller - currently seven of these are available and are featured here. However, whatever language the commentary is in, it is not overwhelming and, on most of these DVDs, can be turned off, leaving you to enjoy the quality of Ton's dubbed sounds to the full. At the present time we do NOT plan to reissue any of the other German/Austrian railway DVDs here with an English commentary. These films really are exceptional in their quality - you will be amazed at the scenes in these films. And there are enough British built locomotives in some of the films to satisfy even died in-the-wool British Railway fanatics!

Wartime Rails 1918 & 1943-1950 App 55 mins • B&W and some colour • DVD £19.95 Quite simply this is the most remarkable railway DVD I have ever seen. It starts off in mind-blowing form with around 15 minutes of very high quality footage of 2 foot gauge lines supplying the American troops during the final summer of World War 1. Included are shots of Baldwin 2-6-2s, and petro-mechanical locomotives, shunting, and running up the main line; just as you think this must be a training film shot long after the war, you pass along a very definitely French village street. And permanent way works, including track panel replacement are demonstrated. Moving on to World War 11, the first sequence was shot in occupied Lithuania by a high-ranking Reichsbahn official, and shows a trial train being run, and the rescue of a sabotaged 2-8-0. The subsequent films were all shot by two men serving with American Railway Operating Batallions - the first showing the restoration of a locomotive on the strategic Bouches du Rhône system, with it and a USATC 0-6-0 tank loco subsequently moving much needed oil-wagons. Moving north we see USATC locomotives being readied at Paris-Batignolles shed, alongside French locomotives, and a mix of French and Allied crew. Both these sequences were shot in 1945, as was the next one, covering a journey by troop train from Marseilles to Mannheim. In France a 240P is crossed, but in Germany the considerable war damage is very apparent, and most of the trains are being operated by Allied crew using either German steam locomotives, or USATC Whitcomb diesels. It is possible this sequence was shot during the final weeks of the war, as the Allies closed in on Berlin. The final section was filmed during 1950, and shows the very last of the Trümmerbahnen, or 'Rubble Railways' at work in Nurnberg, and removing the wartime rubble on lines laid through the streets out into the country, where it forms an artificial hill visible to this day. And all with an English commentary! This really is brilliant. Buy a copy! The bulk of the WW1 sequence appeared in the 5th volume of the French language 'L'Age de Fer' series. Some of the WW11 sequences appeared in other volumes of this series, and in the German language "Schienenverkehr in den 40er-Jahren". Add to shopping basket Because of the very high proportion of this film featuring American Army personnel in two World Wars, this film is available in an NTSC version specifically for North American customers only. Whilst the price shown is the same as for the PAL version, it excludes British VAT, but includes Airmail delivery to North America. For the NTSC version of Wartime Rails please click the button below. Add to shopping basket

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The Glory of French Railways: Vol. 1 Steam in Paris and the North of France 1932 - 1965 • DVD £19.95 Add to shopping basket

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The Glory of French Railways: Vol. 2 From Paris to the West & the Last of Steam 1947 - 1966 • DVD £19.95 Add to shopping basket

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The Glory of French Railways: Vol. 3 The Splendour of Steam and early Electrics 1947-1965 • DVD £19.95 These three DVDs, with commentary in English, are edited versions of the first four DVDs in the L’Age de Fer series, the tram sections in particular have been removed. Vol. 1 has considerable footage shot on the Nord Railway, and Region, that from 1932 being shot by Jack Stretton-Ward covering a journey from Dover to Paris, and return, on the Fleche d'Or. Film from 1947 also covers the Gares du Nord and Bastille, plus a visit to Vitry test plant to see a 141R being put through its paces. This DVD ends with 1965 film shot at Calais, near the end of steam. Vol. 2 covers trips on the lines from Paris St. Lazare to Le Havre in 1947 in which a Dean Goods is seen, and slightly later, a journey from Paris Montparnasse to Le Mans, where the 2-D-2 hands over to a 141P. The action then moves to Verdun on the Est Region in 1966, before finishing with the very last SNCF steam run on the 28th April 1973 with a 141R from Sarreguemines. Vol. 3 makes a mainly electric journey in 1947, anti-clockwise round France, from Paris Austerlitz, to the Gares d'Est and de Lyon, via Modane & Culoz, finishing with steam, including a 240P at the Gare de Lyon. All films are around 55 minutes long and are in B & W, although Vol. 1 also has some colour sequences. Vol. 1 also has a bonus Photo Gallery of Nord railway steam locomotives. Add to shopping basket

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Carl Bellingrodts Film-Schätze Band 1 50 mins • B & W and colour • Stereo Sound • DVD £27.95 Carl Bellingrodt is a legend when it comes to photographs of German railways; going back to the 1920s he also took moving pictures as well as still images. Gathered here in this first disc from his archive are an astounding series of sequences covering forty five years, from 1925 to 1970 and including Bavarian S3/6 Pacifics in full flight in the 1930s, as well as 01s & 03s at various stages of their careers, P8s all over the place and many other delights. Add to shopping basket

Carl Bellingrodts Film-Schätze Band 2 50 mins • Stereo Sound • DVD £27.95 In this second selection of films by Carl Bellingrodt and his friends, the subject is the Bundesbahn during the 1960s. All colour film shows some steam with new E 03 electrics, the Sch-Stra-Bus, VT 08s, a V 188 with the then new Rheingold, seen in a number of locations. Plus steam in Munich, V 200s and much more, all with marvellous added sound. Add to shopping basket

Die Reichsbahn in den 30er-Jahren 50 mins • b&w • Stereo Sound • £25.95 A fair bit of this interesting film revolves around trials and demonstrations of two of the Reichsbahn’s streamlined efforts - the Henschel-Wegmann-Zug, with its massive 4-6-4 tank, and the two related 05 class 4-6-4 tender locomotives. But there is much more, including the German Railways Centennial Parade at Nürnberg in 1935, which seems to have finished with ten 01 class Pacifics coupled together, regulators full open, thundering past the stands! Slightly bizarrely, also shown is the visit of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers (including Sir William Stanier) to Germany in May 1936. The members are seen on a streamlined special, including some footplate shots, and in a ‘Glaskasten’ electric railcar. Not surprisingly, given the period, Goebels and Hitler intrude briefly at points, and there are also some wartime shots in Lithuania. Add to shopping basket

Schienenverkehr in den 40er-Jahren 90 mins • B & W • DVD £36.95 This DVD contains 2 films previously released separately on video - “Trümmer, Dampf und Wiederaubau” on railways and “Ruinen, Trams und Stadtverkehr” on trams, both shot, I suspect, by an American army cameraman during the years immediately following the end of World War II. The railway film starts slightly bizarrely at Batignoles engine shed in Paris, but this is because it shows USATC 2-8-0s being prepared. There then follow shots on the journey to Germany, and a whole host of quite extraordinary sequences showing how the Reichsbahn and Bundesbahn managed to keep functioning in the immediate aftermath of the end of the war. Also included are a number of narrow gauge and industrial railways, sometimes temporary, at work on the rebuilding of Germany. The second film shows trams, of various types, styles and ages running in a host of often severely bomb damaged German cities. The interest here is as much the cars, lorries (often Occupation Forces ones) and other small details, as much as the trams. As a DVD this may be expensive, but both films are totally fascinating. Add to shopping basket

Mit Dampf durch die 60er-Jahre 50 mins • B7W and colour • £18.50 Here you have the endless stream of fast passenger and freight trains that were to be seen heading to and from the north of (West) Germany in the 1960s on the ‘Rollbahn’; Hamburg and Cologne expresses as well as international trains, plus endless freights. 03s, 44s and 38s loom large, but there are other classes, and other locations - the French border and the Saarland especially, plus shed scenes. Hugely enjoyable. Add to shopping basket

Trams zu Ulbrichts Zeiten 50 mins • B & W and colour • DVD £27.75 Featured here are tram systems in then East Germany cities, filmed between 1966 and 1978. Fifteen city’s systems are shown, including those of Dresden, Magdeburg, Rostock, Karl-Marx-Stadt and Leipzig. By the time this was filmed the trams of East Germany were getting rather more standardised, and a lot of the interest here is in the actual operations, the often female crews, and the glimpses of life in what was then a largely closed country, rather than the actual trams. Add to shopping basket

Osterreichs Eisenbahnen damals Band 1 50 mins • B & W and colour • Stereo Sound • DVD £27.75 First in a series on Austrian railways, this is a detailed look at operations over the famed Erzberg rack and adhesion section of the OBB towards the end of steam. Trains shown include passenger and ordinary goods ones, in addition to the iron ore trains topped and tailed by the rack/adhesion tanks of classes 97 and 197. Because of its mountain location and orientation, sections of the Erzberg were notoriously difficult to photograph, but the bulk of the line is shown here, including numerous footplate scenes. Fabulous! "The time machine may not yet have been invented, but this comes close!" (review in the June 2006 issue of Continental Modeller) Add to shopping basket

Österreichs Eisenbahnen damals Band 2 50 mins • B&W and colour • Stereo Sound • DVD £27.95 A more general film than the first Volume, this looks at the ÖBB during the 1960s when steam was still around, but with electrics, including ‘Krokodils’ much more to the fore. Enjoyable, especially as the Graz-Köflacher-Eisenbahn is shown in all its ancient glory. Add to shopping basket

Austrian Railways of Yesteryear - Narrow Gauge Lines at work in the Ninteen Sixties and Seventies 52 mins • B & W and Colour • Stereo Sound • £19.95 Austria’s topography meant that it was ideal narrow gauge territory, and numerous narrow gauge systems, mainly 760mm gauge, were constructed down valleys to make connection with the standard gauge main lines. When Ton Pruissen visited Austria in the 1960s and early 1970s, even if the legendary Salzkammergut-Lokalbahn had gone in 1957, many of the other systems were still operational, and the majority of the trains steam operated, with just a few diesels to be seen. Only adhension lines are featured here; no rack railways, although the Pöstlingbergbahn in Linz was then, and still is, the steepest adhension railway in the world. This is electrified, as are two of the other lines Ton filmed - these include the Waldviertalbahn, the Steyrtalbahn, the Vellachtalbahn, the Zillertalbahn, the Radmer industrial railway, the Murtalbahn, the Lokalbahn Mixnitz-St. Erhard and the Feistritztalbahn. Of these only the Pöstlingbergbahn and the Zillertalbahn remain as full commercial operations so, whilst parts of some of the other lines still operate as preserved railways, this DVD really does show a world now gone for ever. English commentary. Add to shopping basket

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Ton Pruissens Schmalspur-Schätze Schmalspur-Paradies DDR 50 mins • b&w • £18.50 Shot between 1966 and 1970, this is a lovely film looking at a considerable amount of the narrow gauge steam to be found in the then East Germany. You see the Harz system, the ‘Molli’, the Baltic island lines, the Mecklenberg system and much more; if you are narrow gauge orientated, this is good stuff. Add to shopping basket

60 cm Gauge Paradise 50 mins • B&W and colour • DVD £19.95 Shot between 1969 and 1977, this film shows passenger and goods operations on the Bromberger and Wirsitzer Kreisbahn, a 200 km long, 60 cm gauge railway in the border country between Germany and Poland, but actually in Poland when the filming took place. Virtually all steam operations, with a variety of mainly modern locomotives, but including some Heeresfeldbahn locos. A fascinating film, and not just for the NG enthusiast; the scenes showing life in rural Poland are mind-boggling. It also has to be said that this system is as near a perfect prototype for a model layout, especially in G scale, as you will find anywhere, with 0-4-0 tender locomotives of considerable charm hauling trains running quite some distance, meeting at quaint junctions and generally behaving as narrow gauge lines should - but providing a good service as well. Now with English commentary and a Bonus Photo Gallery featuring many of Ton Pruissen’s photographs of the system). Add to shopping basket

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Steam in Roumania August 1969 57 mins • B&W and colour • Stereo Sound • DVD £19.95 Situated at the very eastern edge of Europe, Roumania has always been ‘different’, something very evident where its railway system, Caile Ferate Romane, or CFR, was concerned. An initial glance during the steam-era would have revealed a strong German and Austro-Hungarian influence, a second glance would reveal the considerable differences; those classic Maffei Pacifics were four cylinder simples not compounds, the Prussian designs had frequently been built by Roumania’s own locomotive builders, there were more of the magnificent Austrian 2-8-4s in Roumania than had ever run in Austria, and most of the engines had the Roumanian system of dual oil/coal firing. Above all else, the locomotives were clean and carried considerable amounts of polished brasswork - the CFR was certainly different! Ton Pruissen visited Roumania in August 1969 and found friendly people and railwaymen; no harassment in this early Ceauçescu era, just great opportunities to film magnificent locomotives hard at work. Most of the standard gauge scenes were shot in Bucharest, at the important station of Cluj, and on the rack section from Boutari to Subcetate. Operations on the 760mm gauge lines at Tirgu Mures and at Sibiu are also shown in detail. This really is a superb film showing very rare scenes now long gone. And Ton has excelled himself with the sound here - and the commentary is in English. Add to shopping basket

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Die letzen Dampfloks in Holland 50 mins • B & W and colour • Stereo Sound • DVD £25.95 Holland’s railways took a pasting during WWII, and in the 10 years from the war’s end till then end of steam they used a wonderful assortment of other railways steam locomotives, in addition to the remaining indigenous locomotives. So here so see Swiss and Swedish 4-6-0s, Swedish 0-8-0s and large numbers of British ‘Austerity’ classes, mainly tender, but including Hunslet 0-6-0 tanks. Some of the film was shot very soon after the end of the war, and passenger trains of goods wagons are seen as well as the extensive war damage. Commentary in German. Add to shopping basket