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Railways (18)

  • Aloud/Bagatelle
    Aloud/Bagatelle
    Donald McWilliams 1983 6 min
    Canadian poet Earle Birney indulges his love of trains in this performance of his sound poem To Swindon from London by Britrail. In fluent "trainish," he interprets the experience of excursions by rail. Imagination sparked by the rhythm of wheels and the clink of couplings, Birney hums, hisses and hoots his way through archival footage of vintage trains and the English countryside. A must for language, animation and train buffs.
  • Canadian Screen Magazine No. 1
    Canadian Screen Magazine No. 1
    1945 10 min
    Vocational Training for Repats: Vocational training for Canadian veterans includes courses in the building trades, haircutting, mechanics and electronics, as well as home economics and hairdressing. Canadian Soap for UNRRA: Soap is manufactured in Canada for distribution throughout Europe by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Railway Cars for Russia: Railway cars are produced in Canada and shipped to the Soviet Union to help rebuild the Russian transportation system.
  • End of the Line
    End of the Line
    Terence Macartney-Filgate 1959 30 min
    This documentary short offers a nostalgic look at the steam locomotive as it passes from reality to history. In its heyday, the big smoke-belching steam engine seemed immortal. Now, powerful and efficient diesels are pushing the old coal-burning locomotives to the sidelines, and the lonely echo of their whistles may soon be a thing of the past.
  • Engine 371
    Engine 371
    Kevin Langdale 2007 9 min
    This animated short looks at the building of Canada's transcontinental railroad with wit and whimsy. Engine 371 illustrates the struggle humans have with nature and how this fundamental tension united a country. A film without words.
  • Eye Witness No. 58
    Eye Witness No. 58
    Ronald Weyman  &  Grant McLean 1953 11 min
    Eye Witness was a series of short monthly newsreels produced by the NFB during the post-war period. Each installment included several short reports on issues of interest to Canadians. Episode No. 58 includes Canadian Works with U.N.’s Problem Refugees, in which Dr. Robert Westwater, an Ottawa educator, helps UNESCO deal with problems precipitated by the dislocation of Arab populations following the 1948 war in Palestine, and Tractor Train Pushes through Northern Wilderness, which shows how supplies needed to build the Ungava railway and hydro project are transported by tractor trains through snow-bound roads and rough country.
  • Eye Witness No. 54
    Eye Witness No. 54
    Daryl Duke Felix Lazarus , … 1953 11 min
    These vignettes from 1954 cover various aspects of life in Canada and were shown in theatres across the country. Subjects included here are: Ball Stars Start Young: In Vancouver's Little League, baseball players, diamond and equipment are junior size, but not the boys' coaches or the eagerness of teams and fans. An Auto a Minute: This is just about the rate of output seen in one of Ontario's automobile assembly plants. A Railroad Goes to Sea: Swapping steel rails for ocean waves is routine for British Columbia's Pacific Great Eastern Railway, travelling the forty-mile leg between Vancouver and Squamish by railway barge.
  • Eye Witness No. 28
    Eye Witness No. 28
    This content is not available for free viewing in your location.
    Ronald Weyman Allen Stark , … 1951 10 min
    New Look on Rails: The Montreal Locomotive Works takes on mass manufacture of diesel engines for Canadian railways, using pantograph machines that turn out six steel patterns in one electronic operation. Dedication to the Dance: In the Boris Volkoff School of Ballet in Toronto, long hours of training and exacting routines pay off in the making of professional ballet dancers. Fun in Fur Land: The annual Trappers' Festival at The Pas, Manitoba, complete with a Fur Queen's court and numerous competitions to test the timberline techniques of northerners, ends with the toughest dog derby in Canada.
  • Panoramic Chronicle
    Panoramic Chronicle
    Lewis Trondheim  &  Jean-Matthieu Tanguy 2017 3 min
    Ride the commuter train with this animated short that questions what goes on it the hearts of minds of the train's silent passengers. Filmmakers Lewis Trondheim and Jean Matthieu Tanguy take a common, humdrum experience and turn it into a captivating journey tinged with some delicious, deadpan humour.

    This film is part of the Comic Strip Chronicles, a collection of shorts celebrating the strong affinity between comic strips and animated film. Inspired by moments of everyday life, these films showcase the playful imaginations of renowned artists Guy Delisle, Zviane, Aude Picault, Lewis Trondheim, and Jean Matthieu Tanguy. Produced by the NFB, Canal+, and Sacrebleu.
  • Railroad Town
    Railroad Town
    Don Haldane 1956 30 min
    This short documentary is a delightful trip back to an era in which railroad was king. The small community of Melville, Saskatchewan, is a railroad town. Long-time CBC host Fred Davis visits with various railway workers and learns about the operation of one of the vital service stations which keep the Canadian National Railway running smoothly.
  • The Railrodder
    The Railrodder
    This content is not available for free viewing in your location.
    Gerald Potterton 1965 24 min
    This short film from director Gerald Potterton (Heavy Metal) stars Buster Keaton in one of the last films of his long career. As "the railrodder", Keaton crosses Canada from east to west on a railway track speeder. True to Keaton's genre, the film is full of sight gags as our protagonist putt-putts his way to British Columbia. Not a word is spoken throughout, and Keaton is as spry and ingenious at fetching laughs as he was in the old days of the silent slapsticks.
  • Railroaders
    Railroaders
    Guy L. Coté 1958 22 min
    This is a short documentary about winter railroading in the Canadian Rockies and the men who keep the lines clear. The stretch between Revelstoke and Field, British Columbia, is a snow-choked threat to communications. The film shows the work of section hands, maintenance men, train crews and telegraph operators.
  • Road of Iron
    Road of Iron
    Walford Hewitson 1955 40 min
    This documentary celebrates the achievements of men who toiled in the harsh wilderness of northern Quebec to lay the steel tracks that helped bring the Ungava region’s rich iron ore to market. It is a story of strength and determination, as every man, machine and piece of equipment had to be airlifted in or transported by tractor caravan over the 575-kilometre route. Bit by bit, we follow their progress through forest, over muskeg and across rivers, until at last the first ore train snakes its way to the seaport of Sept-Îles.
  • The Road Taken
    The Road Taken
    This content is not available for free viewing in your location.
    Selwyn Jacob 1996 52 min
    This 1996 documentary takes a nostalgic ride through history to present the experiences of Black sleeping-car porters who worked on Canada's railways from the early 1900s through the 1960s. There was a strong sense of pride among these men and they were well-respected by their community. Yet, harsh working conditions prevented them from being promoted to other railway jobs until finally, in 1955, porter Lee Williams took his fight to the union.

    Claiming discrimination under the Canada Fair Employment Act, the Black workers won their right to work in other areas. Interviews, archival footage and the music of noted jazz musician Joe Sealy (whose father was a porter) combine to portray a fascinating history that might otherwise have been forgotten.
  • Runaway
    Runaway
    Cordell Barker 2009 9 min
    Cordell Barker, director of the Oscar®-nominated films The Cat Came Back , Strange Invaders, is back with Runaway. Set to the rousing music of Ben Charest (Triplets of Belleville), this animated short takes you on a journey that is both funny and disastrous.
  • Station Master
    Station Master
    William Davidson 1954 15 min
    Finch, Ontario, is where the Canadian Pacific railway crosses the New York Central, a tiny but important link in Canada's railway network. This film looks at the daily duties of station master Dalton Henry and his staff.
  • Trawna Tuh Belvul
    Trawna Tuh Belvul
    Martin Rose 1994 14 min
    This animated short film is an interpretation of Earle Birney's poem “Trawna Tuh Belvul by Knayjim Psifik.” Using finely crafted cut-out animation, the film retells a memorable experience of the journey from Toronto to Belleville, Ontario.
  • Train 406
    Train 406
    Fergus McDonell 1958 30 min
    This short documentary offers a step-by-step account of a fast freight train on a run from Toronto to Halifax, with glimpses of the vast amount of organization necessary in the operation of a country-wide transportation network.
  • Trans-Canada Express
    Trans-Canada Express
    Stanley Hawes 1944 9 min
    This short documentary from the Canada Carries On series celebrates the contribution of Canada’s railroads to the war effort. The film includes a sequence from Buster Keaton's 1926 silent comedy The General, as well as a re-enactment of Lord Strathcona driving the final spike into the Canadian Pacific Railway Line.