Barry Coward – A talk on British Transport Films illustrated with excerpts from BTF titles.
MEETING REPORT 14th April 2026
Last year was a busy one for Barry Coward, former archivist of British Transport Films as he gave many talks about the BTF collection during Rail 200 events, so we were pleased to welcome him to the Sheffield Branch to provide us with a similar review. During a talk laced with anecdotes and glimpses behind the scenes, Barry took us through the history of BTF from its inception in 1949 until its sad demise in 1986. Under the leadership of influential documentary film-maker Edgar Anstey, the BTF made short films for training purposes, for the promotion of transport and as travelogues (though the latter categories clearly overlapped). The scope of subjects covered extended beyond railways, and indeed the BTF, through their early productions, were the catalyst for much of the subsequent work in wildlife film-making. However Barry highlighted for our audience a number of films, very much of their time, that had particular railway interest: these included 'The MFD rerailing equipment' (1956), 'Blue Pullman' (1960) and 'Let’s go to Birmingham' (1962) and earlier classics such as 'Elizabethan Express' (1954) and 'Every Valley' (1957). Barry also told us the story behind 'The elephant will never forget' (1953) about the last London trams. Although technical problems on the day prevented us from seeing excerpts from the films, they are mostly available on YouTube and Barry overcame these difficulties with aplomb.