Day-to-Day Track Maintenance Part II: Switches & Crossings(1952)

Canadian Pacific II(en)

Canadian Pacific II is designed as a companion piece to Canadian Pacific I. Shot from a window two storeys higher and in the building adjacent to the artists’s studio of the previous year, one enters into a dream state… an involvement with a vocabulary of seeing and feeling by subtle transitions of the passage of time

Desert Empire(en)

A travelogue, this film provides a guided tour of pre-World War II Utah and of course does not pretend to cinematic greatness. Recommended viewing for those in search of introductory Utah history. Also valuable for persons seeking insight into the state as it would have looked during this time period. Especially informative for those desiring a window into the past for a view of how Utah was in the days of their pre-World War II progenitors living in the state. Those whose Utah ancestors were involved in mining, railroading, sugar beets, and other featured industries; featured towns, sights, recreational attractions, and industries may find this otherwise banal travelogue a quite valuable addition to their family history.

Tshiuetin(fr)

Take a breathtaking train a ride through Nothern Quebec and Labrador on Canada’s first First Nations-owned railway. Come for the celebration of the power of independence, the crucial importance of aboriginal owned businesses and stay for the beauty of the northern landscape.

Metro(fr)

A short documentary about the construction of the parisian subway in the 50s.

Flåmsbana Minute By Minute(no)

Experience one of the most spectacular train journeys in Norway from the orchestra stand. Join us minute by minute from high mountain to fjord. The journey starts at Myrdal station on the Bergen Railway and winds from 866 meters above sea level down to Flåm by the Sognefjord.

Learn to Ride Like a Pro(en)

Mountain Bike video instruction with Bruce Spicer : Bruce shows you how to ride gnarly singletrack, navigate switchbacks, launch big drops, hurdle obstacles and ride steeps, plus much more!

Hitler's Steel Beast(fr)

Trace the history of Hitler's armored private train, a 15-car mobile headquarters boasting state-of-the-art communications and anti-aircraft cannons.

Banlie.ue(fr)

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat(fr)

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City(de)

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Building the Channel Tunnel(en)

The Channel Tunnel linking Britain with France is one of the seven wonders of the modern world but what did it take to build the longest undersea tunnel ever constructed? We hear from the men and women, who built this engineering marvel. Massive tunnel boring machines gnawed their way through rock and chalk, digging not one tunnel but three; two rail tunnels and a service tunnel. This was a project that would be privately financed; not a penny of public money would be spent on the tunnel. Business would have to put up all the money and take all the risks. This was also a project that was blighted by flood, fire, tragic loss of life and financial bust ups. Today, it stands as an engineering triumph and a testament to what can be achieved when two nations, Britain and France put aside their historic differences and work together.

Engineering Tragedy: The Ashtabula Train Disaster(en)

The Ashtabula train disaster and bridge collapse was the worst train disaster of the 19th century, claiming the lives of 97 people. The engineering and structural failures that caused the collapse of a bridge that stood for over a decade, also took down the most luxurious train of the day, “The Pacific Express #5.” The accident happened in Ashtabula, Ohio on December 29, 1876 during a raging blizzard, sending the luxury train crashing 70-feet into a river gorge and costing the lives of 97 people. The disaster shocked the nation, yet it’s a story that’s been lost in the pages of history. In a strange twist of fate and intrigue, the bridge disaster also became the backdrop to the still unsolved murder of Charles Collins, the railroad’s chief engineer. It also contributed to the eventual suicide of millionaire Amasa Stone, the president of the railroad and the designer and builder of the bridge.

Railroaders(en)

A film 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.

The Road Taken(en)

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.

The #1 Bus Chronicles(en)

A bus stop on an industrial highway in New Jersey becomes the focus of a timely and intimate examination of marginalized lives in America. 'The #1 Bus Chronicles' interweaves portraits of the lives, pursuits, trials, and dreams of the riders of New Jersey Transit's #1 bus line, taking us into their workplaces, homes, and day-to-day lives.

Night Mail(en)

This documentary short examines the special train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected on the run, and delivered in Scotland on the overnight run from Euston, London to Glasgow.

Martha's Guests: Master Chefs(en)

Take a tip or two from the masters of cooking as host Martha Stewart invites a variety of top chefs into her kitchen to whip-up a delectable array of tasty treats in this release that covers the gamut of international cuisine. It's a culinary world tour as Stewart is joined by chef Bobby Flay for such American fare as oven-roasted ribs, Mario Batali for the old-Italian standard spaghetti alla Carbonera, Daniel Boulud for the French favorite Cote de Bouef, Jose Hurtado for some tasty Mexican calamari, and Eileen Yin-Fei Lo for some truly picture-perfect pork buns. With all this and much, much, more, home viewers will finally have a chance to learn from the best as they create masterful meals that the whole family will enjoy.

Michel Bras: Inventing Cuisine(fr)

Made in France, English subtitled. In-depth portraits of internationally acclaimed chefs featuring exclusive interviews. Michel Bras is one of France's greatest cooks, obtaining his third star in 2000 and rated #7 on the 2008 World's 50 Best Restaurants chart. We will taste four dishes, cinematographically describe what we feel, then work through each dish's culinary fabrication to the true subject of the series: investigating the ways that one invents cuisine by revisiting their space and time.

Snow Warrior(en)

Snow Warrior is a love letter to the splendour of winter. It captures the beauty of a northern city through the eyes of a bicycle courier named Mariah.

David Suchet on the Orient Express(en)

In this travelogue, actor David Suchet journeys across Europe aboard the world famous Orient Express train, as he prepares to play Poirot in an adaptation of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express".