OVERHAUL

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 5th Year

Issue

Issue No.

8

Date Released

Apr 1952

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1THE MOST REAL MAN
2. 2OVERHAUL
3. 3OUTPUT

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: the Coal Board’s Lambton Engine Works, County Durham, repairing and building the Board’s rolling stock.
NCB Commentary - This engine, and its train of wagons, is coming out of hospital. Overhauls, rebuilds, regular maintenance - they’re all specialities of the Coal Board’s Lambton Engine Works, in County Durham.
They’re equipped to do more or less anything here. In the foundry Harry Thompson is casting new loco bearings. That’s just one of his jobs.
In the main loco workshops apprentice fitter Nolan Morrison is shaping up a pair of side-rod brasses. Behind him is over a century of tradition of Lambton craftsmanship. One day he’ll be a fully fldged fitter like George Atkinson here, ready to deal with anything that comes into the shops. The loco they’re working on first took to the rails in 1867, but like Lambton she’s still going strong and is fit for a good few years yet. Eric Walton, on one of the best lathes in the North, is truing up her wheels.
But locomotives are only a part of Lambton’s business. As well as looking after all sorts of colliery machinery, they’ve got a wagon shop that builds and repairs three hundred a month. Like everywhere else in the works they’ve modern machinery to help them. But machines aren’t enough without the know-how of the craftsman. Alan Lowerson and Charles Allcroft are morticing a beam - you can almost smell that English oak. Cut dead to size, it’s the job of the wagonwrights to fit it into place. This is a rebuilding job, but they’re accustomed - and equipped - to build wagons from the wheels up here at Lambton. It’s the skill and experience collected together in workshops like this - far more of them than any single colliery could afford - which is the measure of their value to the mining industry.

Researcher Comments

BFI sources suggest that this story was researched on the 12th January 1952 by Francis Gysin, who also wrote the script. It was filmed from the 4th to the 7th February 1952. The budget was £332 14s 5d. Stanley Goulder was Assistant Director. Commentary recorded 10 March 1952.

Keywords

Vehicles; Railways; Mining; Engineering

Locations

England; County Durham

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Film User   Vol.6 No.74 December 1952, p651.
The National Archives COAL 32   /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Support services

Francis Gysin

Camera

John Gunn

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Camera

Ronald Bicker

Support services

Stanley Goulder

Director

Tony Thompson