Forward to First Principles (1966)
30 minutes - Colour
There have been railways in this country for over three hundred years. In the nineteenth century, railways spread across Britain and changed the geography, history, economy, and the life of a nation, but already there existed primitive railways for moving coal and other minerals from the pits and quarries to navigable water and roads. This film scans the present and the past to show those economic principles governing the early railways have been rediscovered as a basis for modern freight trains.

Producer: Edgar Anstey
Presenter: Prof. Jack Simmons
Script Direction & Narration: John Rowdon
Editor: R.Q. McNaughton
Photography: Terry Gould
Additional Photography: Alan Hewison, Jack West
Unit Manager: Jack Morrison
Location Sound: Samuelsons
Music Composition: William Mathias
Conductor: Muir Mathieson
Recording: Anvil Films

16mm & V.C.
Actual screen shots reproduced by kind permission
of the British Film Institute.

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