An amateur film made by Stockton-on-Tees  shop owner Leslie Brown of the 84-mile round trip by train from Fort William to Mallaig in the West Highlands of Scotland. Filmed from the trains observation car the film records the mountainous countryside passed along the route as well as some of the sites including the Glenfinnan viaduct. From the railway journey, the film changes to shows a number of bagpipe marching band performing in a fields watched by a crowd. The final part of the film is at...

An amateur film made by Stockton-on-Tees  shop owner Leslie Brown of the 84-mile round trip by train from Fort William to Mallaig in the West Highlands of Scotland. Filmed from the trains observation car the film records the mountainous countryside passed along the route as well as some of the sites including the Glenfinnan viaduct. From the railway journey, the film changes to shows a number of bagpipe marching band performing in a fields watched by a crowd. The final part of the film is at a zoo where a monkey in a cage eating a packet of cigarettes and a number of bears play and perform for the crowds in their enclosure. The film opens on a large British Rail poster that reads ‘Your railway journey between Fort William and Mallaig. Travel by observation car on the romantic West Highlands line, Britain’s scenic railway’. On the platform at Fort William, a diesel cargo train passes through quickly followed by the observation carriage slowly reversing into the platform with its distinctive rounded rear windows. A sign on the platform wall reads ‘Fort William for Ballachulish, Glencoe and Kinlochleven’.   From the observation car looking backwards, the train pulls out of the station past a signal box. The film cuts to show a woman passenger reading a brochure for the Fort William to Mallaig journey. The train passes through a tunnel cut from rock and passes a series of raised locks, part of the Caledonian Canal. General views from the train passing through the mountainous countryside along Loch Eil. Passengers on the trail take photographs. The train travels over the 21-arched Glenfinnan viaduct passing Loch Shiel. The film cuts to show a sign on a wall that reads ‘Glenfinnan’. The train travels through the station at Arisaig where three porters stand on the platform beside a small wagon. On board the train passengers listen to a man in a peaked cap, possibly the conductor, speaking into a microphone. General views show the surrounding countryside as seen from the observation car including a sandy estuary at low tide. The film cuts to show a sign attached to a wall that reads ‘Mallaig’. On the platform a train waits to depart, a sign above it points downs and says ‘Fort William’. Inside the observation car a woman holds up a leaflet to the window that reads ‘Something you won’t forget. That railway journey between Fort William and Mallaig by observation car’. From the observation car the train pulls out of the station on it’s return journey to Fort William. Again, the man seen previous with the microphone speaks to the passengers. On a small railway platform a guard waves a green flag as another man passes a railway token. Out of the window looking forward views follow of the front of the train plus diesel engine travelling through the countryside and into a tunnel. The train passes the signal box at Glenfinnan and then back across the Glenfinnan viaduct. The train passes through a tunnel followed by more views of the surrounding countryside. At another station the guard waves his green flag and jumps aboard the train as it begins to move. The train passes a fast flowing rocky river. The journey comes to an end with the train coming into the platform at Fort William. Filmed at sunset with an orange sky from a boat as it travels along a loch, seagulls fly in the air over the water and boat. The film cuts to a large field where a number of Scottish pipe bands march and perform for a crowd In the cage presumably at a zoo a monkey pulls apart a packet of cigarettes and eats the tobacco inside. Inside another enclose people watch as a number bear cubs play together, one with a piece of rope. A sign on the wall reads ‘He bites hard. Please mind your fingers’. The film ends with a number of the bears, one with a white breast, on their hind legs as a man throws food at them.