Caboose

When I was down South the base had inherited from its previous incarnations a large (and largely neglected) vinyl album collection and a collection of 16mm cine films.

Most of the films were Central Office of Information newsreels but there were a few more interesting ones, one of the most popular being Cattle Carters.

The newsreels were comical because they all seemed to follow a standard format featuring a visiting Commonwealth dignitary, a flower show or something similar, a sporting event and some new technological wonder improving peoples’ lives.

Most of the other films seemed to have been made by large petrochemical companies. For example “West Coast Cargo” was all about explosives manufacture in Scotland and how the product was then transported to the rest of the world.