British Transport Films was an organisation set up in 1949 to make documentary films on the general subject of British transport. Its work included internal training films, travelogues (extolling the virtues of places that could be visited via the British transport system – mostly by rail), and "industrial films" (as they were called) promoting the progress of Britain's railway network. It was headed by Edgar Anstey until 1974, and from then until its demise by John W. Shepherd. Initially, it made films mostly for the British Transport Commission, but after that organisation was broken up in 1963 the majority of its films were for the British Railways Board. However it also made films for London Transport, the British Waterways Board, the travel company Thomas Cook & Son and the coach company Thomas Tilling. Output Their first film was Berth 24 concerning the operation of Hull Docks. Many of the unit's films celebrated the running of Britain's nationalised railway network; early titles such as Train Time, Elizabethan Express and Snowdrift at Bleath Gill aimed to document and celebrate the achievements and hard work of railway staff and their machinery. Others documented a particular aspect of running a railway, for example running a station as seen in This is York and later Terminus. Somewhat paradoxically, many of the unit's films celebrated a quiet, unchanging image of rural Britain – with travelogues such as The Heart of England (1954), The Lake District (also 1954), Three Is Company (1959), Down to Sussex (1964) and Midland Country (as late as 1974) – while simultaneously invoking the "white heat of technology" in its other work, such as its Report on Modernisation series instigated in 1959 (renamed Rail Report in 1965). The unit won many awards over the years, including in 1965 an Academy Award nomination for Snow and in 1966 its first and only win for the film Wild Wings (the latter which had little to do with transport and concentrated on WWT Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, founded by Peter Scott (who also narrated). BTF also gave John Schlesinger an early breakthrough with the 1961 film Terminus, chronicling a day in the life of Waterloo station in a style highly uncharacteristic of the unit. Oscar-winning cinematographer David Watkin also got his start lighting BTF films from 1950 to 1960. BTF also produced the controversial The Finishing Line (1976) and Robbie (1979), which warned children against trespassing on