a very curious beast and this . it contain many of the trademark of other ealing comedy the little people face oppressive civil servant type and capitalism and lightly fantastical moment and a sense of community spirit etc . yet these element fail to gel this time round . in fact it probably the only ealing comedy to really fall flat on it face . the plot concern a small and out of date railway that be due to be close down and the local community attempt to keep it run in the face of monumental adversity . part of the problem lie in the fact that it difficult to empathise with the character plight while i would imagine that whereas most people would like to get rich quick ( the lavender hill mob and for example ) and few have dream of run their own railway . also and the main character want to keep the railway go purely out of a desire to uphold tradition and when alternative form of transportation be far more efficient and a hell of a lot safer . be mean to be on the side of the vicar and his chum try to run a railway on their own but one can not help but think that the bureaucracy be right on this occasion and that the hero just aren not capable of carry out this great task . whilst the problem that beset them be admittedly the fault of an exterior menace mainly a couple of lad who run a bus route ( ooo and scary ) the goody thwart their foe at every turn by . erm . ram them off the track ( nice ) and or tie the train to the engine by rope ( thereby pose a massive safety risk to all the passenger ) . then there the bit where sid jam shoots hole in the water refill tank and they need to find a new source of water the river hold the apparent solution and so the driver bang on the window of the train and order all the passenger out so that they can help them ( . ) by raid the local farm ( . ) for container to carry water back and forth until the engine fill . though it say a lot about the community spirit and it a bit unlikely that the passenger would be willing to expend physical labour on what be suppose to be a quiet journey that they themselves have pay money for ( the one man who refuse to do it say quite rightly that he shouldn not have to be paint a the black sheep . ) . it make it difficult to believe that everybody should be so keen for the railway to continue when every journey they go on be fraught with safety hazard and delay while most people would sod it for a game of soldier and get the bus instead . and by the time people be flock to help push the train along the track ( a replacement engine from the local museum and note and and therefore even deadly than the one before ) to get it past it government inspection you wonder whether these people should have something good to do with their life than fret about maintain what seem to be the most inefficient and dangerous train service that ever exist . in fact the one argument in their favour that replace the one train with load of bus route and motorway would have huge environmental concern and destroy the countryside be mention once and then forget about while it seem that be suppose to support them simply because and well and they want to run a railway and it quite a nice hobby . i know it suppose to be whimsical and all that but i just couldn not help but think that these character with their heart in the right place be an utter menace . of the cast only stanley holloway shine a a wonderfully eccentric chap mad enough to finance the affair so long a the train have a 24 hour bar inside and and there be a wonderful sequence with a train drive down the road of a local town ( one of those magical moment ealing do so well ) and but the story doesn not have strong enough foundation and the pace drag awfully ( it slim 80 minute seem to last forever ) . not even the old english charm can save it . probably worth a single viewing but you probably would not go back to it in a hurry .