The 20th anniversary this year of the start Dumpman Films seems to have come and nearly gone in a heartbeat, with lots of folk enjoying the cheapo bundles offered in the last email, for which many thanks (such a good price I was almost paying you to take them away).
This year has mostly been about a continuing involvement with the wonderful Tracing The Rails, which has kept my hand in and I urge you to check out their fine work so far on The Steyning Line if you haven’t already, see https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClpGNpWmNiTazYmsWiWpN4g. Especially episode 4. This talented bunch are picking up very well deserved awards and accolades all over the world, definitely worth keeping your eye on them.
Delving back into the archives and looking at 20th anniversaries for next year, 2007 was an incredibly busy year for Dumpman Films, making a good number of films (as opposed to a number of good films) as the concept of disused railway cab rides on a old Raleigh Chopper evolved into the delight that it later became. A couple of non railway related titles were thrown in just to mix it up a bit. The following single disc titles were rushed out, making it the most prolific year in Dumpman Films’ catalogue:
- Brighton’s Kemp Town branch line, featuring access inside the tunnel (31 mins)
- Devil’s Dyke Railway (1 hr 22 mins)
- Ardingly to Horsted Keynes, featuring access inside the tunnel (1 hr 45 mins)
- Three Bridges to East Grinstead (60 mins)
- East Grinstead to Groombridge (1 hr 45 mins)
- Guildford to Christ’s Hospital (1 hr 55 mins)
- Christ’s Hospital to Shoreham (1 hr 35 mins)
- Heathfield to Polegate, featuring access inside the tunnel (1 hr 23 mins)
- Rye & Camber tram/Rye harbour branch line (55 mins)
- Offham chalk pits steep grade funicular line (11 mins)
- Volk’s seagoing tramway – Daddy Long Legs (61 mins)
- The Hamsey loop line (34 mins)
- Views of Hellingly asylum, before demolition (30 mins)
- Hellingly asylum branch line, before all the houses went up (33 mins)
- Billingshurst ROC bunker (12 mins)
- Shoreham cement works (37 mins)
Twentieth anniversary celebrations offer on these is any three for £10 all in. Current government advice is to stock up on longer lasting items to keep you going through dark times; you’ll still be able to watch these when Putin cuts our undersea internet connection.
For tenth anniversary celebrations, 2017 was more typical of later years in terms of output, with only a couple of titles released, but with infinitely more time and effort put in to them:
- Christchurch to Ringwood (2 discs, 1 hr 40 mins) now £8
- West Moors to Salisbury (4 discs, 3 hrs 45 mins) now £10
Christchurch to Ringwood was great fun because it featured car mounted camera work (Polocam) to do the stretch of line buried by the A338, bike travel across Town Common to Hurn station, scrambling around on foot through Avon Heath Nature Reserve and a warm welcome at the bijou Avon Lodge halt, which is now a private house; the best of all worlds for a Dumpman title.
West Moors to Salisbury was a massive project to undertake with a lengthy line and often difficult access (much trespass), but lots to discover and amazing Hampshire countryside views, especially near the River Avon at Downton.
All the titles remain available on Ebay as ever, but if you want the discounts you have to deal direct so Ebay and Paypal don’t cream off any of the very modest profit. Just email your requests and we’ll go from there.
Many thanks to the wonderful Steve for keeping the website afloat www.dumpman.co.uk
Seeing as the last new title was (shockingly) as long ago as 2023, folk occasionally ask if Dumpman Films has retired as a solo film producing entity; the answer to this varies, but stay tuned and maybe we’ll both be surprised one day.