California-1936: Workers Labor On Railway In Desert Landscape

$149 · CommercialDirect license: commercial and editorial use. $149 flat from Stockfilm. Royalty-free worldwide license for commercial and editorial use, delivered as the restored 4K master.

Year1936
Decade1930s
LocationCalifornia, United States
Duration6s
Price$149 USD
Collection1936 California

$149 · CommercialDirect license: commercial and editorial use

$149 USD flat · royalty-free worldwide · 4K restored master (MP4)

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Stockfilm licenses the rights identified in the applicable agreement. Additional use-specific review may be required. See the Licensing Guide and Archive Integrity.

Workers Labor On Railway In Desert Landscape — Clip Details

CALIFORNIA-1936: Workers labor on a railway line in a vast desert landscape, their figures small against the open terrain. Shot on 8mm film, the grainy black-and-white footage captures men in period work clothes using tools to maintain the tracks under a bright sky. Utility poles line the horizon, emphasizing the remote setting. The sequence shows the physical effort of early 20th-century railroad maintenance, with some workers bent over the rails while others stand nearby. The final frames fade into a hazy, indistinct view, typical of aged home movie footage. This authentic archival clip offers a glimpse into the hardships of transportation work during the Great Depression era.

Licensing & Technical Details

Original Format: 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie
Resolution: 4K restored master (MP4)
License: Direct license: commercial and editorial use
Delivery: Instant Digital Download
Duration: 6s
Price: $149 USD
Clip ID: 127476873

Rights & Clearance

$149 · Commercial Direct license: commercial and editorial use. $149 flat from Stockfilm. Royalty-free worldwide license for commercial and editorial use, delivered as the restored 4K master.

Editorial use is the safest path. For commercial use, a clearance review is recommended for the flags below.

People visible: Yes
Minors visible: No
Logos / trademarks: No
Audible music: No

Flags come from automated catalog metadata, not a legal opinion. The source is an original 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie reel. For high-stakes commercial use, request a full rights review.

Source & Documentation

Source reel: Reel record not linked for this clip
Date: 1936 Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Date evidence: Catalog estimate based on source metadata and visual or technical evidence; no reel-level note is linked.
Location: California, United States Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Location evidence: Catalog estimate based on source metadata and visual evidence such as signage, landmarks, or terrain; no reel-level note is linked.
Licensing route: Direct license available from Stockfilm

Confidence labels are defined on Archive Integrity. Fields without a recorded value are shown as not recorded rather than assumed.

Open Clip Documentation Record Request source information

Topics & Keywords

train
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1936
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nostalgic 1930s

Archive Intelligence

Archive brief fit: Useful for 1930s California transportation, labor, and infrastructure edits needing brief home-movie views of railway workers in an arid landscape.
Period detail: The men’s work clothes, hand tools, rail line, utility poles, and black-and-white 8mm look support a mid-1930s setting in rural or desert California.
Home-movie behavior: The camera observes from a distance as the workers move along the track, giving the scene an unstaged, passing-home-movie quality rather than a formal work portrait.
What appears in frame: Visible elements include a rail line across open ground, small groups of workers, hand tools, utility poles, low hills, bright sky, and a hazy final exposure.
Film character: The footage has coarse 8mm grain, soft focus, uneven exposure, and visible frame edges that give the labor scene a physical home-movie texture.
Edit role: An editor could use this as a short insert, cutaway, or transition for railroad maintenance, Depression-era labor, or movement through remote California terrain.
Historical context: The clip visually places manual rail work within a sparse landscape, with workers dwarfed by the track, poles, and open terrain rather than framed as identifiable individuals.
Research note: People are visible at a distance, so likeness review may still be needed; no visible brands or private property are apparent, and copyright status is separate from depiction rights.
Research search match: Matches searches for 1930s California railroad workers, 8mm railway maintenance, desert rail line labor, and Great Depression-era transportation footage.
Archive pairing path: Pair first with same-reel California travel footage, then other 1936 California material, then broader railway, labor, infrastructure, and desert landscape clips.

Still Frames From This Clip

1936 California home-movie frame showing several workers along a railway track with utility poles and low hills in the distance. — Workers gather along a railway line in open terrain.

Distant workers appear to maintain or walk along a railway line in a sparse California desert setting. — A work crew continues along the rail line.

A hazy 8mm frame shows a faint railway scene with workers and poles partly obscured by exposure and film wear. — The rail scene fades into a pale, indistinct view.

A nearly blank, overexposed 8mm frame shows film wear, frame edge, and only faint traces of the preceding railway landscape. — Film wear and overexposure obscure the final view.

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