Trivia: Unrealistic Trains on the Big Screen.

[Tracked]

However, as you can see from the above image, the movie DOES manage to accurately portray the cramped conditions aboard an XC voyager in the morning peak...

No it doesn't, it's obvious from the shot that there's far too many people sitting down compared to people standing

interesting sounding film though.


That Caravan train episode of Top Gear, which was more a continuity thing where Clarkson's train kept jumping from up to down track between shots.


Skyfall's chase through London Underground in rush hour, where they both manage to find the space to do a spot of running?

 

[Kite159]

No it doesn't, it's obvious from the shot that there's far too many people sitting down compared to people standing

interesting sounding film though.


That Caravan train episode of Top Gear, which was more a continuity thing where Clarkson's train kept jumping from up to down track between shots.


Skyfall's chase through London Underground in rush hour, where they both manage to find the space to do a spot of running?

Next you will mention Great British Railway Journeys with the reversing trains

 

[PeterY]

I remember an episode of Miranda portrayed a 168 at Marylebone as going to Wick or somewhere.

If you look very closely, the 168 departed Marylebone on a red with shunt signal (two white lights) . I'll get my coat :cry:

I love railway scenes in movies. Most are inaccurate.

 

[Tracked]

Next you will mention Great British Railway Journeys with the reversing trains

Oh no, I'll mention some of Portillo's jackets though hock:

 

[CC 72100]

Oh no, I'll mention some of Portillo's jackets though hock:

"I'm on my way to Thetford"

Not on a class 222 you're not Michael!

For all the inaccuracies though, really interesting series, take nothing away from it.

 

[matt_world2004]

The modern remake of total recall had new York subway trains on the London Underground.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I remember an episode of Casualty that featured a train crash, the service involved being the London to Holby express. I'm not sure if a green class 14 with 3 maroon mk.1s is the usual stock for this service though!

 

[krus_aragon]

Why is the notion of pertual motion outlsndish? I've been designing and researching this idea and have a workable prototype.
It's possible if magnets are used to tip a wheel which auto corrects under gravity.
To build one, get a wooden cross on a nail on a spinable frame, put magnets loosely in taped up match boxes at the ends.
All magnets with North outward. To the left of the inside of the wheel have a magnet placed to push a magnet outward and on the right of the inside of the wheel to pull inwards. The centre of gravity then moves offcentre and the wheel spins.
It's works the same as a mayo jar rolling to the heavy side but with magnets moving slightly when horizontal to keep spin.
Just remember it's my idea.
The perpetual motion may look unworkable, but Gravity and Magnetism are never equal forces.

Er, yeah. I'll just sit here grinning.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

Er, yeah. I'll just sit here grinning.

What are you grinning about?
Seriously my idea works, it's not powerful but automatically spins.
If you have weights on a wheel and move them towards the edge the centre of gravity moves and the wheel spins.
The weights which are magnets in this case fall downwards at the top and bottom of the wheel. This uses magnets to move the magnets at the horizontal level.

 

[ainsworth74]

How long have you left it running for?

 

[TheKnightWho]

What are you grinning about?
Seriously my idea works, it's not powerful but automatically spins.
If you have weights on a wheel and move them towards the edge the centre of gravity moves and the wheel spins.
The weights which are magnets in this case fall downwards at the top and bottom of the wheel. This uses magnets to move the magnets at the horizontal level.

Except air resistance will slow it down over time and it'll eventually stop. Sorry.

If it was on the moon it could probably spin forever, but it wouldn't be able to do any work without slowing down.

 

[D6975]

In an episode of Taggart a 303 arrived at a station, someone got off and a 303 departed.

Unfortunately, one of them was Blue/Grey, the other Strathclyde orange.
Even the most unobservant normal must have noticed that one.

As for Heartbeat, I recently saw an episode that featured black and green wheely bins in the background at Whitby. Pretty sure they weren't around in the 60s.

 

[DownSouth]

On an episode of the US sitcom How I Met Your Mother a couple of years ago, a short scene on board a US commuter train had the view out of the windows in the shot (probably a deserted depot somewhere) replaced by superimposed stock footage of a Connex Melbourne train arriving at a station.

The worst bit was that the edge of platform at the bottom of the original stock footage was just visible above the window sill - not good for trying to fake a 'train arriving on the other platform' view!

 

[GWRjake]

In "Green Street" I seem to remember Matt, the film's protagonist, traveling between Heathrow and Paddington in first class on a Greater Anglia Class 90 set!

I also believe we see Simon Pegg as Sergeant Angel in "Hot Fuzz" standing at Denham Golf Club station on the Chiltern main line, despite being travelling from London to Gloucestershire!

 

[Busaholic]

Visiting Universal Studios Theme Park in Los Angeles in 1979, was fascinated to see how they'd recreated Chicago's Overhead Railway for the film 'Great Gatsby' - basically a model railway with a train being pulled along the track with a piece of string! Every expense spared, in other words, but the clip they showed of the film proved it could pass as realistic to anyone not versed in that railway's history, probably close to 100% of the audience.

 

[pne]

Dempsey and Makepeace - they famously went several stations along on the Waterloo and City Line.

So you're basically saying the film was simply set in the near future?

 

[Trainfan344]

I don't know how realistic (or otherwise) this film was, but can't help but think of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM-0Ywc7wNY

Watched this film today, seemed quite realistic, not too many problems, but not an american so couldn't tell, but I enjoyed watching it, was good from beginning to end..

 

[bnm]

I don't know how realistic (or otherwise) this film was, but can't help but think of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM-0Ywc7wNY

I just wish Tony Scott (RIP) had locked off his cameras once in a while, or used steadicam more often. Made 'Unstoppable' hard to watch for me. Same goes for his remake of 'The Taking of Pelham 123'

 

[ReverendFozz]

In "Green Street" I seem to remember Matt, the film's protagonist, traveling between Heathrow and Paddington in first class on a Greater Anglia Class 90 set!

I also believe we see Simon Pegg as Sergeant Angel in "Hot Fuzz" standing at Denham Golf Club station on the Chiltern main line, despite being travelling from London to Gloucestershire!

They also leave for Manchester from Kings Cross in Green Street, get off at what is not Macclesfield and has a fight outside what is not Piccadilly

 

[Rick1984]

In Gavin and Stacey Marleybone stood in for Paddington, though they did change signs.

 

[Geezertronic]

I'm surprised none of you geeks have mentioned the Pretendolino being in the background of one of the Harry Potter films at Kings Cross (although I'm not that much of a geek to remember which Harry Potter film it was)

 

[JaJaWa]

I'm surprised none of you geeks have mentioned the Pretendolino being in the background of one of the Harry Potter films at Kings Cross (although I'm not that much of a geek to remember which Harry Potter film it was)

Was that for the futuristic part of the last one? I've read it was done intentionally to stop the film dating so quickly (seems they correctly predicted Virgin Trains East Coast!).

 

[Geezertronic]

Was that for the futuristic part of the last one? I've read it was done intentionally to stop the film dating so quickly (seems they correctly predicted Virgin Trains East Coast!).

You've only made me Google it you swine

According to Wikipedia (for what that is worth) it was in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Wikipedia doesn't say which part though)

 

[ainsworth74]

It was at the end of Part 2 and was used during the flashforward scenes at Kings Cross (though they used St Pancras for an establishing shot outside of the station and who can blame them!). As far as I'm aware it was there in a mixture of blocking views of the 'action' from other platforms and to give the actors and crew somewhere private to relax between takes.

I've seen nothing other than conspiracy theory's to suggest that the producers deliberately asked for a train in Virgin livery (they did, however, as far as I'm aware ask for one in GNER livery to keep consistency with earlier films).