Railways in Pop Culture

[theageofthetra]

East Croydon station in the earlier series titles for Terry & June

 

[D345MSB]

Back to film again, and two we haven’t had yet. Firstly, the scene near the end of Billy Liar, when Billy deliberately misses the train to London. I read somewhere it was shot at Marylebone. The sound of the Mk1 stock leaving to the sound of a Trans Pennine dmu grates a bit but the fresh milk machine is brilliant! Anyone know where the refreshment room scene was shot? Also at Marylebone? Quite a bit of the filming on location took place in the centre of Bradford but - another small railway link here - the house where Billy lived with his mum and dad was actually located in Midland Road, Shipley, not to be confused with Midland Road in Bradford.

Now one for football fans as well as steam enthusiasts - The Love Match with Arthur Askey. He plays a loco driver who parks his 4F on an embankment overlooking a football ground one Satuday afternoon so he and his fireman can watch the match. I think the ground was Burnden Park so the location would have been somewhere near Burnden Junction, Bolton. There are some excellent loco depot scenes that I think were filmed at Newton Heath rather than Bolton.

 

[Cowley]

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet but what about the Javelin in the opening credits of Have I got news for you?

 

[Dvorak]

A couple of obscurities:

"Bellshill Station" by Scottish indiepoppers The Just Joans, a sad tale of lovers parting on the platform.

"Last Train To Liverpool" from 1965; a single by Sweden's first female pop band The Plommons (who once opened for The Who).

And The Smiths "London": mentioning Euston and in this clip paired with some train action from the film "Billy Liar" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clPhtitSpes

Going back to #42, I think the Lasgo video was nearly all shot at Praha Hlavní Nádraží, except the last shots (vehicles passing, green pillars) at Masarykovo. Good shots of the Fantova Kavárna, the art deco former main entrance of hl.n converted into a café.

 

[godfreycomplex]

Not sure if this has been mentioned already but the Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em episode "Have a Break; Take a Husband" begins with a stark warning of the dangers of the PTI with Frank Spencer being dragged along the platform by a SR design 2-EPB at Windsor & Eton Riverside (it was filmed in damp, foggy weather so the castle is only visible to the very keenly-eyed). After enduring a "three hour journey" he lands at his second honeymoon destination; which is of course Riverside again; except his train has magically morphed into a BR design 2-EPB (and painted itself blue and grey into the bargain). When they leave the station they appear to have gone through a wormhole as the station's exterior was filmed at Herne Bay (as were the rest of the location sequences for that episode)

 

[Upton]

Anyone remember the film Melody aka SWALK from 1971 starring Mark Lester, and Jack Wild of Oliver fame, plus Tracy Hyde. It's a story of young love with a soundtrack by the Bee Gees. The two young lovers run away to the seaside near the end of the film taking a train to the south coast - possibly Weymouth? There's a scene of a class 31 coming into a station somewhere and you can see this about 1 hour 20 minutes into the film.

https://vimeo.com/4424358

 

[EM2]

This one is a bit niche, but...
On The Wombles album 'Remember You're A Womble', there is a song called 'Wellington Goes to Waterloo', where Wellington takes a day off to go trainspotting at Waterloo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSlUUzF9IzM

 

[Iskra]

A Grand Central Class 180 on the London-Bradford Interchange route is featured extensively in The Thick Of It the BBC series. There is a lot of filming inside the train as well as external shots. Brighouse station (West Yorkshire) also features in the same episode.

 

[Clip]

Back to film again, and two we haven’t had yet. Firstly, the scene near the end of Billy Liar, when Billy deliberately misses the train to London. I read somewhere it was shot at Marylebone. The sound of the Mk1 stock leaving to the sound of a Trans Pennine dmu grates a bit but the fresh milk machine is brilliant! Anyone know where the refreshment room scene was shot? Also at Marylebone? Quite a bit of the filming on location took place in the centre of Bradford but - another small railway link here - the house where Billy lived with his mum and dad was actually located in Midland Road, Shipley, not to be confused with Midland Road in Bradford.
.

Heres the locations for that film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056868/locations

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

The Story of Tracy Beaker: The Movie of Me had the character sneaking onboard a HST starting from Paddington which, somehow, then turns into some MKs or MKIIs on a preserved line hauled by a steam train! Guard carries a - then modern - ticket machine with BR double arrows applied to the coaches!

One of the other child home kids later finds her at a fictional station called Hopeston - can't be in the preserved line as the station has a coloured aspect plainly visible

 

[Kneedown]

HST 43077 in the video to Rent by the Pet Shop Boys.
HST set briefly visible background in a scene from Quadrophenia.
Southern DEMU in The Great St Trinians Train Robbery.

I also vaguely recall from my childhood, a childrens series from the 70's called Kim and Co, and am sure there was a scene with a class 84 rounding a curve at speed (Of course it could have been another class 81-85)

 

[KTHV]

Oh Doctor Beeching! - the David Croft comedy about the impending closure of a rural station.

The programme was filmed on the Severn Valley Railway. Arley SVR station in Upper Arley was used as Hatley station.

 

[Ash Bridge]

The 1985 video of the Simply Red hit "Holding Back The Years" Features BR 2-6-4 Standard Tank 80135, and its rake of mk1 coaches with onboard shots of a corridor second, presumably filmed on the NYMR?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet but what about the Javelin in the opening credits of Have I got news for you?

YouTube has clips of the various opening credits to HIGNFY over the years... trains also featured in the early 1990s, with a TGV set rushing past a blue & grey CIG or CEP unit which plods along, wobbling and passengers being thrown out as it goes...

 

[Michael.Y]

Someone mentioned Anthony Aloysious StJohn Hancock upthread. He lived at Railway Cuttings, but he went on a train journey himself once, from Kings Cross to Giggleswick via Leeds. 7 and a half hours of clickety-clack clickety-clack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHtImbUnD48 (not best copy, it's been Youtube-proofed)

Various bits of Porridge were mentioned. Fletcher initially went up with Mackay and Barrowclough from St Pancras to Carlisle in the pilot episode Prisoner and Escort, which was part of the separate series Seven of One. There was also a first-gen DMU in the first shot of the Porridge movie.

Three years later, Fletch was going back the other way (presumably) on the WCML, firstly hauled by a Deltic! (07:47) and then an 86 by the time it reached Watford Junction. Along the way he experienced the wonders of BR catering. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqBMN0ALERM

Meanwhile in Yes Minister, Jim Hacker had cause to use the Caledonian Sleeper once in search of some much needed by-election wins. Railway sequence starts at 13:15 in the vid and includes some very dodgy dispatch procedure!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX5B-LRl-lg (again, treated for YouTube copyright evasion purposes by the uploader!)

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

Meanwhile in Yes Minister, Jim Hacker had cause to use the Caledonian Sleeper once in search of some much needed by-election wins. Railway sequence starts at 13:15 in the vid and includes some very dodgy dispatch procedure!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX5B-LRl-lg (again, treated for YouTube copyright evasion purposes by the uploader!)

Hauled by a Deltic!

 

[yorksrob]

The first episode of "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads" has a long scene on an ECML mk1.

 

[Michael.Y]

Railways feature occasionally in the Big Bang Theory:

- Sheldon, Leonard, Raj and Howard take a trip on the Coast Starlight in S2E17 The Terminator Decoupling

- Sheldon discovers HO gauge model trains in S5E3 The Pulled Groin Extrapolation

- Sheldon, Amy, Howard and Bernadette go on a Valentine's Day double date on a luxury dining train in S7E15 The Locomotive Manipulation

- Sheldon goes on a cross-country trip after suffering an emotional breakdown in S7E24 The Status Quo Combustion

 

[Ash Bridge]

The first episode of "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads" has a long scene on an ECML mk1.

The mk1 compartment looked genuine didn't it, had my doubts about the buffet interior though, any idea if the station really was Doncaster?

 

[yorksrob]

The mk1 compartment looked genuine didn't it, had my doubts about the buffet interior though, any idea if the station really was Doncaster?

Just youtubed it now. Yes, the buffet car is definitely a bit too spacious to be a train carriage

There's a point at 'Doncaster station' when they turn around to look at a large trainshed. Looks more like Newcastle to me

 

[Ash Bridge]

Just youtubed it now. Yes, the buffet car is definitely a bit too spacious to be a train carriage

There's a point at 'Doncaster station' when they turn around to look at a large trainshed. Looks more like Newcastle to me

Yes, I'd bet that would be closer, the train was an interesting mixture too, mk1 followed by early mk2 with an aircon mk2 brake at the end, loved to have seen what was on the front!

 

[Busaholic]

The first episode of "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads" has a long scene on an ECML mk1.

Excellent series - what a shame they wiped the tapes of (most or all?) of the original ' Likely Lads'.

 

[Ianno87]

YouTube has clips of the various opening credits to HIGNFY over the years... trains also featured in the early 1990s, with a TGV set rushing past a blue & grey CIG or CEP unit which plods along, wobbling and passengers being thrown out as it goes...

About 2001 it featured the French portal of the Channel Tunnel, with two passing Class 373s. One going into the tunnel with (implied) asylum seekers clinging to the side, and one coming out with Pigs, Cows, Sheep etc, clinging to side (referring to Foot & Mouth crisis)

 

[Upton]

The 1985 video of the Simply Red hit "Holding Back The Years" Features BR 2-6-4 Standard Tank 80135, and its rake of mk1 coaches with onboard shots of a corridor second, presumably filmed on the NYMR?

Yes I think it was filmed in the NYMR as the rest if the video shows scenes filmed nearby at Whitby Abbey.

 

[t_star2001uk]

Music video

Level 42-Something About you

Films

Hot Fuzz - 165 at Denham Golf Club
The Worlds End - 165 at High Wycombe
Hard Days Night - Plenty of footage from Marylebone
The Conjouring 2 - Blue Grey Mk3s at Marylebone

Tv

The Bill - 1 episode featured the inside of a 165 travelling between High Wycombe and Princes Risborough
Miranda - An episode of this show was filmed on trains at Marylebone

 

[godfreycomplex]

There was one early episode of Silent Witness that was filmed in and around Raynes Park, featuring low-angle shots of several unrefurbished Stagecoach SWT 455s. Guest star was Ton Georgeson, at a guess shot about 1999
Also Morse/Lewis at Oxford station several times. In the pilot of Lewis Oxford station car park appears (complete with FGW Link 165); this was in fact filmed at Slough
Also the Masterchef challenge filmed at Stewarts Lane and in a Pullman kitchen (not sure what the route of the train was but it was filmed a while ago as John Torode was still dying his hair at the time)

 

[johnnychips]

In the John Schlesinger 1979 film, 'Yanks', about the GIs in WW2, the American soldiers left by a steam train of the period from Keighley station. Most of it was shot round Tameside, Stalybridge Bus Station being 'aged' (which didn't take much doing); and Vanessa Redgrave had a dirty weekend in Llandudno.

 

[Mikey C]

A couple of Doctor Who mentions (there are more I'm sure!)

In the 60s, the (now rediscovered) Troughton classic The Web of Fear is set in the Underground tunnels, with some incredibly realistic sets

In 2014, the modern episode Flatline filmed at Barry Island Heritage Railway and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, including scenes with a couple of heritage diesels
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
On Jean Michel Jarre's Magnetic Fields album, Part 4 closes with various railway noises including the noise of an express train going across the stereo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq2QSPoYc30

 

[125Forever]

Nene Valley - There's a sign that sneakily appears at 0:48 - https://youtu.be/CEjU9KVABao?t=48s

Oh, Sonic Boom Six filmed their video for their track Virus in Eastleigh Works back in 2012. There's even 47839 & 73005 in the background!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDNjrMOE1vE

Big Big Train also filmed there in 2013:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKe1FdztHGM
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Someone mentioned Anthony Aloysious StJohn Hancock upthread. He lived at Railway Cuttings, but he went on a train journey himself once, from Kings Cross to Giggleswick via Leeds. 7 and a half hours of clickety-clack clickety-clack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHtImbUnD48 (not best copy, it's been Youtube-proofed)

Various bits of Porridge were mentioned. Fletcher initially went up with Mackay and Barrowclough from St Pancras to Carlisle in the pilot episode Prisoner and Escort, which was part of the separate series Seven of One. There was also a first-gen DMU in the first shot of the Porridge movie.

Three years later, Fletch was going back the other way (presumably) on the WCML, firstly hauled by a Deltic! (07:47) and then an 86 by the time it reached Watford Junction. Along the way he experienced the wonders of BR catering. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqBMN0ALERM

Meanwhile in Yes Minister, Jim Hacker had cause to use the Caledonian Sleeper once in search of some much needed by-election wins. Railway sequence starts at 13:15 in the vid and includes some very dodgy dispatch procedure!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX5B-LRl-lg (again, treated for YouTube copyright evasion purposes by the uploader!)

IIRC, Ystrad Mynach station was also used during the filming of Porridge?

 

[EM2]

Another Dr Who example is the episode 'Spearhead From Space', where we discover that part of the old Undercroft at St Pancras was the headquarters of UNIT.
I've been trying to work out exactly where, and I think it's around the current John Lewis.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x291zb6_spearhead-from-space-pt-1_shortfilms - starts at about 03:22.