Films that feature the railways

[D1511]

The magnificent "Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot" starts with an amusing train and station-related scene.
It doesn't beat the ping-pong scene later in the film, however

 

[MotCO]

4.50, unless it has been retimed. The 1961 version was renamed Murder, She Said.

No wonder I missed it

Are we just restricted it to UK trains? If not, how about The Taking of Pelham 123

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The magnificent "Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot" starts with an amusing train and station-related scene.
It doesn't beat the ping-pong scene later in the film, however

...and of course, Mr Bean's Holiday features some scenes at Gare de Lyon and on board a TGV.... and was inspired by the Hulot film.

 

[Old Walter]

An episode of Poirot where Morden tube station was made into Hickory Road

A scene in The Rebel where Tony Hancock uses Bingham Road station in Croydon

A BBC miniseries called Gallowglass from 1993. Features Northern line 1959 and 1972 stock

Fred the Fugitive Engine, Middleton Railway

Law and Order, BBC 1978, opening scene of first episode features Derek Martin waiting at St. James’s Park and joining a C stock Circle line train

 

[CW2]

James Bond "Skyfall" featuring a fight on a Turkish train, Bond getting shot, and plummeting off the Varda Bridge into the valley below. Epic opening sequence, capped by Adele's iconic theme song.

Varda Viaduct · Karaisalı, Adana

maps.app.goo.gl

 

[contrex]

Worthy mention to the Fourth Protocol with Michall Caine.
The scene at St.Pancras stands out. Wouldn't be allowed these days, would have to be CGI.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a Class 310/312 doing at St Pancras? The BBC got banned from filming on BR, allegedly, after doing an episode with Michael Crawford hanging off the side of a departing 4-EPB, and looking like he might kick a shoe fuse.

 

[Gloster]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a Class 310/312 doing at St Pancras? The BBC got banned from filming on BR, allegedly, after doing an episode with Michael Crawford hanging off the side of a departing 4-EPB, and looking like he might kick a shoe fuse.

Probably because they wanted a London terminus where they could drive a car right on to the platform and a slammer for the stuntman to jump on to. What do you expect, accuracy?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Dempsey and Makepeace; there was an episode in which their boss Ray Spikings was on a tube train which was bombed - filmed on the Waterloo and City Line, which had miraculously grown into a multi station route for the purpose.

There was another episode of the same series in which the door opened on a DMU pulling into Marylebone and a dead body spilled out onto the platform.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

There is, of course, a reference to railways in Zulu.

This is when Lieutenant Gonvile Bromhead (Michael Caine) is complaining to Lieutenant John Chard (Stanley Baker) that he's given a rifle to Private Henry Hook (James Booth). The quote is heard as the sound of the approaching Zulu Impi is heard in the distance:
"In Queen's Regulations, it specifically states - Damn funny. Like a train... in the distance."

Okay, I'll get my coat .... !

 

[MotCO]

Didn't the Underground feature in a James Bond film, and in an episode of Sherlock?

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Didn't the Underground feature in a James Bond film, and in an episode of Sherlock?

The Underground has featured in two Bond films that I can think of, namely "Skyfall" and "The World is Not Enough". There's more of the Underground in the former than the latter, though.

 

[Harvester]

The Underground has featured in two Bond films that I can think of, namely "Skyfall" and "The World is Not Enough". There's more of the Underground in the former than the latter, though.

Most of the 2004 movie “Creep” is set on the Underground, with a woman trapped there overnight. Filming took place on disused sections and stations, on the London Underground.

 

[Old Walter]

Most of the 2004 movie “Creep” is set on the Underground, with a woman trapped there overnight. Filming took place on disused sections and stations, on the London Underground.

You’ve just reminded me of Three and Out - how could I forget that : /

 

[contrex]

Probably because they wanted a London terminus where they could drive a car right on to the platform and a slammer for the stuntman to jump on to. What do you expect, accuracy?

If so, (what I was getting at in fact) I am intrigued by the amount of work needed to get a 310/312 under the wires at St Pancras, considering it could not get there under its own power from its home territory (could it?)

It's probably time for my story about Eddie Shoestring getting out of a 4-VEP at Bristol Temple Meads to have a run out.

 

[Gloster]

If so, (what I was getting at in fact) I am intrigued by the amount of work needed to get a 310/312 under the wires at St Pancras, considering it could not get there under its own power from its home territory (could it?)

It's probably time for my story about Eddie Shoestring getting out of a 4-VEP at Bristol Temple Meads to have a run out.

Considering the amount that the film company would be paying in order to partially shut down St Pancras, the extra cost of hauling an EMU over from Willesden (or East Ham; were the 310/312 at East Ham in 1986?) is probably only a small part of the budget. It could be done via Acton Canal Wharf or Acton Wells Junctions and Cricklewood.

The book just has a group of MI5 trackers following chummy on to a late HST to Sheffield in good time. Once the film’s director has decided to make things more dramatic than the book, he probably has to go the whole hog. If I remember the departure from the train is even less plausible and set in Suffolk or thereabouts, which may explain the use of the EMU.

 

[DelW]

TV comedy programme Oh Doctor Beeching. From the same writers as Hi De Hi and Allo Allo.

In a similar vein but on radio, Parsley Sidings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsley_Sidings

Parsley Sidings is a BBC Radio sitcom of the early 1970s created by Jim Eldridge. It stars Arthur Lowe and Ian Lavender (who were starring in the sitcom Dad's Army at the time) and Kenneth Connor from the Carry On films. The show is set in a sleepy out of the way railway station on the main line between London and Birmingham, in the Midlands. The main characters are the station master, Mr Horace Hepplewhite (played by Arthur Lowe); his son, Bertrand (Ian Lavender); station porter Percy Valentine (Kenneth Connor); Mr Bradshaw, the signalman (also played by Kenneth Connor, as was Clara the station hen); and station tannoy announcer Gloria Simpkins (Liz Fraser, who was also in the Carry On films, and appeared in the Dad's Army feature film). The guest cast in some episodes included Bill Pertwee (also from Dad's Army, appearing in episode 11), Roger Delgado (The Master in Doctor Who in the Jon Pertwee era) with the announcer for the programme being Keith Skues.

 

[EYFanatic]

Schindler's List features... Well, I think we all know

Thomas The Tank Engine and its feature film, naturally

The Last Train was a mini series (also shown as a film) that featured survivors from a train that was in a tunnel when half of Zanzibar was deposited on the UK post asteroid impact... Notable for using Manchester Mayfield as a filming location

The Eagle Has Landed

V for Vendetta

I Was Monty's Double some nice shots of an LNER B17 (the loco and not LNER's own private air force)

St Trinian's Train Robbery

Victory (aka "Escape To Victory") both surface and subsurface/metro trains

The Surrender Of The French Armed Forces 1940 features the surrender of France in the same railway carriage including some rare film footage of a failed art student inside (normally you only see still images)

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

'Caught on a Train' (1980), starring Peggy Ashcroft and Michael Kitchen (as in 'Foyle's War') is a fantastic TV film shot extensively on a overnight service from Ostend to Vienna. There are some glaring continuity errors, but it is very redolent of the era with overcrowded trains, faded rolling stock, jumpy border guards and a down-at-heel and grubby Frankfurt Hbf.

 

[MotCO]

In a similar vein but on radio, Parsley Sidings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsley_Sidings

There was a Dad's Army episode featuring a train - the Home Guard thought they had inadvertently rowed to France and were on a French train, whereas it fact they were just pulling into Eastbourne!

Wasn't there another episode where the King's train was meant to be passing through Wilmington on Sea?

 

[Harvester]

James Bond "Skyfall" featuring a fight on a Turkish train, Bond getting shot, and plummeting off the Varda Bridge into the valley below. Epic opening sequence, capped by Adele's iconic theme song.

From Russia with Love had a memorable fight scene between Connery and the Robert Shaw character, the latter was ejected. There was also a variety of locos and stock, on external shots of the train during the journey from Istanbul to Venice, including a Jubilee hauling a green SR rake!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Wasn't there another episode where the King's train was meant to be passing through Wilmington on Sea?

Yes. Episode was entitled "The Royal Train". 6th series, third episode. The particular episode concluded with Walmington-on-Sea's finest stood on parade in front of a water trough, just as the Royal Train passes through. Episode first aired November 1973. Station scenes (interspersed with some stock footage of the Royal Train) filmed at Weybourne station on the North Norfolk line

 

[BrandanM]

Yes. Episode was entitled "The Royal Train". 6th series, third episode. The particular episode concluded with Walmington-on-Sea's finest stood on parade in front of a water trough, just as the Royal Train passes through. Episode first aired November 1973. Station scenes (interspersed with some stock footage of the Royal Train) filmed at Weybourne station on the North Norfolk line

Did the shows producers use artistic licence with regards to the siting of the water trough in this scene?.

I've always thought it unlikely that in reality they were installed in front of station platforms.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Did the shows producers use artistic licence with regards to the siting of the water trough in this scene?.

I've always thought it unlikely that in reality they were installed in front of station platforms.

Almost certainly. Some sources suggest that there were no water troughs on the Southern network (Walmington-on-Sea supposedly being located somewhere near Eastbourne on the South Coast).

 

[EYFanatic]

There was a Dad's Army episode featuring a train - the Home Guard thought they had inadvertently rowed to France and were on a French train, whereas it fact they were just pulling into Eastbourne!

Mainwaring: Bonjour, monsieur. Qu'est-ce que c'est la gare?
Man on Station: [posh voice] Eh?
Mainwaring: [loudly] Qu'est-ce que c'est la gare?
Man on Station: Oh. La gare est Eastbourne actually! ... ... ... Why are you speaking French?

 

[Gloster]

Mainwaring: Bonjour, monsieur. Qu'est-ce que c'est la gare?
Man on Station: [posh voice] Eh?
Mainwaring: [loudly] Qu'est-ce que c'est la gare?
Man on Station: Oh. La gare est Eastbourne actually! ... ... ... Why are you speaking French?

Hardly plausible: Mainwaring was supposed to be the son of an Eastbourne tailor. (Grief knows how I remembered that.)

 

[Mr. SW]

I caught the end of "The Battle of the Rails" 1946 (Bataille du Rail) over Christmas on Talking Pictures. It's the story of the French Resistance and their activities on the rail system. French with Subtitles.

 

[enginedin]

I'm surprised Harry Potter hasn't been mentioned! I think there is some train footage in all the films.

 

[contrex]

I'm surprised Harry Potter hasn't been mentioned! I think there is some train footage in all the films.

I've managed to avoid all of the films and books; I'm hoping to continue that.

 

[enginedin]

I've managed to avoid all of the films and books; I'm hoping to continue that.

good for you, I guess. I'm not sure what thats got to do with whether there's footage of trains in the films or not! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Anyone mentioned "A Run for your Money" (1949) - innocents abroad with Welsh rugby fans going to Twickenham and some fine shots purporting to be Paddington (but actually Windsor & Eton) , plus a pannier tank in the Valleys - also the Central line !

(nearly written by Dylan Thomas - but done by Laugharnite Richard Hughes)