Films that feature the railways

[ChiefPlanner]

Quite a lot of Watford Junction as well.

Not Watford Junction , but often quoted as such - the Buffet was a studio built set.

Celia Johnson often used the warm cab of the tank engine (2764 ?) for a brief warm in between film takes.

 

[Falcon1200]

I presume that not is superfluous!

No! It is a few years ago now but IIRC, the signal was cleared for a train to enter a station but when the Signalman came to operate the points necessary to route the train to an unobstructed line, they could indeed not be moved, resulting in the arriving train colliding with another. I believe the scene was filmed on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and IMHO it is a pity that the railway was party to such an incorrect example of railway operating, but no doubt the money earned was needed.

 

[aleandrail]

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

One episode has poirot arriving on a train into a station and if you look across to the right you will see a class 142 sitting in a platform. Unfortunately i cannot remember which episode it was , made me chuckle though.

 

[Gloster]

No! It is a few years ago now but IIRC, the signal was cleared for a train to enter a station but when the Signalman came to operate the points necessary to route the train to an unobstructed line, they could indeed not be moved, resulting in the arriving train colliding with another. I believe the scene was filmed on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and IMHO it is a pity that the railway was party to such an incorrect example of railway operating, but no doubt the money earned was needed.

Somewhat reminiscent of the 1929 film Flying Scotsman where they had the loco being uncoupled and racing away ahead of the coaches which continue to roll along at speed. Sir Nigel Gresley insisted on the disclaimer,“For the purpose of the film dramatic licence has been taken in regard to the safety equipment used on Flying Scotsman.”

It was Ray Milland’s first credited film and nearly his last, as he he only just avoided hitting the platform edge of one of the stations when he was half out of the cab when fighting on the floor. Pauline Johnson did her own stunts, including walking along the carriage footboards while the train sped along…and, like Ginger Rogers, she did it in high-heels.

 

[Ziggy3legs]

"Tough Guys" of 1986 starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas with stunning footage of Southern Pacific Railroad No. 4449. I remember watching it on a British Caledonian flight back from Hong Kong after 3 weeks doing steam in China.

 

[Forty29]

The Hard Men episode of the Sweeney starts with a shot of a Class 86 pulling into London Euston.

One of the other episodes (can't remember title at the moment) has Regan and Carter chasing some hoodlum through Farringdon.

Oh was that Faringdon, where they were running around coaches, or was another episode? Looked like Stratford the episode l saw definitely The Sweeney.

 

[Tester]

No! It is a few years ago now but IIRC, the signal was cleared for a train to enter a station but when the Signalman came to operate the points necessary to route the train to an unobstructed line, they could indeed not be moved, resulting in the arriving train colliding with another. I believe the scene was filmed on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and IMHO it is a pity that the railway was party to such an incorrect example of railway operating, but no doubt the money earned was needed.

I'm somewhat puzzled!

Under what circumstances would you expect points to be able to be moved after the signal has been cleared and the train has taken the route?

You can rest assured that people like me make sure you can't do that!

This is basic stuff

 

[High Dyke]

The Nene Valley railway has been a popular location for filming. The bond movies, Octopussy and Goldeneye. The Dirty Dozen - The Next Mission. Top Secret - a spoof spy film apparently. Nine - a romantic musical drama starring Penelope Cruz. Has also appeared in the tv series Secret Army and Poirot. There’s probably others. And the last one that comes to mind is Queen’s Breakthrough music video.

Also used for various episodes of London's Burning, the film 'Spymaker - The secret life of Ian Fleming'. That involved a camera crew on a platform underneath a railway carriage. I also recall a film, I believe was called 'Afraid of the Dark'. That involved scenes shot in / around Wansford station/tunnel. The tv drama 'Christabel' was filmed in the British Sugar Corporation factory at Peterborough.

I was a member of NVR at the time and worked on most of these.

 

[EYFanatic]

One episode has poirot arriving on a train into a station and if you look across to the right you will see a class 142 sitting in a platform. Unfortunately i cannot remember which episode it was , made me chuckle though.

That was "The Plymouth Express" from Season 3 - Hull Paragon stood in for both Plymouth AND Paddington... Even better is that you could see the full colour signals on the platform ends and the ground shunts

 

[Falcon1200]

Under what circumstances would you expect points to be able to be moved after the signal has been cleared and the train has taken the route?

You can rest assured that people like me make sure you can't do that!

Crikey!

The points were moved before the train took the route, resulting in the collision. And did you miss my comments;

Post #111; 'Clearly no interlocking in the 1950s';
Post #122; 'such an incorrect example of railway operating'.

As an ex-railway operator I know perfectly well that the circumstances described cannot in reality occur.

 

[Tester]

Crikey!

The points were moved before the train took the route, resulting in the collision. And did you miss my comments;

Post #111; 'Clearly no interlocking in the 1950s';
Post #122; 'such an incorrect example of railway operating'.

As an ex-railway operator I know perfectly well that the circumstances described cannot in reality occur.

Thank you for this additional information, not obvious from your original description.

In which case substitute 'entered the approach locking lookback' for 'taken the route'.

The effect is the same.

Either way, the signal could not have been cleared originally to an obstructed route, and THAT is the interlocking failure - the points are a red herring, and quite correctly could not be moved.

You know that too!

 

[Falcon1200]

'entered the approach locking lookback'

That is not an expression I have ever heard used!

Either way, the signal could not have been cleared originally to an obstructed route, and THAT is the interlocking failure - the points are a red herring, and quite correctly could not be moved.

As Heartbeat was a TV drama and not a railway operating practice documentary, there was no 'interlocking failure' as such, instead basic facts were altered and safeguards ignored to set the scene for an episode requiring a train crash.

 

[Tester]

That is not an expression I have ever heard used!



As Heartbeat was a TV drama and not a railway operating practice documentary, there was no 'interlocking failure' as such, instead basic facts were altered and safeguards ignored to set the scene for an episode requiring a train crash.

Approach locking lookback is absolutely mainstream in railway signal engineering, and I would have thought also in railway operating, but am clearly not qualified to say.

We write here where most readers are likely to be unfamiliar with railway signalling principles. All the more reason not to suggest that the non-movement of the points was in any way relevant - simply that we had a clear signal when we shouldn't have!

I follow your posts with interest, and it is clear that your railway operating knowledge is extensive, which is of interest to me - always learning!

 

[GRALISTAIR]

In recent years although brief, the Imitation Game with Benedict Cummerbatch and Keira Knightly had a few train scenes.

 

[McRhu]

"Our Hospitality" by Buster Keaton; the first scenes. A silent film that, despite its paucity of loquaciousness, has a clear message for todays PW Engineers: with a bit of spit and imagination anything is possible.

 

[Falcon1200]

I would have thought also in railway operating,

It may well be in some places but not where I worked, in Scotland. There are of course many regional variations in railway terminology.

I follow your posts with interest,

Thanks!

 

[High Dyke]

An Avengers episode from the first colour series of 1966 is called ‘A Funny thing happened on the way to the Station’. Set on and includes lots of footage of the newly electrified WCML, including a sequence at the start, I’m guessing, filmed at Willesden’s Carriage Sidings? Plenty of motion footage too (by John Huntley?).

The ticket collector was played by the actor James Haytor (better known as the voice of Mr Kipling) and also starred 'Private Fraser' John Laurie.

Another couple of films:

• The Train, starring Burt Lancaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Train_(1964_film)
• The Bridge at Remagen. Featuring a sequence of a German troop train trying to cross the bridge before it is supposed to be destroyed.

Also surprised that nobody has mentioned The Flockton Flyer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flockton_Flyer

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Although very much not fiction (and my apologies if it's considered to be "off-topic"), I'd like to make mention of the "Railway Roundabout" series of programmes.

These were a series of programmes, mainly about railways in Britain but also including coverage of railways in Northern and Southern Europe, shown on the BBC between 1958 and 1962. There are also two extra discs in my set - "Railway Roundabout Revisited" and "Railway Roundabout - The End of The Line" which contain material from the early 1960s.They were filmed by Pat Whitehouse and John Adams, and the originals are now in the NRM at York. An interesting point about these is that the first five yearly DVDs are narrated by the newsreader Peter Woods; he apparently did the same for several other DVDs in the 1980s.

I've recently looked at all of these again (I have the box set of nine DVDs) and I've found them quite fascinating. I was too young to see them when they were originally shown (and we didn't have a television then anyway!), but I wish that I'd seen the complete series.

 

[John Luxton]

"Last Train to Redbridge" an episode of Department S.

If I recall correcly Jason King finds himself at an abandoned London Underground Station with pre War posters made early 1970s. I can't recall much about the series but do remember this episode.

 

[Mr. SW]

A couple more:
Bhowani Junction (1956) with Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger: Lots of Indian Railways.
The Railrodder (1965) Buster Keaton travels across Canada on a Speeder (A motor trolley)

Anybody mentioned Snowpiercer (2013) Chris Evans, Jamie Bell? Sci-Fi. A Community on a train that never stops.

 

[Ziggy3legs]

"The Bed Sitting Room". A 1969 film of the 1963 play written by John Antrobus and Spike Milligan. Set several years after a nuclear war this black comedy is set amongst the desolate ruins of London (population 20) and once again is quite a who's who of British acting at the time. The railway connection is the family (Arthur Lowe, Rita Tushingham) who live on board a still functioning Circle line train and surviving by raiding those 1960 confectionary machines whenever the train stops at a station.

 

[EYFanatic]

Superman IV has the rather infamous tube sequence

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Superman IV has the rather infamous tube sequence

Also has Milton Keynes Central masquerading as the United Nations HQ.

Trainspotting rather fittingly features trains twice: a 156 depositing the main characters at Corrour, and a brief shot of a WCML express as the transition shot when Renton et al leave London and return to Edinburgh for Tommy's funeral. An ECML service would have been more sensible of course!

Twin Town has a scene where the two corrupt police officers visit Swansea station to meet their cocaine supplier from London, with Dougray Scott's character going on a rant about the Dylan Thomas-inspired floor tiles at the entrance. A later scene sees the coppers discussing how to handle the mess they've got themselves into on a footbridge over the South Wales main line, as a "Cigarette Packet" liveried HST passes underneath.

When Saturday Comes - the Sean Bean wish fulfillment movie about football, has his character walking along the four foot of a freight line somewhere in South Yorkshire as he wrestles with the idea of killing himself following the death of his brother in a mining accident - he jumps out of the way just before the Class 56 hits him.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

"Our Hospitality" by Buster Keaton; the first scenes. A silent film that, despite its paucity of loquaciousness, has a clear message for todays PW Engineers: with a bit of spit and imagination anything is possible.

You can't mention Buster Keaton in a thread about trains in films and not mention The General!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Night of the Demon (1957)

 

[adrianboult]

Steptoe and son.
From (an xmas special?) in the mid to late 70's getting on the Night Ferry at Victoria.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Steptoe and son.
From (an xmas special?) in the mid to late 70's getting on the Night Ferry at Victoria.

"A Perfect Christmas"

The 1974 Christmas Special.

 

[Arch9enius]

Films I've recently seen involving trains :
Horror Express. Hammer regulars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee have to chase down a brain-sucking body-hopping intelligence on a trans Manchurian express in the 1890s. The film was written just because there was a model train and some carriage sets left over from a couple of other films. It can be found on YouTube. As an aside, so can The Iron Mule, a silent that reused the train built for Our Hospitality.

Dread Poets society: Benjamen Zephaniah and Timothy Spalls ' train journey from Birmingham to Cambridge during the sectorisation era is interrupted by a bunch of hooligans off their heads on laudanum or something. Worth a watch for anyone missing the power and the might of British Rail. Again, it's posted up on YouTube.

Split Second: Nothing at all to do with trains but the climax takes place in a flooded tube station on the Circle Line (that sort of attentions to detail). Probably one to watch through your fingers as a waterlogged Standard tube stock train (or earlier) gets used as a scratching post by a serial killer who thinks he's Satan and manages to be both psychotic and psychopathic at the same time apparently. Rutger Hauer, Kim Cattrell, Ian Drury , Pete Postelthwaite and Alun Armstrong as da chief.

As for whodunnits on trains where the villain isn't a satanic gene-stealing thingy from out of space, Poirot in the form of David Suchet has investigated murders on the Plymouth Express and the Blue Train as well as been in the best version of Murder on the Orient Express imho. Joan Hickson s' Miss Marple was the best version of 4:50 from Paddington again in my opinion, and the recent TV version of The Lady Vanishes was a good one (purists might prefer the first version because Hitchcock).
One of Hitchcock s' early films was Number Nineteen? ,it ended with a train vs. bus chase ending up at the folkstone train ferry. All done by model work.

As opposed to Terror by Night, one of the Basil Rathbone Holmses, where the London to Edinburgh express was represented almost entirely by stock footage of almost anything. This is rotation on Talking Pictures fwiw.

 

[MarkyT]

Trainspotting rather fittingly features trains twice: a 156 depositing the main characters at Corrour, and a brief shot of a WCML express as the transition shot when Renton et al leave London and return to Edinburgh for Tommy's funeral. An ECML service would have been more sensible of course!

One of the original book sections/chapters was entitled 'Trainspotting at Leith Central Station', a euphemism for taking drugs in the derelict buildings, frequented by homeless people and junkies after abandonment as a DMU depot in the 1970s. A scene in the book features the gang going to urinate in the old trainshed and meeting an old wino there, who turns out to be Begbie's father and says "What're you up to, lads, eh? Trainspotting? In Leith Central?" The scene wasn't included in the original film, but the events were recalled by Spud in the sequel, T2, made many years later.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

One of the original book sections/chapters was entitled 'Trainspotting at Leith Central Station', a euphemism for taking drugs in the derelict buildings, frequented by homeless people and junkies after abandonment as a DMU depot in the 1970s. A scene in the book features the gang going to urinate in the old trainshed and meeting an old wino there, who turns out to be Begbie's father and says "What're you up to, lads, eh? Trainspotting? In Leith Central?" The scene wasn't included in the original film, but the events were recalled by Spud in the sequel, T2, made many years later.

I read the book many many years ago and I'd forgotten about that scene. I've not yet seen Trainspotting T2 though.