Films that feature the railways

[yorksrob]

The BBC's classic Ghost Story For Christmas "A Warning To The Curious" has several scenes filmed at "Thruxton" station, which is actually Weybourne on the North Norfolk Railway.

Interestingly the film was made in 1972 yet the NNR didn't actually open to passengers till 1975.

Do watch it if you get chance, it's probably one of the most atmospheric TV programmes ever made.
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Weybourne, of course, also features in several episodes of Hi-Di-Hi.

 

[vlad]

Weybourne, of course, also features in several episodes of Hi-Di-Hi.

...and Dad's Army, at least for the exterior scenes of the episode where the platoon forms a guard of honour for George VI but have to get the stopping train out of the way first....

 

[Arch9enius]

Not sure if it counts or not, but there's a great scene in The French Connection featuring a car chase where Gene Hackman tries to catch an elevated NYC subway train which has the French bloke on it.
One of the better and more unique car chase sequences......

The location control was so bad , at least a couple of the dings were with vehicles that had driven into the scene.
Also Inspired an advert for Network South East.

 

[Arch9enius]

Having checked Wikipedia it seems that Patience is an Anglo-Belgian production, albeit set (but not filmed!) entirely in England with English actors. And after watching last night's episode more closely it is apparent that despite the English signs the locations are not (except for the York City walls) in England.

In all honesty, we're all used to any number of American cities being played by Toronto I guess, the tramlines in the street are usually a dead giveaway. And London was played by Dublin more than a few times in'90s and '00s films and television.

 

[Arch9enius]

Nah, architecture looks L&SWR to me.

Seconded, especially the footbridge.

 

[Arch9enius]

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdrome has the chase in the finale.

Along a similar theme, Spacehunter: Adventure in the Forbidden Zone has a gang of raiders travelling about on a low loader car propelled by? a sail?? that catches the radio waves??? from a radar dish pointed straight at it?????.

Both Snowpiercer and Bullet Train have maybe been mentioned, In which case there's a Japanese disaster movie from when the Shinkansen was still new featuring Disaster on the Coastliner style antics called The Bullet Train. JR forbade the production access to the new railway, so models were used instead; they were so convincing that JR head honchos thought the filmmakers had sneaked in and started ****ing about with trains anyhow..!

Additionally, both Godzilla and King Kong do just that in their debut movies? And Kong in the '70s remake.

And back to Gerry Anderson, a western-themed Joe 90 episode features a suitable train , and an episode of The Secret Service features a Hymek that's supposed to be an armoured gold transport railcar.

Both A Million Ways to Die in the West and A Ticket to Tomahawk featured 3' gauge American trains, the first for one scene. Shanghai Noon had some scenes around the construction of a railroad, and there was a Marx Brothers film based around the promotion of a railroad with an improbable route..? No idea of the title I'm afraid.


Bad Day at Black Rock kicks off when a train stops at the town in question. Someone is ejected from the rear of an Amtrak train in Dogma. Someone likewise falls out of the last carriage of a train in an episode of Grantchester, something I don't think was possible in real life, unless corridor blanking plates or whatever they're called sometimes got left off or weren't available?

After an earlier conversation about interlocking, the less said about the Garfield movie from the '00s where a cat on a control centre keyboard had trains in and out of a station like shuttles on a really complicated loom the better.. Although to be fair, I don't recall any trains actually collided...

Finally, Saturday morning kids' show 8:15 from Manchester had clips from Railway Roundabout or something scattered around with 'comedy' voiceovers in the style of Staggering Stories of Ferdinand de Bargos.. But it's more remembered now for featuring bands from the Manchester scene.

 

[Arch9enius]

Let's not forget the classic "Brief Encounter" (1945) with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard ....featuring Carnforth station and its refreshment room (disguised as Milford Junction).

Brief Encounter got a remake for American TV, Brockenhurst stood in for Winchester.

 

[yorksrob]

Seconded, especially the footbridge.

Indeed. And the platform canopies.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Might as well throw in The Wrong Trousers and the Ant-Man movie, both involving chases on model train sets.

If we're including model trains, then there's the Australian heist comedy "Malcolm" (1986) in which the eponymous protagonist has model railways all over his house which he uses to assist in an assortment of domestic tasks. He also has a pedal-powered tram-cart which he uses to get around Melbourne.

In case it hasn't already been mentioned ( I have been reading the additions to the thread daily but can't remember!! ), at least two episodes of "Last of the Summer Wine" had scenes filmed on the platforms at Huddersfield and another episode included a scene of a view from a hillside of the uniquely liveried 47 475 hauling a Trans-Pennine express towards Liverpool.

In the latter instance, the conversation on the hillside went thus:

"Where do you suppose it's going?"

"London, probably!"

*all three then solemnly remove their hats as you would for a passing hearse*

I don't ever recall seeing those episodes, but if I'm allowed to briefly expand into buses the series had an episode featuring the now preserved "celebrity" Huddersfield Atlantean no.6300 (PUA300W) which wore Huddersfield Corporation livery for most of the Yorkshire Rider era. I suppose it would have been a bit too "meta" to use one of Yorkshire Traction's "Summer Wine" branded MCW Metroriders!

 

[High Dyke]

Beaconsfield. Which it features as itself in an episode of Inspector Morse too.

As did Oxford i believe, where Morse catches a train to Paddington.

Green Wing had a scene filmed at Marylebone.

BBC play set in the Fens, featured shots in an around Shippea Hill station and signal box, but also a single line section (possibly King's Lynn line). Also featured the vintage bus I part own, in flashback sequences.

Edge of Darkness, a thriller. Contains shots of loco's shunting nuclear flask trains.

 

[yorksrob]

As did Oxford i believe, where Morse catch

Green Wing had a scene filmed at Marylebone.

Oxford station appeared in Morse many times.

Miranda also had a scene in Marylebone (such fun !).

 

[DaleCooper]

The Numbers Station (John Cusack, Malin Akerman, Liam Cunningham) features scenes filmed at Chappel & Wakes Colne station.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1659338/

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The Numbers Station (John Cusack, Malin Akerman, Liam Cunningham) features scenes filmed at Chappel & Wakes Colne station.

Believe Chappel & Wakes Colne station has also briefly featured in one or possibly more episodes of the 'Lovejoy' (TV) series, certainly the 1994 episode "Somewhere over the Rainbow" (masquerading as 'Bigbury on Sea' station). Fairly sure Stansted Mountfichet station has also featured in different episodes.

 

[341o2]

There is an episode of the Avengers featuring the Stapleford Miniature Railway, Gravediggers, where Emma Peel is tied to the rails by its deranged owner, who tries to run her over.

The finale of The Clouded Yellow, a 1951 mystery film, takes palce at Liverpool Docks, featuring one of the Harbour Board's locomotives. There are also scenes of the Overhead Railway, a Cumberlamd Motor Services bus and a Newcastle trolleybus.

Speedy, a Harold Lloyd silent film, has a sequence where "Speedy" Swift takes his girl, Jane Dillon to Coney Island by train. Speedy is a baseball fanatic, hence his nickname, Jane's father Pop Dillon, runs New York's last horsedrawn tram, and a developer wants to buy Pop out. Pop Dillon refuses to sell, and it is discovered that the tram must run at least every 24 hours, or Pop will loose his licence. So the tram is stolen, Speedy discovers its whereabouts, and drives it with all speed back to the line.

The comedy series Do Not Adjust Your Set, featured an early apperance of David Jason in a spy spoof, Captain Fantastic. His arch enemy was the evil Mrs Black and her blit men. One episode was shot at a railway station.

 

[Gloster]

The comedy series Do Not Adjust Your Set, featured an early apperance of David Jason in a spy spoof, Captain Fantastic. His arch enemy was the evil Mrs Black and her blit men. One episode was shot at a railwy station.

The station was Forest Row on the Three Bridges-Tunbridge Wells West line. You see a fair bit of the roofs as David Jason and Denise Coffey climb about on them: no stuntmen or stuntwomen.

 

[yorksrob]

The station was Forest Row on the Three Bridges-Tunbridge Wells West line. You see a fair bit of the roofs as David Jason and Denise Coffey climb about on them: no stuntmen or stuntwomen.

Sadly, Forest Row station is no more - part of the wanton destruction of Sussex's railway network under the disastrous closure programme.

 

[Gloster]

Sadly, Forest Row station is no more - part of the wanton destruction of Sussex's railway network under the disastrous closure programme.

Well, yes, it was obvious that it was filmed at a disused station. Forest Row closed at the beginning of 1967 and the programme was filmed in the spring, so was reasonably intact.

 

[yorksrob]

Well, yes, it was obvious that it was filmed at a disused station. Forest Row closed at the beginning of 1967 and the programme was filmed in the spring, so was reasonably intact.

I've never seen the programme, but I have seen a picture of David Jason there on disusedstations.com

On the same website there's a picture of Derek Guyler (Please Sir) at Hellingly station filming something.

 

[Gloster]

On the same website there's a picture of Derek Guyler (Please Sir) at Hellingly station filming something.

Smokescreen, starring that much-underestimated actor Peter Vaughan, from 1964. Regarded as one of the best post-war British B-features, although that is not against particularly tough opposition. However, it is regarded as a neat little film.

 

[John Luxton]

The Numbers Station (John Cusack, Malin Akerman, Liam Cunningham) features scenes filmed at Chappel & Wakes Colne station.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1659338/

Mentioning Liam Cunningham - he plays a train driver in the film Wind that Shakes the Barley set in County Cork during the War of Independence and Irish Civil War.

Railway scenes at Killarney Station. https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/the-wind-that-shakes-the-barley/

Remaining in Ireland RPSI SLIEVE GULLION appears in Michael Collins as do various railway scenes - details on this link here: https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/michael-collins/

 

[yorksrob]

Smokescreen, starring that much-underestimated actor Peter Vaughan, from 1964. Regarded as one of the best post-war British B-features, although that is not against particularly tough opposition. However, it is regarded as a neat little film.

Ah yes, The genial Harry Grout !

 

[Gloster]

Ah yes, The genial Harry Grout !

The curious thing about this is that he only appeared in three out of twenty-one episodes and the film, yet he is one of the best remembered characters. I think (*) that it was because he was always talked about as some great fear by the inmates. Porridge only makes two out of two-hundred and thirty-one credits he has in IMDb.

* - ‘I think‘ because I wasn’t allowed to watch Porridge: my mother thought it disgusting that common criminals were portrayed as human beings. However, she was less worried about some of the fraudsters and embezzlers that lived in our village. (‘It really was an unfortunate misjudgement to borrow all that money from his employers’.)

 

[yorksrob]

The curious thing about this is that he only appeared in three out of twenty-one episodes and the film, yet he is one of the best remembered characters. I think (*) that it was because he was always talked about as some great fear by the inmates. Porridge only makes two out of two-hundred and thirty-one credits he has in IMDb.

Yes, that surprises me he was in so few episodes. Certainly a sign of a good character and actor that his performance is so well remembered.

He was also great as the glowering father figure in Citizen Smith.

 

[341o2]

The station was Forest Row on the Three Bridges-Tunbridge Wells West line. You see a fair bit of the roofs as David Jason and Denise Coffey climb about on them: no stuntmen or stuntwomen.

link to episode (S1 ep 5)

 

[IanD]

Peter Sellers film The Wrong Arm of the Law has scenes filmed around Cowley level crossing on the old Uxbridge Vine Street branch

 

[Gloster]

Peter Sellers film The Wrong Arm of the Law has scenes filmed around Cowley level crossing on the old Uxbridge Vine Street branch

There are plenty of shots of around Cowley and Cowley Mill Road, but all the level-crossing shots appear to have been done at Fairfax Crossing on Bushy Park Road between Kingston and Teddington. It is certainly an LSWR type 4 box.

 

[341o2]

The Polar Express.

Also James Bond,the first Roger Moore film Live and Let Die, ends with Bond and Solitaire boardung a train from New Orleans to New York.
Their peaceful reverie is interrupted by Tee Hee, and the film ends with Baron Samedi riding on the frount of the train.

 

[D6130]

Mentioning Liam Cunningham - he plays a train driver in the film Wind that Shakes the Barley set in County Cork during the War of Independence and Irish Civil War.

Railway scenes at Killarney Station. https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/the-wind-that-shakes-the-barley/

Remaining in Ireland RPSI SLIEVE GULLION appears in Michael Collins as do various railway scenes - details on this link here: https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/michael-collins/

The first two run-pasts involving 461 in the Michael Collins film were shot on the coastal stretch between Greystones and Wicklow, with the Great and Little Sugar Loaf Mountains prominent in the background.

 

[John Luxton]

Watching the first episode of ITV secret service series "Betrayal" last night with Shaun Evans and Zahara Ahmadi. Evans travels to "Stockport" to meet a contact but the station appears to be Liverpool Edge Hill with it's distinctive sandstone approach ramps.

Quite a bit of this series seems to have been shot around Merseyside.

However some of it must have been shot in Stockport as the viaduct appears later.

Presumably Edge Hill was used as it is a much quieter station.

 

[DaleCooper]

One of the most ridiculous films I've ever seen is Snowpiercer which is set on a train which continually travels around the world on a circumglobal track. The passengers are the last remaining humans after climate engineering turned the whole Earth into an snow covered wilderness. All I could think was "where do they get fuel?" and "who maintains the track?"