This British-German silent crime film, an early Gainsborough production, was one of the last ever made as a silent. It later had a soundtrack added and includes a very spectacular train crash. The elaborate crash scene was filmed at Salter’s Ash crossing, near Herriard, on the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway. A set of six SECR coaches and SECR F1 Class 4-4-0 No.148 were bought from the Southern Railway by Gainsborough Pictures who painted the loco grey with ‘United Coast Lines’ lettering on the tender. After a number of rehearsals, the train was set off under its own steam by its crew who then jumped clear as it slowly accelerated down the incline to collide into a Foden steam lorry. The impact, which destroyed the locomotive and the lorry, was recorded by 22 cameras and has been described as ‘the most spectacular rail crash in cinema history’. Dynamite carried aboard the lorry created a good explosion, whilst the track beyond the crossing was undermined to help aid the derailment. The end result was indeed spectacular, with all but the last pair of wheels on the rear coach leaving the rails. The train was of course empty but was then ‘filled’ with passengers who can be seen alighting from the wreckage in the ensuing aftermath. After filming was completed the wreckage was cut up on site by contractors, although one coach underframe remained in the bushes until the 1950s, long after the closure of the line for the second time in 1932. Even to this day with all trace of the track bed having disappeared, when the land is turned during cultivation the occasional piece of wreckage is unearthed.
