The Train 1964 film

[shanks522]

Hello, My father and myself are planning a trip to france later in the year to find filming locations of the film The Train. I have done a fair amount of research already but i'm struggling on some area's, namely the last part of the film where the loco is derailed, there is a river next to the railway then a small embankment with a road then a very steep slope of a height i'm unsure of. Any help on finding this area would be very much appreciated.

 

Graham.

[Gordonwis]

Hello, My father and myself are planning a trip to france later in the year to find filming locations of the film The Train. I have done a fair amount of research already but i'm struggling on some area's, namely the last part of the film where the loco is derailed, there is a river next to the railway then a small embankment with a road then a very steep slope of a height i'm unsure of. Any help on finding this area would be very much appreciated.

 

Graham.

 

 

Try reading this:

 

Acquigny alias Rive Reine

 

 

 

Gordon

(Technical Adviser, SNCF Society

 

 

 

 

.

[Gene]

Gordon...great info on that link...The Train is one of my favorite movies so a big thank you.

Cheers

Gene

[shanks522]

Thanks for the link Gordon, very informative.

 

Graham.

[Michael Delamar]

Thanks for the link Gordon, very informative.

 

Graham.

 

one of my favourite railway films, look forward to seeing what you discover.

 

I thought you guys would like to see this film, shot in colour, its the behind the scenes filming of the movie.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2pEvr32C7g

 

Mike

[shanks522]

Thanks for uploading the video Mike. seems almost strange seeing the locos in colour, much better in black and white.

 

Graham.

[Pacific231G]

Hello, My father and myself are planning a trip to france later in the year to find filming locations of the film The Train. I have done a fair amount of research already but i'm struggling on some area's, namely the last part of the film where the loco is derailed, there is a river next to the railway then a small embankment with a road then a very steep slope of a height i'm unsure of. Any help on finding this area would be very much appreciated.

 

Graham.

 

 

Hi Graham

I can add some information to the SNCF Society Journal article that Gordon referred to because it was I who wrote it!!

 

If you have Google Earth just enter Acquigny and it will take you there.

The girder bridge is 2km south of Acquigny station at Lat 49.156023 Lon 1.189877 and you can either reach it from the north via the access road to "Le Lac" which is the old trackbed or from the south from the D836 Louviers-Pacy road where the track that runs alongside it for a couple of kilometres is also the old trackbed. About 1km south of the girder bridge at a point where the trackbed and the road are running parallel there is a footbridge and that's where Labiche (Burt Lancaster) was shot while running from the loco after setting it to crash- he'd actually injured his knee playing golf so they added that scene to explain his limp.

1.3 km south of the footbridge the road to Heudreville comes off the D836 and in that corner is a disused station now a private house complete with good shed. That was the station from which the second loco was sent off after the art train to crash into its rear at Acquigny. The final scene where the art train has been derailed was shot somewhere along that stretch of line near Heudreville also. Since the film was made in 1964 the slopes above the road and railway have become very heavily wooded so things look quite a lot different.

The line through Acquigny goes up to Louviers and in the film that was Commercy that the Germans had been fooled into thinking was St. Avold where they stopped to phone in a report.

At the time when they made the movie Heudreville and Louviers were still in use as goods station with the line between them through Acquigny closed.

 

 

The other location that's a bit hard to locate but worth finding is the rather striking double viaduct and tunnel where the light engine was shot up by a spitfire. On Google Earth this is at lat 49.333997 long 0.973446 and it's in a forest about 1km SSE of Moulineax, just south of the A13 Autoroute which runs over the top of the tunnel. There are good forest roads that will get you there but it's fairly thick forest. Last time I was there in 2008 the line to Elbeuf that crosses one of the two viaducts was in use for occasional freight to a chermical works so beware- it may not be quite as derelict as it appears.

 

Sadly the paper trains that I mentioned in my article were replaced by trucks about eighteen months ago - just after the article was published- after RFF demanded some vast sum from Georgia Pacific to maintain the roughly 6 kms of the line that they were using but so far as I know the track is still in place. If you're going down there the preserved CFVE at Pacy which is further down the same line is worth visiting . They've got the line as far as the next station down from Heudreville though they're not using it yet so in fact only about five miles of the line has actually been dismantled.

 

BTW The restaurant next to the level crossing at the north end of Acquigny station where they staged the crash was very good when I was there two years ago but I woudn't reccomend the nearest hotel to Acquigny at Cailly-sur-Eure.

 

Do PM me if you want any more information about the locations.

 

I've marked the main sites on this map and the railway lines in yellow but Google Earth will get you closer in.

 

David

[shanks522]

David, thank you very much for the information you have provided, absolutely perfect.

 

Graham.

[Michael Delamar]

how they got that close shot of one of the derailments..

 

[Mallard60022]

Brilliant film. Thanks for the reminder. I went to a John Huntly (RIP) presentation in Fairfield Halls many years ago and they showed this as the 'second half' of the show. They also showed some of these technical shots and mentioned the huge insurance premium required just for the cover for this derailment and following crash as it was close to dwellings.

One of my favourite bits in the film is the aerial view section of the train passing through a yard during an air raid shown at the end of that colour clip; superb stuff.

What a great idea for a trip Graham. I await your follow up report and pics.

P

[trisonic]

'Twas 3 years ago....................

Maybe they are still out there, somewhere....

 

Best, Pete.

[shanks522]

Not yet, family illness slowed things a little although still planning to go there, possibly this Autumn/Winter, Time just seems to go to quick. 

 

Graham.

[Mallard60022]

Sorry, I never even noticed the original date - doh. Good job you are awake Tri.

Anyway Graham. Good luck and bon voyage.

P

[sn]

Great postings! I've always been fascinated by the locations in this film and I thank you all for the info in this thread

 

Looking at Google earth I see that there is a junction just south of Acquigny station. a line running off in an initial SW direction . Is it still in situ and where did it end up at?

 

Also, it is a tad hard to trace on Google Earth, so I ask, is/was, the line where the Spitfire scene was filmed, connected with the Acquigny Heudriveille section?

[Pacific231G]

Great postings! I've always been fascinated by the locations in this film and I thank you all for the info in this thread Looking at Google earth I see that there is a junction just south of Acquigny station. a line running off in an initial SW direction . Is it still in situ and where did it end up at? Also, it is a tad hard to trace on Google Earth, so I ask, is/was, the line where the Spitfire scene was filmed, connected with the Acquigny Heudriveille section?

Hi SN.

I assume you've read my article on this for the SNCF Society Journal   http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/peclegg/sncf/articles/article_2008_07.html

Sadly the "rather good restaurant" near Acquigny station had closed the last time I passed that way in November 2012

There was a junction south of Acquigny for the line to Evreux. The "main lline" was lifted from the junction through Heudreville as far as La Croix-St.-Leufroy. from there through Pacy to Breuilpont  the line is more or less intact and now belongs to the CFVE preservation based at Pacy gare (and worth a visit) though they don't yet use all of it.  The Evreux line remains intact as far as the Georgia Pacific paper mill near Hondouville who used it until a few years ago to transport paper products at one time onto the network but latterly just to their shipping depot at the north end of Acguigny. The line from there south west  to the outskirts of Evreux was clearly lifted some time ago.

At the time the movie was made, the section of line between Louviers and Heudreville which ran through Acquigny had been completely closed for several years but intact and Louviers and Heudreville were then the termini of freight only branches. I assume that the track from the junction through Heudreville (now a private house with a very large garden shed - the old goods shed! ) was lifted at about the time that Georgia Pacific started using the line from their paper mill to Louviers which was reopened for this traffic.

 

The scene with the Spitfire was filmed on a different section of the line closer to Rouen. The tunnel now runs under the main Autoroute and the distinctive diverging viaducts are immediately south of the tunnel and very visible on Google Earth (49 20'06"N 0 58'28"E)  Today only the left hand viaduct still has track and is fairly easy to reach from one of the forest roads that runs nearby . This line now goes from Sotteville and swings south through Grande Couronne then through the tunnel and over the viaduct then on to Elbeuf-Ville on the left bank of the Seine finally ending at a chemical works at La HayeMalherbe-Montaure. This line may well still be in use. Beyond the chemical works the line is lifted but it used to go on to Louviers so the filming locations south of Rouen were connected by rail- albeit some disused-  when the film was made.  Since the film was made a lot of trees have been planted which makes it slightly difficult to trace the lines on Google Earth but almost all of the lifted section between the junction south of Acquigny and Le Croix is in use as a footpath or farm track so very easy to follow on the ground.

I hope all that is useful and it's quite good fun to hunt down movie locations like these.

[sn]

Hi Pacific, no I had not read that article but have now - very useful! Thank you so much for all this info. Great stuff!

 

Can I ask, and I don't doubt it , why you say Heudriville was the station in which the 2nd loco was sent off to crash into the rear? I ask because yesterday spending some time on street view on Google Earth I found another station on this line (the name of which I am unclear about) t I personally felt resembled the location for this shot exactly. Just to be clear I am talking of the shot, where a man has his hand on the point lever as the freight train runs past, and then changes it and then the loco in the year runs out onto the main line behind the just passed train.This location is 49 06 23 20 N 1 14 30 13 E Le Croix?

 

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

 

[Pacific231G]

Hi Pacific, no I had not read that article but have now - very useful! Thank you so much for all this info. Great stuff! Can I ask, and I don't doubt it , why you say Heudriville was the station in which the 2nd loco was sent off to crash into the rear? I ask because yesterday spending some time on street view on Google Earth I found another station on this line (the name of which I am unclear about) t I personally felt resembled the location for this shot exactly. Just to be clear I am talking of the shot, where a man has his hand on the point lever as the freight train runs past, and then changes it and then the loco in the year runs out onto the main line behind the just passed train.This location is 49 06 23 20 N 1 14 30 13 E Le Croix? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

 

It's not impossible but there are local references to scenes from the movie being filmed at Heudreville and the north end of the station yard of La-Croix St. Elfroy is on a slight embankment. Why I think it was Heudreville is that north of the station is the section where the line runs between the road and the river. The appearance of this area has been changed enormously by the growth of trees but the footbridge where La Biche was shot in the leg (Burt Lancaster had injured his leg playing golf during filming in the area and they needed to explain his limp)  is clearly identifiable as is the girder bridge a little south of Acquigny over which we see the train without its loco trundling. That entire section is a footpath so if you visit the area you can walk or cycle the whole route. Frankenheimer seems to have had pretty free reign with the 3.7 kilometre closed section of line between Heudreville and Acquigny so could move trains and light engines up and down that section very freely. If another nearby location suited a particular shot better he might have used it though for La Croix he'd have had the logistics of moving the train, two locos and the film crew to a separate location 5 km away. That is possible as though  Heudreville was the northern terminus of the still open line from Pacy I doubt it saw much traffic and in the scene you refer to nothing is damaged.

 

Louviers was the southern terminus of another such stub branch and the station there was used for the night scene at  "St.Avold" where the train commander Schmidt phones in a report to Colonel von Waldheim. The final derailment was apparently close to Heudreville so presumably on the closed section just north of there. It's interesting to note that when LaBiche is trying to dismantle the track in various places  it changes from Vignoles to bullhead rail but that is accurate. I've not been able to identify exactly where the scenes were shot where La Biche is scrambling over a bluff to get ahead of the train below but the growth of trees and new houses has changed things enormously since the film was made. 

[sn]

Interesting reply. You make a good case. I'll post a pic tomorrow of La Croix from Google Earth Streetview when I have more time to see what you think.

 

Re the exact location of where he scrambles above the line. I think I have identified it due to a very distinctive shape in the river bank below. Again I'll post a pic when I have more time.

 

I'd love to read of the memories of anyone who had worked on this film. I wonder if any exist anywhere? Hmmnn.

 

Again, thanks for the further info.

[Pacific231G]

Interesting reply. You make a good case. I'll post a pic tomorrow of La Croix from Google Earth Streetview when I have more time to see what you think. Re the exact location of where he scrambles above the line. I think I have identified it due to a very distinctive shape in the river bank below. Again I'll post a pic when I have more time. I'd love to read of the memories of anyone who had worked on this film. I wonder if any exist anywhere? Hmmnn. Again, thanks for the further info.

 

I've looked at that and have visited the site a few times. It does look the part in this view

 

Unfortunately though it is oriented the wrong way for the rest of the filming as we're looking north. For the locos to leave La Croix chimney first with the goods shed on the left they'd both have to be turned before the next shot where the train loco is uncoupled and that's definitely between Heudreville and Acquigny. I've also just realised that, unless I'm very much mistaken, in every train sequence shot in that area south of Rouen, even the one where Papa Boule first brings the train into "Rive-Reine" i.e. Acquigny supposedly in the opposite direction, the locos are always facing chimney north towards Rouen. 

However I'm also thinking that Heudreville doesn't quite look right but there are a couple of other stations between there and Pacy.

I need to look a the film again.

[Pacific231G]

I've had another look at the movie and compared this scene with some 1964 aerial scans from IGN. The position of the "goods shed" is completely wrong for La Croix as there it's far too far from the points and far too close to the station. Although a couple of the angles look slightly wrong, Heudreville does seem the strongest candidate. Though the Heudreville goods shed is in the wrong place for the shot there was another building with a loading platform north of the level crossing- the other side from the station building. Though this looks rather like a goods shed it is actually rather smaller and I think some kind of store possibly on a short private siding that I'ver seen elesewhere in France. At small stations in France the public goods shed was normally fairly close to the station building even if on the opposite side of the line as it was part of the Chef du Gare's responsibility and wouldn't normally have had a separate goods clerk. 

 

I was wrong about every loco in the scenes shot at Acquigny being chimney towards Rouen-Sotteville. Frankenheimer did have them  all oriented correctly for the story  so Papa Boule does bring the train  with the locos's oil lines blocked in from the north west and the train does depart towards Germany to the south east. I assume there was still a turntable available at Louviers- the next station north of Acguigny so the loco could be turned.  However, the loco being attacked by a Spitfire was heading away from Acquigny and towards Sotteville from the viaduct to the tunnel. When La Biche finally sabotages the train it is actually heading towards Acquigny from the south-east and the scene with the trucks and the hostages being shot was actually filmed fairly close to the scene where we see La Biche being shot in the leg as he runs over a footbridge (which is still in place)

[shanks522]

Hi Pacific, no I had not read that article but have now - very useful! Thank you so much for all this info. Great stuff! Can I ask, and I don't doubt it , why you say Heudriville was the station in which the 2nd loco was sent off to crash into the rear? I ask because yesterday spending some time on street view on Google Earth I found another station on this line (the name of which I am unclear about) t I personally felt resembled the location for this shot exactly. Just to be clear I am talking of the shot, where a man has his hand on the point lever as the freight train runs past, and then changes it and then the loco in the year runs out onto the main line behind the just passed train.This location is 49 06 23 20 N 1 14 30 13 E Le Croix? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

 

Hello sn,

 

 Your question got me interested and whilst watching the film today i'm reasonably sure this is Heudreville  filmed from different directions.

 

 

 

Please excuse the poor photo's, I spent a while comparing the buildings and i'm pretty confident they are the same.

 

Also looking on Google maps from the ariel shot the goods shed/building is still there behind the trees.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Graham.

[Pacific231G]

Hello sn,

 

 Your question got me interested and whilst watching the film today i'm reasonably sure this is Heudreville  filmed from different directions.

 

The train pic 1.jpg

 

The train pic 2.jpg

 

Please excuse the poor photo's, I spent a while comparing the buildings and i'm pretty confident they are the same.

 

Also looking on Google maps from the ariel shot the goods shed/building is still there behind the trees.

 

The train pic 3.png

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Graham.

Hi Graham

Well done. You've definitely cleared up any remaining mystery. The shape of the land behind the station building is the same in your first still as in the Google street view and the curve of the tracks in the movie stills totally fit the 1964  IGN aerial survey photo.

Unfortunately my own photos of Heudreville and its shed are awaiting recovery from a recently deceased PC  but the building clearly is the goods shed and a bit smaller than I remember. This is the best view of it I could get from Streetview but you can see it more clearly from the footpath.

 

The light engine in your first still is pointing away from Rouen so they filmed this shot with the train running in the opposite direction from the rest of that sequence leading up to the crash- the uncoupling, Burt Lancaster getitng shot, the locoless train crossing the girder bridge, and the crash at Rive-Reine itself- as well as the final sabotage sequence. Presumably- since it doesn't involve Burt Lancaster or any other main actors- they filmed this shot earlier at around the same time as the shot where Papa Boule (Michel Simon) arrives in Rive-Reine and then turned all the locos probably at Louviers but possibly at Sotteville. Next time I watch my DVD of the movie I must check the loco numbers against each shot.

 

Although the station building and goods shed are now on private land, where the cheminot is walking away from the point lever is on the line of a public footpath so I must have stood in the same place but at that point the actual trackbed is covered by bushes. The approach to Heudreville from the Rouen direction in your second still with Sgt. Shwartz is also accessible and AFAIK is open as a path for about three kilometres including the girder bridge, which you can walk across,  to the outskirts of Acquigny. This is the best image I could get from Streetview of the metal footbridge where La Biche gets shot in the leg and you can see that the trackbed of the railway is an access road wide enough for a car and there are a couple of places where you can get to it from the main road (where I really wouldn't advise stopping) 

 

[Re6/6]

Thoroughly enjoyed the film again today. A forgotten masterpiece.

 

Worth resurrecting this thread for the interesting stuff!

[shanks522]

Thoroughly enjoyed the film again today. A forgotten masterpiece.

 

Worth resurrecting this thread for the interesting stuff!

Definitely a masterpiece! And I still haven't visited France yet!

 

Graham

[Pacific231G]

Definitely a masterpiece! And I still haven't visited France yet!

 

Graham

If you enjoyed The Train you should also enjoy La Bataille du Rail which was a film celebrating Resistance Fer made at the end of the war and released in 1945. It presents a rather idealised picture of wartime resistance by railwaymen. This starts with acts of minor sabotage leading to reprisals but culminates in the disruption to German movements after D-Day eventually focussing on an operation to slow down and eventually stop one of a series of trains taking a German armoured unit to the front.  The film was originally conceived as a re-enacted documentary but developed a plot and story.  It include quite a few of the actions developed further by Frankenheimer for The Train, including the deliberate wrecking of wagons at a small country station to block the line. It also provides a very good picture of the operation of French railways at a time when the age of steam was still unchallenged (though there are some fascinating scenes involving early electric locos) including use of the timetable graph as an operational document.

 

The whole film is avaiable here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdE8nRUwLU8 and though there are no subtitles in this version most of the dialogue is fairly self-explanatory.