MODEL Railways in Film and Television

[Canal Digger]

I watched a few minutes of Streamline Express (found on Talking Pictures), a 1935 film featuring a single car, (very) wide-bodied, 2 deck, Zepher like, monorail express, that is supposed to go from New York to California in 20 hours, non stop, at a speed of 160 mph!     

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fobscuretrainmovies.wordpress.com%2Fpage%2F6%2F&psig=AOvVaw2eZTJkNex3wWwIUd37vjNW&ust=1606767973883000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKCBt63LqO0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

[KeithMacdonald]

Minder on the Orient Express

 

 

 

[Steamport Southport]

Anyone notice Paul Merton's large scale narrow gauge locomotive in HIGNFY earlier?

 

Sitting on a table in his gazebo. Out of focus but I think it's alright posting this.

 

 

On iPlayer.

[Andy Kirkham]

Coming up on Talking Pictures: Wednesday Jan 6, 21:05, Only When I Larf.

 

A 1968 edition of Railway Modeller had an article about how a scene of this was filmed on the Gainsborough Model Railway Club's O-Gauge layout. The plot required that a head-on collision between model trains be contrived.

 

Having never seen the film, I can't guarantee that the model railway scene actually made it it to the final cut, but Radio Times suggests that it might worth watching anyway.

 

A rare showing for this jolly caper, based on a novel by Len Deighton about three swindlers (Richard Attenborough, David Hemmings, Alexandra Stewart) who begin plotting against each other. The succession of scams, disguises and surprises is very witty and builds to a quadruple cross. The production design brims with Swinging Sixties style, and Attenborough gives one of his most uninhibited comic performances.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Andy Kirkham

[RJS1977]

If I remember the article correctly, it wasn't Gainsborough MRC's O gauge layout (which fills most of a former school and represents the East coast Main Line from King's Cross to Leeds), but a layout built by the club specially for the purposes of the film, as it was intended to be a character's own layout.

 

[Phil Parker]

On 25/12/2020 at 01:03, Steamport Southport said:

Anyone notice Paul Merton's large scale narrow gauge locomotive in HIGNFY earlier?

 

Sitting on a table in his gazebo. Out of focus but I think it's alright posting this.

 

He's a regular at the 16mm AGM and often at Ally Pally show.

[Phil Parker]

Has anyone nominated Paddington 2?

 

It's a terrific film and I really didn't care about the finale involving a circus train leaving Paddington station and being chased by Tornado. There are moves to give the S&T boys nightmares.

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

Has anyone nominated Paddington 2?

 

It's a terrific film and I really didn't care about the finale involving a circus train leaving Paddington station and being chased by Tornado. There are moves to give the S&T boys nightmares.

Great film but not a model as I recall.

[Phil Parker]

30 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Great film but not a model as I recall.

 

Sorry, wrong thread. HOWEVER, there was a 3.5 inch gauge live steam loco built (apparently) by the younger Brown in it, so not totally out of place...

[melmerby]

8 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

Has anyone nominated Paddington 2?

 

It's a terrific film and I really didn't care about the finale involving a circus train leaving Paddington station and being chased by Tornado. There are moves to give the S&T boys nightmares.

 

Tornado however was at Paddington with a Belmond train.

Edited January 3, 2021 by melmerby

[RJS1977]

When watching the film over Christmas, it was very easy to forget that there were visual effects involved - indeed about the only time I consciously thought "That must be CGI" was when the GWS coal stage appeared in unfamiliar surroundings!

 

Watching the above video, in some ways it's disappointing to see just how much was CGI - for example I'd assumed that the narrow boats were real. And I'm sure that even in relatively recent times, the train stunts would have been done for real, rather than green screen. However it's remarkable to see how several stretches of railway line were in fact roads! (Were they roads that had been built on old trackbeds, I wonder?)

 

One thing I did think was a nice touch was the scenes in the pop-up book which harked back to the Michael Hordern TV series of the 1980s (albeit that only the last couple of entries in the series had coloured scenery).

[St Enodoc]

13 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

it's disappointing to see just how much was CGI

I suspect, although I can't be sure, that Paddington himself was CGI. Possibly Mr Brown too...

[RJS1977]

Yes, I took it for granted that Paddington (the bear, not the station!) was CGI, however I'd assumed more of the settings were real than would appear to be the case.

[melmerby]

I watched the Kenneth Branagh version of Murder on the Orient Expressover Christmas.

I'm pretty sure some of the train scenes were due to modelmakers, some were, I think, aerial footage of real trains. Pity the number of coaches seemed to change from shot to shot.

 

Wasn't over struck on the production, IMHO previous versions have been better.

[RJS1977]

I would imagine that the derailment at least was done with a model/CGI.

 

Of the three versions I've seen, I think the Albert Finney version told the story best, however both the latest version and the Finney version were more spectacular than the Suchet version. Of the different actors to play Poirot, though, I think Suchet was the closest to Agatha Christie's original, although I think Kenneth Allbran's moustache better fitted Agatha's description of "The finest moustache in all of England" than Suchet's.

[Ben B]

5 hours ago, melmerby said:

I watched the Kenneth Branagh version of Murder on the Orient Expressover Christmas.

I'm pretty sure some of the train scenes were due to modelmakers, some were, I think, aerial footage of real trains. Pity the number of coaches seemed to change from shot to shot.

 

Wasn't over struck on the production, IMHO previous versions have been better.

 

I suppose the train in that version is sort of model-making; the loco is a replica (I think it was powered by a diesel generator), and the carriages were built to a slightly larger loading gauge for ease of filming inside them.  They're up in the Lake District now, on the old Keswick-Cockermouth line, I believe to become a restaurant.  I think there was a little piece about it in one of the mags last summer.

[Andy Kirkham]

On 02/01/2021 at 09:55, Andy Kirkham said:

Coming up on Talking Pictures: Wednesday Jan 6, 21:05, Only When I Larf.

 

A 1968 edition of Railway Modeller had an article about how a scene of this was filmed on the Gainsborough Model Railway Club's O-Gauge layout. The plot required that a head-on collision between model trains be contrived.

 

Having never seen the film, I can't guarantee that the model railway scene actually made it it to the final cut, but Radio Times suggests that it might worth watching anyway.

 

A rare showing for this jolly caper, based on a novel by Len Deighton about three swindlers (Richard Attenborough, David Hemmings, Alexandra Stewart) who begin plotting against each other. The succession of scams, disguises and surprises is very witty and builds to a quadruple cross. The production design brims with Swinging Sixties style, and Attenborough gives one of his most uninhibited comic performances.

 

 

I wouldn't bother with this. The model train only appears for a second and the crash was left out.

[5050]

I've a feeling that some of the shots in Kenneth Moore's 'North West Frontier' might have been models.  Especially the one on the viaduct where the train is passing over a length of track suspended in mid-air after an explosion.

[Tim V]

20 hours ago, Andy Kirkham said:

 

I wouldn't bother with this. The model train only appears for a second and the crash was left out.

I waited 53 years to watch this (I bought that RM), no "come up and see my model railway" at all ...

Edited January 8, 2021 by Tim V
" swapped for 2

[Steamport Southport]

8 hours ago, 5050 said:

I've a feeling that some of the shots in Kenneth Moore's 'North West Frontier' might have been models.  Especially the one on the viaduct where the train is passing over a length of track suspended in mid-air after an explosion.

 

Long time since I've watched it. But the Wiki article does mentions models.

 

Apparently mostly filmed in Spain, with parts filmed in India and Pinewood.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_West_Frontier_(film)

 

Besides models and studio effects, the damaged bridge was filmed at the Anchurón bridge. It was reformed in the 1970s

 

 

IMDB is always a good source for film information. Unfortunately not much on North West Frontier.

 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053126/

[5050]

I saw North West Frontier in the cinema as a young lad and really enjoyed it.  I always try to watch it if it comes on the telly.  It was on sometime last year.

 

Regarding the layout on Father Brown, does anyone know anything about it?  It seemed to be a model of the Glos & Wrks Rlwy station used in the series where the character who allegedly built the layout worked.  The series is set around 1953/4 I believe and tha layout was said to have been started 30 years previous.  The builder must have been well ahead of his time, using Streamline track, Airfix buildings etc.

[Ben B]

Couple of interesting ones within a couple of days, both of vintage train sets in traditional toy shops.

 

The first one was 'The Avengers' episode "Something Nasty in the Nursery" on ITV4 last week, with an exclusive toy shop for children of the Upper Classes, run by Clive Dunn of 'Dads Army' fame.  Steed drops in to the shop investigating some suspect shenanigans involving dodgy Nannies, hypnotism, yellow and blue beach balls that may be weaponised, and victims among the gentry (yep, typical 60's Avengers madness!)  The set is a typical trains-whizzing-round-a-board, it appears to be a Hornby Dublo layout with the Deltic in two-tone green with yellow ends, and an R1 tank on a goods train- Steed plays with the controls for the Deltic for a bit when he comes into the shop.

 

The second one was a film last night on the Beeb, "The White Crow" about a defecting Russian ballet dancer in the 60's.  I wasn't properly paying attention, my wife was watching it whilst I was editing some pics, but there was a bit where he goes into a Parisian toy shop with his girlfriend to buy a train set to take home as a present (he liked trains, as he'd been born on one back in the Soviet Union).  He was getting angry over some apparently genuinely vintage H0 French stuff whizzing round the board through a plastic tunnel, demanding angrily if they had any 'proper' trains like the Trans-Siberian Express.  It ends up with him and his room-mate back at the hotel, playing with a rather nice H0 Orient Express set with a steam loco.  I'm not an expert on French model railways, but the model trains did look suitably vintage.

[RJS1977]

2 hours ago, Ben B said:

Couple of interesting ones within a couple of days, both of vintage train sets in traditional toy shops.

 

The first one was 'The Avengers' episode "Something Nasty in the Nursery" on ITV4 last week, with an exclusive toy shop for children of the Upper Classes, run by Clive Dunn of 'Dads Army' fame.  Steed drops in to the shop investigating some suspect shenanigans involving dodgy Nannies, hypnotism, yellow and blue beach balls that may be weaponised, and victims among the gentry (yep, typical 60's Avengers madness!)  The set is a typical trains-whizzing-round-a-board, it appears to be a Hornby Dublo layout with the Deltic in two-tone green with yellow ends, and an R1 tank on a goods train- Steed plays with the controls for the Deltic for a bit when he comes into the shop.

 

 

There's another Avengers episode where Steed uses a clockwork model of "Percy" to deliver a card with the message: "Mrs Peel, we're needed."

[Steamport Southport]

There's also an episode where one of the characters is an eccentric railway enthusiast with a miniature railway.

 

The Gravediggers. Also has one of the most iconic scenes.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-54118244

[jacko]

Bending the rules slightly to add model railways on the radio, there was an interesting conversation on Radio 4's 'The Listening Project' yesterday afternoon between a 57 year old modeller and a 47 year old owner of a model shop.  Quite interesting to hear that there's been a shortage of track and accessories caused by modellers panic buying, much like the toilet roll crisis of last year. The modeller hadn't even been able to get a couple of packs of fishplates from his local shop!