The Great Train Robbery BBC1 Series.

[Baby Deltic]

Is/did anyone watch this tonight? I wasn't very impressed and lost interest after the robbery scene. Compared with the film Buster. I don't think it captured the awful enormity of the event. The sound was over-dubbed with GM engine sounds and American style horns, the train was running wrong line in the robbery scene. I think they used a class 37 renumbered as D326. At least they used a 40 in buster without the overdubbed sound. Maybe the Police hunt parts with old 'Tommy' will be worth watching.

[Michael Delamar]

1967 film Robbery is the best IMO.

[shanks522]

Not overly impressed with the train sequence, and Euston train yard? oh dear.

[PhilH]

Gave up after 15 minutes...Star Trek on Film 4 now!

[Nelson Jackson]

I found it very interesting and enjoyed watching it, ok I don't know If it was accurate, but it looked good, can't wait for part 2.

[backofanenvelope]

Thought parts of it were good but on the whole railway 'stuff' was obviously not at all researched.. but will watch second bit..

[rmnik]

So was there a runaway peak?

[Tricky-CRS]

I liked the bit where he rubbed off the blackboard turn to speak, then when he went back to the board it was back as it was before he wiped it off.

[Baby Deltic]

So was there a runaway peak?

The loco they went for a spin on, overdubbed by American engine sounds, was a class 37 complete with 1980's high intensity headlight. In his book 'Autobiography Of A Thief', Bruce Reynolds does mention that he and an accomplice went to a railway yard and started up a diesel loco and got it moving. They couldn't stop it and jumped off leaving it rolling down a siding.

[TheSignalEngineer]

So was there a runaway peak?

I remember an incident on the Midland line where a Peak ran away during the night at a depot around that time.

[melmerby]

Where were the railway sequences done?

 

As the TPO is from the GCR I thought that's where it could have been

 

keith.

 

PS It would be dificult to recreate the original mainline location these days (4 track!) on a preserved line

[Paul.Uni]

IIRC it was filmed at Keighley & Worth Valley Railway with the TPO hired in.

[Baby Deltic]

I remember an incident on the Midland line where a Peak ran away during the night at a depot around that time.

Maybe Reynolds and pal(s) nipped down to Cricklewood and had a play. I thought rmnik was referring to the loco in the film, not real life.

[Calnefoxile]

the train was running wrong line in the robbery scene. I think they used a class 37 renumbered as D326.

 

  

 

That's what it was!! I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with the scene, it was on the wrong track..... and yes it was 37075 diguised as class 40 D326. Drives me potty when researchers don't do their jobs properly. Also why didn't the guys from the K&WVR tell them it was wrong?

 

 

I liked the bit where he rubbed off the blackboard turn to speak, then when he went back to the board it was back as it was before he wiped it off.

 

 

Oh good, Rich, so I wasn't seeing things then, I noticed that but thought my eyes were playing tricks on me ;-);-)

 

Regards

 

Neal

 

P.S. Overall though I quite enjoyed it, and will watch tomorrow nights episode.

[Baby Deltic]

On a lighter note, here Peter Cook and Alan Bennett discuss the Great Train Robbery:

 

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

 

Bennett is trying his best not to crack up.

[Baby Deltic]

  

 

That's what it was!! I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with the scene, it was on the wrong track..... and yes it was 37075 diguised as class 40 D326. Drives me potty when researchers don't do their jobs properly. Also why didn't the guys from the K&WVR tell them it was wrong?

 

 

 

Oh good, Rich, so I wasn't seeing things then, I noticed that but thought my eyes were playing tricks on me ;-);-)

 

Regards

 

Neal

 

P.S. Overall though I quite enjoyed it, and will watch tomorrow nights episode.

When they filmed Buster back in 1988, they used Gerald Boden's class 40 (D306) which they renumbered D326. Apparently Mr Boden insisted that no expense was spared, and the loco was fitted with split headcode boxes like the real D326 displaying the 1M44 headcode.

[Merfyn Jones]

And the road vehicles were no better researched !

[Michael Delamar]

 

 

PS It would be dificult to recreate the original mainline location these days (4 track!) on a preserved line

 

 

Swithland sidings on the GCR with a road overbridge below, albeit a metal one, nothing a bit of plywood cant disguise.

[durham light infantry]

On a lighter note, here Peter Cook and Alan Bennett discuss the Great Train Robbery:

 

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

 

Bennett is trying his best not to crack up.

One of my favourites.

 

Mike

[RedgateModels]

loco was diving along merrily with it's cab light on too ......

[andygif]

Hmm, there was all that drama over the loss of vacuum in the middle of the job.... But strangely they managed to shift the sheded loco without waiting, perhaps that's why it wouldn't stop....

 

Should be grateful they used the 40's little brother, at least and it was green with syp's, Would it have hurt to have lost the headlight for a day or two, bit of yellow tape over the hole?!

 

Unscrewing the bulb in the ground signal too.... if it was that simple why bother with the glove.......

 

TV, brings out the rivet counters in all of us i gues...

[wombatofludham]

I thought the American sound effects were pathetic and as for the Bedfordshire Dales in the background of the railway shots...I thought CGI was relatively cheap nowadays and could have rectified the lack of four tracks and the too hilly backdrop?

 

There does seem to be an air of "oh that'll do it's a drama" creeping in to what have been in the past well researched productions. I mean, the use of a Routemaster in the "Foyles War" episode set in 1945, some 15 years before the bus was built, was a classic.

['CHARD]

I was exchanging texts with a number of chums as last night's drama unfolded.  One, a Class 37 main man, thoroughly approved of 37075's 'acting,' which did raise a smile.  I couldn't understand why two big light cubes were strapped to the nose though.

 

Basically it was a modest budget TV drama, loosely based on the events of the GTR.  However, there was barely an attempt to convey sense of either place or era.  And as for the railway detail inaccuracies, I had to ignore them as practically nothing was even remotely accurate.  At one point the 37 was shown clearly on a single track as it approached Bridego.  As Merf says, the road vehicles were even more risible.

 

I'm looking forward to this evening's counterpart production rather more though.  Hopefully some good Slipper of The Yard stuff, and less room for massive error.

[TheSignalEngineer]

.............................. and as for the Bedfordshire Dales in the background of the railway shots...I thought CGI was relatively cheap nowadays and could have rectified the lack of four tracks and the too hilly backdrop?

 

 

The area is so flat it was for many years the preferred site for London's 3rd airport.

[petethemole]

They must have filmed in the same bit of Bedfordshire that was used in "Daleks Invasion Earth 2150" where the dreaded pepperpots had mines in the mountains. As a Bedfordshire lad that always amused me. I didn't watch the GTR thing because I knew it would be awful.

 

Pete