Combe Martin Titfield Thunderbolt

[Intosteam]

I’m wanting to know the carriage/coach numbers being pulled by the Combe Martin loco in the opening shot of The Titfield Thunderbolt Film. 

TIA Peter

[TravisM]

Do you mean the West Country passing over Medford viaduct or the 14xx passing under it on the Camerton branch?  The 14xx is 1401, the saloon is GE Diagram 603 Number 8, and the brake van is GWR AA20 Toad W68740

[stumpey]

I love this site for the depth of such triviarta. 

[Ed-farms]

19 hours ago, jools1959 said:

Do you mean the West Country passing over Medford viaduct or the 14xx passing under it on the Camerton branch?  The 14xx is 1401, the saloon is GE Diagram 603 Number 8, and the brake van is GWR AA20 Toad W68740

 

Gien he mentions Combe Martin I am guessing he means the West Country on the viaduct. I would be maazed if anyone has that given the time since it was filmed and how brief its on screen

[KeithHC]

I always thought that there where at least one set of Maunsell coaches but could be some ex LMS coaches.

 

Keith

[phil_sutters]

There is what looks like a 6 wheeled brake van in maroon followed by an assortment of four coaches in SR green. These are clearly not a set. The van could be this LNER van that was still around in 1964, although there might be a ducket on the film van.

For a brief clip of the opening frames go to https://youtu.be/-pRrTlOZyqM

 

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by phil_sutters

[mozzer models]

9 minutes ago, phil_sutters said:

There is what looks like a 6 wheeled brake van in maroon followed by an assortment of four coaches in SR green. These are clearly not a set. The van could be this LNER van that was still around in 1964, although there might be a ducket on the film van.

For a brief clip of the opening frames go to https://youtu.be/-pRrTlOZyqM

 

 

the 6 wheel van is a BR/ER BZ Thomson full brake

 4mm BR thompson BZ full brake built from a Comet kit in weathered lined crimson livery by brian mosby, on Flickr

4mm BR Thopmson BZ 6 wheel full brake built from comet parts 2 by brian mosby, on Flickr

[KeithHC]

Where there not several southern two coach sets allocated to the S and D.

 

Keith

[Wickham Green too]

I doubt it ..... the two-coach sets were generally Brake Third + Brake Composite for through workings from Waterloo to the far reaches. The S.& D. had a number of 3-coach sets of Bulleid & Maunsell design.

The train in the film looks to have an LMS all-steel 50' full brake, then a 6-compartment Maunsell Brake Third or Composite, a 4-compartment Brake Third and a couple more indeterminate Maunsells.

[adb968008]

Would the Bulleid have been a service train for that 1 shot ?

 

it had to be timed perfectly to get the continuous shot, no cgi then, and of course the filming of the scene would have needed BR cooperation on the viaduct just as much as the branch.

Do we know if the contents of the cutting room floor survive ? - a cut scenes archive i’m sure would be hugely popular, especially if it needed several takes for that scene.

Edited May 21, 2021 by adb968008

[adb968008]

30 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

Would the Bulleid have been a service train for that 1 shot ?

 

it had to be timed perfectly to get the continuous shot, no cgi then, and of course the filming of the scene would have needed BR cooperation on the viaduct just as much as the branch.

Do we know if the contents of the cutting room floor survive ? - a cut scenes archive i’m sure would be hugely popular, especially if it needed several takes for that scene.

Edit..

 

answered my own question, looks like it was a service train, as there are a couple of other takes of the shot here.

 

Looking at the making of it, certainly looks like they were lucky with the weather.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by adb968008

[dibber25]

9 hours ago, adb968008 said:

Would the Bulleid have been a service train for that 1 shot ?

 

it had to be timed perfectly to get the continuous shot, no cgi then, and of course the filming of the scene would have needed BR cooperation on the viaduct just as much as the branch.

Do we know if the contents of the cutting room floor survive ? - a cut scenes archive i’m sure would be hugely popular, especially if it needed several takes for that scene.

Some out-takes from Titfield Thunderbolt were used in a fairly early episode of Dad's Army. I suspect anything else would have found its way into John Huntley's archive. (CJL)

[adb968008]

9 minutes ago, dibber25 said:

Some out-takes from Titfield Thunderbolt were used in a fairly early episode of Dad's Army. I suspect anything else would have found its way into John Huntley's archive. (CJL)

A 1400 and a brake van full of dads army soldiers I can imagine being quite fun, especially if played at a faster speed !

[dibber25]

14 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

A 1400 and a brake van full of dads army soldiers I can imagine being quite fun, especially if played at a faster speed !

A long time since I watched it (I'll have to re-watch half the boxed set to find it!) but I seem to recall that Private Godfrey got out, 'paid a visit', and got back in again without the train stopping! The outside shot was an alternative 'cricket match' shot. Now I'll watch it and find I've remembered it all wrong! (CJL)

[w124bob]

The opening scene shots certainly did appear on in one of the John Huntley volumes, sadly my own collection was on VHS so I can't help with either train details or the actual correct volume. It was the 14xx which did the faffing about whilst the West Countries were ordinary service trains. The 3 coach Maunsell sets on the S&D were a fairly small group and Combe Martin has appeared in many S&D pictures. Hornby can provide a 3 coach S&D Maunsell set(R4458) but it carries a set number not used on the S&D (S&D sets 390 to 396) transfers for coach and set numbers are available. 

Edit to add John Huntley Steam on 35mm vol 2 for Titfield outakes https://www.video125.com/products/steam-on-35mm

Edited May 22, 2021 by w124bob