Railway footage in feature films and television...

[Pacific231G]

There's a slightly bizarre and apparently gratuitous main title sequence to the 1964 film "d'Ou Tu Viens Johnny?" (where do you come from Johnny?) that was recently on TV5 as part of a tribute season  to the late Johnny Hallyday. 

 

The film starts with a ten minute or so monochrome sequence where Hallyday's character, who plays his guitar in a group, gets into trouble with the local baddies when he discovers that a case he's been asked to carry contains drugs which he throws into the Seine in disgust. He decides to disappear for a while and says goodbye to his band including his girlfriend in a scene shot on a street overlooking the Batignolles railway cutting

.

 

This is followed by the title sequence which is a 3-4 minute locked-off wide shot looking down onto the tracks as various trains pass back and forth accompanied by urgent music. The shot is cut so that the movement of trains is more or less continuous.

Unfortunately, and rather surprisingly, I've not found a clip of this sequence online but these stills might give a hint.

 

The effect is quite mesmerising and the shot gives a fascinating glimpse of some of the types of train operating in and out of Gare St. Lazare during that end of steam period, presumably in the rush hour. These mainly include push-pull sets with West region 3-141TCs (possibly 141TDs) at the country end and 3rd rail "standard" EMUs, but also a long distance RGP DMU, a train made up of two Picasso autorails with a trailer between them (not exactly a DMU as the X3800 "Picassos" were not equipped for MU working) and one steam loco operating light engine.

Immediately after the titles the film moves to the Camargue, which answers the question posed in the title, and goes into colour. The rest of the film is set there and there is no other railway involvement at all.

 

I can only assume the director's idea was to use the rush-hour trains and the accompanying music to symbolise the urgent busyness of Paris in contrast to the peace and solitude of the Camargue but, coming from nowhere with no obvious relationship to the plot , it did seem very odd.

 

The film itself is a vehicle for Johnny Hallyday who rides horses, wrangles cattle, gets back together with his girlfriend Sylvie Vartan (Hallyday's first wife a year or two later) and defeats the bad guys while performing a number of songs. Unless you happen to be a Johnny Hallyday fan I wouldn't bother though there is rather more plot than in the average Cliff Richard movie.  

Edited February 19, 2018 by Pacific231G

[Coppercap]

^^^Brixham!

 

It appears that the film was made after the line had closed:

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/brixham/

[eastglosmog]

I've done a search through the thread, but can find no mention of The Sound of Music, which has an all to brief clip of an Austrian rack railway (the Schafberg, I think, but could easily be wrong) puffing away up the mountainside.

[lmsforever]

I  liked Sylvie Vartan back in the sixties never liked Jhonny Halliday thought he had a rotten voice.

[Andy Kirkham]

It appears that the film was made after the line had closed:

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/brixham/

The 1964 date of the film could be when it was released; it might have been shot the previous summer just before the line closed (hence perhaps the topical quip about the guard becoming redundant)

 

I wonder if the  class 22 and corridor coaches were laid on specially; I thought the branch saw only auto trains and, later, single-car units. And you can see in the shot with the German girls that the train is too long for the platform by two coaches. 

 

The hot coffee and chocolate dispensing machine is not something you normally associate with minor branch line termini.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Andy Kirkham

[009 micro modeller]

On the subject of TV again the Jonathan Creek episode 'No Trace of Tracy' opens at an East Anglian looking station (with Regional Railways stock - it's 1997) which I'm pretty sure is Brampton on the East Suffolk line. Another episode has a 'Turbo' DMU arriving at what is fairly obviously the Princes Risborough bay platform. At the end of 'Miracle in Crooked Lane' (I think)there is a station with what looks like a South West Trains sign but we only ever see the outside entrance from the road. I don't know where it is or even if it is a real station or just a disguised building.

[br2975]

Brief glimpse of a Newport (Pill) allocated 67xx pannier in the opening sequence of "Tiger Bay" - shot in Newport, even though the film was later centered upon Cardiff.

 

 

Brian R

[Welchester]

Brief glimpse of a Newport (Pill) allocated 67xx pannier in the opening sequence of "Tiger Bay" - shot in Newport, even though the film was later centered upon Cardiff.

 

 

Brian R

 

The transporter bridge is the giveaway ;-)

[lmsforever]

Sunday evening tv3  Endevour showed the Water Cress Line and Quainton Rd good shots of locos and views of staions,we went to Quainton last year for the Emergency Services Day and the station still had the props seen in the show.

[jetmorgan]

Sometime ago I mentioned on here(I think!!!) a film called Sons of the Sea on Talking pictures TV. Well it's finally been repeated and I got it recorded and got some screenshots of the railway scenes. This is an early colour film, 1939, although the colour does look a bit odd. It looks like it's been colourised but reading up about the film, it is a genuine colour film and it's just the film process that makes it look a bit odd and no doubt the passage of time. It's not a very exciting film,about a German spy at Dartmouth naval college but it does have some very nice film from that area just before world war 2 as well as secens shot at the naval college. 

 

Also included in those shots was Churston for Brixham station as well as a couple of Dartmouth station and the ferry terminal. There are also some scenes involving what to me looks like an MG TC car (I could well be wrong) and a Bristol Blenheim Mk 1 with the early underside colours of white one one side and black on the other but I'll post those in the appropriate forums.

[Rugd1022]

What a wonderful find... the Collett Full Brake looks like it's in a crimson lake type hue or dirty chocolate brown, and it's worth noting that there's not a clean white roof to be seen on any of the stock!

 

Last week I was watching an episode of 'Return Of The Saint' which was filmed at Southall Gasworks in late 1977 / early 1978 with a couple of all blue DMUs, a couple of HSTs and a Class 50 all passing in the background.

[Pacific231G]

Sometime ago I mentioned on here(I think!!!) a film called Sons of the Sea on Talking pictures TV. Well it's finally been repeated and I got it recorded and got some screenshots of the railway scenes. This is an early colour film, 1939, although the colour does look a bit odd. It looks like it's been colourised but reading up about the film, it is a genuine colour film and it's just the film process that makes it look a bit odd and no doubt the passage of time. It's not a very exciting film,about a German spy at Dartmouth naval college but it does have some very nice film from that area just before world war 2 as well as secens shot at the naval college. 

 

Also included in those shots was Churston for Brixham station as well as a couple of Dartmouth station and the ferry terminal. There are also some scenes involving what to me looks like an MG TC car (I could well be wrong) and a Bristol Blenheim Mk 1 with the early underside colours of white one one side and black on the other but I'll post those in the appropriate forums.

Great stills Jet. I'd forgotten that there was (and is) a vehicle as well as a passenger ferry from Dartmouth to Kingswear. Was the vehicle ferry actually operated by the GWR? 

[DY444]

Last week I was watching an episode of 'Return Of The Saint' which was filmed at Southall Gasworks in late 1977 / early 1978 with a couple of all blue DMUs, a couple of HSTs and a Class 50 all passing in the background.

 

There's a scene shot in a 4BEP buffet car in that episode too.  Yes I know I must get out more !

[The Stationmaster]

Great stills Jet. I'd forgotten that there was (and is) a vehicle as well as a passenger ferry from Dartmouth to Kingswear. Was the vehicle ferry actually operated by the GWR? 

 

The ferry between Kingswear and Dartmouth 'railway' stations was taken over by the GWR from a contractor in 1901 and appears to have remained in railway hands thereafter - presumably until closure of the railway to Kingswear although I can't find anything to give a lead regarding the end date or if it was subsequently transferred to anybody else.  There is a long established passenger & vehicle ferry operating from 'just round the corner' from Kingswear to the southern end of Dartmouth and it is unusual in being a rare survivor of a ferry towed by an alongside tug - fascinating to travel on  and watch how it's done as the tug has to change direction before docking the ferry at either end of the short journey.  It, and the Britannia vehicle ferry further upstream are the current survivors - in the immediate Dartmouth area - of a long history of various ferries across the Dart from/to Dartmouth.

 

Kingswear quay, adjacent to the station, was a GWR owned and operated port facility and I believe the ferry to Dartmouth operated from there, one source suggests that it was altered at some time to convey a small number of vehicles as well as the foot passengers.  The GWR seem to have been rather coy about letting on how it served Dartmouth - for example the 1929 public timetable gives no short of readily apparent hint that Dartmouth was anything other than a normal station at which, among other trains, the Torbay Pullman terminated its trip from London. But by 1952 the WR timetable made it clear, by a small note, that Dartmouth was reached by ferry.

[Rugd1022]

There's a scene shot in a 4BEP buffet car in that episode too.  Yes I know I must get out more !

 

And doesn't it all thoroughly modern in corporate blue and grey...!

[Welly]

I watched the new animation "Watership Down" on BBC1 last night and the locomotive that ran down Efrafa's troops is recognisably a Class 50 diesel. Oddly enough it was hauling a rake of wood panelled coaches with only 2 lit windows on each side!

 

I much prefer the original 1978 animated film though.

[keefer]

I like the screen grabs, you even managed to get a bus on a bridge!

Edited December 23, 2018 by keefer

[Legend]

Just watched Brief Encounter . It was terribly terribly good , as Celia would have said

[melmerby]

What a wonderful find... the Collett Full Brake looks like it's in a crimson lake type hue or dirty chocolate brown, and it's worth noting that there's not a clean white roof to be seen on any of the stock!

 

 

As the film was made in 1939 the roofs should still be white but of course they are all very dirty.

From 1939 (WW2) they were painted grey.

 

Some passenger brakes were painted all over brown.

(Great Western Way)

 

N.B. The film is only one of two full length UK films using Dufaycolor (and the only one all in colour!)

It is unusual as it is a reversal process producing a positive image on the film stock (like slides) and not a colour negative which is the normal.

 

Keith

[The Johnster]

I watched the new animation "Watership Down" on BBC1 last night and the locomotive that ran down Efrafa's troops is recognisably a Class 50 diesel. Oddly enough it was hauling a rake of wood panelled coaches with only 2 lit windows on each side!

 

I much prefer the original 1978 animated film though.

 

Which, IIRC, featured a Warship on a fitted freight.

[Steamport Southport]

I watched the new animation "Watership Down" on BBC1 last night and the locomotive that ran down Efrafa's troops is recognisably a Class 50 diesel. Oddly enough it was hauling a rake of wood panelled coaches with only 2 lit windows on each side!

 

I much prefer the original 1978 animated film though.

 

What? You lasted more than a few minutes without getting seasick? 

 

I tried it and just couldn't get into it. Maybe the younger generation that are used to computer games will love it though.

 

Switched it over and watched a programme about toys with Robert Webb on BBC Four.

 

 

 

Jason

[4069]

I watched the latest attempt at dramatising Agatha Christie's disappearance on channel 5 last night (it wasn't very good), and didn't recognise the railway scenes. Does anyone know where it was shot?

[Ian Morgan]

TV series 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' (a precursor to Monty Python) included some film of David Jason and Denise Coffey as Captain Fantastic and Mrs Black, taken at Forest Row (renamed Nowhere Station) shortly after closure (1967 or 1968 probably).

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2023 by Ian Morgan
re-loaded images

[Legend]

And now watching These incredible men in their flying machines where the Jones Goods is pretending to be a French loco. Terry Thomas what a boundah!

[Nick Holliday]

I watched the latest attempt at dramatising Agatha Christie's disappearance on channel 5 last night (it wasn't very good), and didn't recognise the railway scenes. Does anyone know where it was shot?

According to IMDb the programme was filmed in Ireland, and the railway was the Downpatrick And County Down Railway, although I couldn't reconcile what I saw on screen with the pictures on the downrail website.