Railway footage in feature films and television...

[Rugd1022]

On 01/08/2022 at 21:06, Northmoor said:

Probably been mentioned before as it no doubt has many instances of railways on screen; today the first episode of "The Sweeney" (ignoring the pilot, "Regan") was on ITV4.  At one point Regan and Carter were chasing their suspect along the platform at Peckham Rye as EMUs pulled out in either direction.  Both looked like blue-liveried high-density stock but what type I couldn't tell you.

 

That's 'Ringer' with guest stars Ian Hendry, Alan Lake and Brian Blessed, an absolute classic amongst Sweeney episodes, filmed in the Summer of '74 and first shown in January '75....

 

 

 

It also includes John Thaw's famous line ''we're the Sweeney son, and we haven't had any dinner'' 😉

 

Nice to see that 'Robbery' has been shown again this past week on the Talking Pictures channel....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Danemouth]

For those of us of a certain age!

 

When ITV started transmitting in Cardiff in 1958 this was on Wednesday afternoons at 5:25

 

 

This was in the days of TWW as I am sure @Happy Hippo and @The Johnster will remember 😀

 

Dave

[Danemouth]

I was also reminded of another childrens TV series called "The old Pull 'N Push".

 

https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1960s/old-pull-n-push/

 

I did find the theme tune on Google but not the actual series

 

 

Strewth, I'm talking about 60+ years ago!

 

Dave

[The Johnster]

38 minutes ago, Danemouth said:

For those of us of a certain age!

 

When ITV started transmitting in Cardiff in 1958 this was on Wednesday afternoons at 5:25

 

 

This was in the days of TWW as I am sure @Happy Hippo and @The Johnster will remember 😀

 

Dave

 

Yes indeedy.  TWW (Television Wales and the West) had a presenter called Maureen Staffer who later opened a hairdressing salon on Wellfield Road, which my mum used to use. 

 

 

Woo wooooh!

'Casey Jones, steamin' and a'rollin'

Casey Jones, you never have to guess,

When you hear the hootin' of the whistle

It's Casey at the throttle of the Cannonball Express'.

 

Every episode he'd get down on to the cowcatcher at 'speed' to rescue someone in the nick of time; even when I was 6, in 1958, I thought it was a bit of a film stunt that would not have been possible in reality.  It was, I subsequently discovered, apparently, based on an actual incident in his real life career, but was with a 2-8-0 on a freight and not at the speeds depicted in the show!

 

I also objected to his frequent use of reverse gear with steam on, wheels spinning furiously backwards, which I'd never seen in real life and correctly reckoned would actually result in an inferior braking performance to using the brakes.  I was very familiar with the lack of grip of spinning wheels from the miserable attempts of Britannia pacifics to get the 'Red Dragon' away from Cardiff General's platform 2; it would take about 5 minutes for the middle of the train to crest the rise over the Canal Wharf bridge and the loco to get to grips, literally, and get away on the downhil towards Newtown.  Castles just dug in and went. 

 

It is possible to hold a train back by using the cut-off in reverse gear to provide a very restricted supply of steam to the cylinders in reverse gear, and cracking the throttle open a very small amount, but if the wheels lose grip you will have lost the battle.  Casey was regarded as a hotshot in his day, a speed merchant who regarded keeping time as a point of honour, but clearly an man who knew how to handle a locomotive at a very high level; I cannot believe that he would have spun the driving wheels backwards in this way in reality!

 

'Britannia' herself visited Cardiff back in 2020, and managed a 12-coach load, admittedly 4 shy of the 'Red Dragon's' full load, out of P2 without any fuss at all!  Tornado took 12 and a dead 47 out of P4 on a wet rail a few months later, with contemptuous ease, not even using the sanders.

 

 

[Hobby]

They must have run it again in the 60s as I can remember it too and I was only born in '57!

[Johann Marsbar]

Casey Jones was on BBC1 in 1967 and 1969 according to the Wiki entry.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Jones_(TV_series)

I certainly remember watching it and that would have been about that period.

[simontaylor484]

I have recently been binge watching Chicago PD there are lots of scenes with rail action in the background Amtrak double deckers,Union Pacific freight and of course the L

 

Some of the buildings the L passes really close just like Blues Brothers

[Pacific231G]

I'm not the first to spot this but I finally got round to watching Dunkirk last night and was surprised to note that, in 1940, railway carriage interiors looked just like those I remember from Network South East. It was also interesting to note that the port of Dunkirk   had got well ahead of the game by installing at least half a dozen container handling cranes thirty years before they would be needed. I also didn't realise that Spitfires could glide for at least ten minutes at a height of twenty feet. 

It's a great shame as it had up to then been quite an effective portrayal but those blatant anachronisms totally killed any suspension of disbelief and they were totally unnecessary.  Far less CGI than was used in many other scenes would have lost the container port and any number of preserved railways have compartment stock. I'd have accepted a Mk 1  (as seen in Enigma) with a credible internal layout. I don't rivet count when watching movies, but that was train interior was just screamingly wrong.  

Edited August 6, 2022 by Pacific231G

[RichardT]

17 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

I don't rivet count when watching movies, but that was train interior was just screamingly wrong.  

My wife is always irritated by my habit of noticing railway anachronisms in films and on tv. We saw Dunkirk at the cinema and when we came out she turned to me and said “OK, even I could see that carriage at the end was completely wrong!”

 

RichardT

[whart57]

The Channel 4 streaming channel "Walter Presents" has a load of watchable European drama. Subtitled of course because those guys didn't have the nous to make them in English ..........

 

There are a few train shots in the Dutch series The Adulterer, like this shot I managed to capture of a double deck train.

 

 

Which is of course a different train when our heroine reaches her destination

 

 

Series 2 opens with some quite lengthy shots of Amsterdam CS, mostly interior but also a shot taken from a ferry from Amsterdam's North side. Probably the Adelaarswegveer.

 

 

[Hibelroad]

There is an allotment in the final scene of the “Oh no it’s Selwyn Froggitt” episode “The master builder”. As the titles roll the camera pans round to show a line behind the allotment leading to colliery sidings. Several 16 mineral wagons are in evidence. Filmed in 1976 it seems like another world, which I suppose it was. 

[Fishoutofwater]

On 12/02/2019 at 20:27, jetmorgan said:

Managed to get around to transferring to DVD an episode of Scotland Yard (Talking Pictures TV...as usual) that had a numerous railway scenes. The "White Cliffs Mystery aka The Matrion Case" apparently on the line between Seahaven and Waterloo. I think Seahaven is a made up place as I can't find anywhere named that on any line to Waterloo. The main station featured in the scenes is called Brandon or Brampton but again I think that is a made up name and perhaps someone can identify the station from the pics. Also noted are some carriage sidings which it wouldn't surprise me if it was Clapham Junction.

 

 

 

 

These look very much like Salisbury Tunnel Junction and Grateley station.

[4069]

As indeed they are, and were identified at the time:

 

 

Edited August 9, 2022 by 4069

[Steamport Southport]

On 03/08/2022 at 15:10, Rugd1022 said:

 

It also includes John Thaw's famous line ''we're the Sweeney son, and we haven't had any dinner'' 😉

 

 

 

 

As parodied on Life On Mars....

 

 

[MyRule1]

Although Bollywood films are probably not on the viewing schedule of most RMweb members the recent film Hero Panti II has about 12 minutes of UK film footage.

 

Within those short segments there are a huge number of continuity errors. Plus some very impressive CGI effects,

[Rugd1022]

A brief glimpse of the Midland Mainline just north of Chiltern Green in an episode of 'The Champions' called 'The Night People', where Alexandra Bastedo drives her '64 MGB under Bridge No.128, although it looks more like a tunnel, the two cottages in the first picture are visible from the line and haven't changed a bit since it was filmed in 1968....

 

 

 

I'd been driving trains over this bridge for some years before I twigged where I'd seen it before on the telly!

 

[whart57]

Back to The Adulterer, this shot of Amsterdam CS from the Ij river is worth putting here

 

 

A thread of riverside stations might be quite interesting, I may do that.

 

And then inside

 

 

 

[KeithMacdonald]

5 hours ago, MyRule1 said:

Although Bollywood films are probably not on the viewing schedule of most RMweb members the recent film Hero Panti II has about 12 minutes of UK film footage

 

About 15 years ago, I personally witnessed the making of a Bollywood film on Horsted Keynes station, with actors in 1920s/30s period costume. My children thought it was wonderful, especially as everytime they stuck their heads out of our carriage window, somebody would shout "CUT!!!" and the filmcrew and actors would do it all again. My wife and I were out of sight, quietly laughing, but spoilt our children's fun after the third take. Sadly, I've no idea what the film was called.

[Northmoor]

4 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

About 15 years ago, I personally witnessed the making of a Bollywood film on Horsted Keynes station, with actors in 1920s/30s period costume. My children thought it was wonderful, especially as everytime they stuck their heads out of our carriage window, somebody would shout "CUT!!!" and the filmcrew and actors would do it all again. My wife and I were out of sight, quietly laughing, but spoilt our children's fun after the third take. Sadly, I've no idea what the film was called.

Might be no.365 on this list:

https://www.bluebell-filming.co.uk/filmography.html

 

[KingEdwardII]

16 hours ago, whart57 said:

riverside stations

Amsterdam Centraal is not so much "riverside" as "in the river" - much of the site was open water before they built the station and they had to import a lot of sand from elsewhere to build it.

 

Stations built on reclaimed land could be another theme...

 

Yours,  Mike.

[whart57]

1 hour ago, KingEdwardII said:

Amsterdam Centraal is not so much "riverside" as "in the river" - much of the site was open water before they built the station and they had to import a lot of sand from elsewhere to build it.

 

Stations built on reclaimed land could be another theme...

 

Yours,  Mike.

 

That would be around half the NS though wouldn't it?  😉

[melmerby]

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness was on Great Movies Action today (Its filmed in the UK)

It starts with a train arriving at a station in London.

The Loco was 69662 an N7 from Stratford so probably in Liverpool Street

The carriage was a panelled Maroon painted suburban, it looked like the number was E82126E (?). If so,  a 51' diag 56 third .

 

The film is set at the start of the second Sino-Japanese war (1937)☹️

 

The Welsh Slate hills stand in for China!

 

 

 

[Pandora]

The Adventures of Twizzle, production of 1957, early Gerry Anderson (later Thunderbirds) / Roberta Leigh (later Space Patrol), the shop has an early TriAng set in operation, probaby the Jinty,

episode 1:

 

https://youtu.be/3E5sU_wl-bk?t=142.

 

I was not aware the puppets for such shows were so big,  from the video probably half-size relative to humans

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by Pandora

[jamie92208]

On 11/08/2022 at 10:13, whart57 said:

 

That would be around half the NS though wouldn't it?  😉

Not to mention airports built on the site of a naval battle.

 

Jamie

[Hobby]

8 hours ago, melmerby said:

The Welsh Slate hills stand in for China!

 

Just round the corner from the Khyber Pass! ;)