Film and tv railway errors

[bluebottle]

..... I have to admit though I do enjoy gaffe spotting in tv productions, not with any sense of indignation, just for a laugh, or sometimes a groan. Equally though I do enjoy it when producers manage to pull off a reasonable attempt at period setting.

 

I quite agree that both of these responses are good in moderation, and I note that carefully written letters to the "Radio Times" on such matters often provoke a sensible response from programme producers. It's a good way to show that railway enthusiasts are reasonable people with a sense of humour!  

[cromptonnut]

You also have to thaw out the motion and bearings which are also frozen solid. This is featured in the 1955 BTF film 'Snowdrift at Bleath Gill' where locomotives which have been trapped for days in snow drifts are being rescued.

 

I do rather enjoy that clip every time we get three flakes somewhere in the South East and the entire network grinds to a halt.

 

[Titan]

AFAIR CIWL sleeping cars each had their own small coal/coke fired boiler to supply heating independently of train heating but I don't know when or if they stopped needing that.

 They still use them in Russia - even on electrically hauled services!  One of the sleeping car attendents jobs is to keep it stoked up. Provides the hot water too, and very effective it is! I was also amused to see a couple of bags of coal placed a coach length apart on the platform at the terminus ready for the return journey!

[Pacific231G]

 They still use them in Russia - even on electrically hauled services!  One of the sleeping car attendents jobs is to keep it stoked up. Provides the hot water too, and very effective it is! I was also amused to see a couple of bags of coal placed a coach length apart on the platform at the terminus ready for the return journey!

Do they still have two attendants in each car?  I travelled to Moscow in 1967 on a train that took two nights (about 30 hours) from East Berlin. It was more a couchette than a sleeping car (six berths in each compartment) but there was a samovar at the end of the coach from which one of the attendants would serve tea at any time of day or night and I assumed that was associated with the heating system. I imagine that if the catenary was brought down by a blizzard in deepest Siberia you'd appreciate not freezing to death! The tea was better than the food in the restaurant car.

Edited January 26, 2014 by Pacific231G

[Pacific231G]

Arthur, on 24 Jan 2014 - 00:04, said:

 

You also have to thaw out the motion and bearings which are also frozen solid. This is featured in the 1955 BTF film 'Snowdrift at Bleath Gill' where locomotives which have been trapped for days in snow drifts are being rescued.

I do rather enjoy that clip every time we get three flakes somewhere in the South East and the entire network grinds to a halt.

 

I think it may rather answer my question with the line "the boiler is frozen solid as well but we'll think about that later" which suggests that the loco 78018 - a Riddles 2MT which was only about a year old-  may have been needing a new boiler or at least new tubes. Though the line over Bleath Gill was closed in the Beeching cuts the story has a surprisingly upbeat ending. 78018 was sent for scrap in 1966 but it went to Woodhams,  is currently being restored and should re-enter service on the GCR in the not too distant.

Edited January 26, 2014 by Pacific231G

[OnTheBranchline]

In the first episode of the Netflix series "The Crown", they use a green 9F (out of necessity more than anything but still).

[griffgriff]

In the first episode of the Netflix series "The Crown", they use a green 9F (out of necessity more than anything but still).

They were unlucky... that thing has got a bit of a identity disorder and it probably doesn't really know what colour/number/name it should be

[Horsetan]

Thought of another continuity error. I believe in "Goodnight Mr Tom" the class of loco changes, but the number doesn't between departure and arrival.

This was filmed on the Severn Valley Railway, and the engine used for most background shots was 7325. Unfortunately nobody remembered to remove the BR smokebox numberplate and totems from the tender....

[Metr0Land]

This was filmed on the Severn Valley Railway, and the engine used for most background shots was 7325. Unfortunately nobody remembered to remove the BR smokebox numberplate and totems from the tender....

 

IIRC it was filmed on SVR and GCR hence the different locos

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Sometimes they get it right though.

 

My wife was watching the film "Last Chance Harvey" recently and it showed Emma Thompson playing a character going off to work. The train was a Heathrow Express unit and I said (not having really paid any attention to the storyline) that can't be right as they only go to Heathrow.

 

But actually the character worked at Heathrow and lived in central London.

 

So the film makers were right - though I imagine commuting on the HEX must be a bit pricey.....

[andyram]

This was filmed on the Severn Valley Railway, and the engine used for most background shots was 7325. Unfortunately nobody remembered to remove the BR smokebox numberplate and totems from the tender....

  

IIRC it was filmed on SVR and GCR hence the different locos

Yes I believe it was the Great Western mogul on the SVR and either a Hall or Manor on the GCR.

[Purley Oaks]

 

But actually the character worked at Heathrow and lived in central London.

 

So the film makers were right - though I imagine commuting on the HEX must be a bit pricey.....

Living in central London must be a bit pricey, too. Can't imagine Em's character living in social housing...

Mal

[andyram]

During the festive period my wife and I sat through various Christmas movies. One of these was a dreadful film called "A Snowglobe Christmas". Not seen it? You have missed nothing. However it did feature one of the worst railway related sequences I have ever seen. As the characters chatted, their discussion was interrupted by a steam locomotive whistle. The camera panned to depict a passing train that was made up of a poor CGI effect showing a brown American style carriage, followed by a red "caboose". The shot changed to show the train pulling into the station. The train had now become a GWR liveried Pannier tank hauling a rake of crimson coaches. This was actually a scene from the Severn Valley because the Pannier was one of their preserved locos pulling into Hampton Loade station with digitally added snow effect. In the next shot the train stopped at the platform and the driver leant out of the cab to chat to the characters. The loco was now a black American tender locomotive with a ringing brass bell.

 

Shocking!

[Peter Kazmierczak]

During the festive period my wife and I sat through various Christmas movies. One of these was a dreadful film called "A Snowglobe Christmas". Not seen it? You have missed nothing. However it did feature one of the worst railway related sequences I have ever seen. As the characters chatted, their discussion was interrupted by a steam locomotive whistle. The camera panned to depict a passing train that was made up of a poor CGI effect showing a brown American style carriage, followed by a red "caboose". The shot changed to show the train pulling into the station. The train had now become a GWR liveried Pannier tank hauling a rake of crimson coaches. This was actually a scene from the Severn Valley because the Pannier was one of their preserved locos pulling into Hampton Loade station with digitally added snow effect. In the next shot the train stopped at the platform and the driver leant out of the cab to chat to the characters. The loco was now a black American tender locomotive with a ringing brass bell.

 

Shocking!

 

That's one reason modelling a preserved line isn't very popular.

[Dunsignalling]

During the festive period my wife and I sat through various Christmas movies. One of these was a dreadful film called "A Snowglobe Christmas". Not seen it? You have missed nothing. However it did feature one of the worst railway related sequences I have ever seen. As the characters chatted, their discussion was interrupted by a steam locomotive whistle. The camera panned to depict a passing train that was made up of a poor CGI effect showing a brown American style carriage, followed by a red "caboose". The shot changed to show the train pulling into the station. The train had now become a GWR liveried Pannier tank hauling a rake of crimson coaches. This was actually a scene from the Severn Valley because the Pannier was one of their preserved locos pulling into Hampton Loade station with digitally added snow effect. In the next shot the train stopped at the platform and the driver leant out of the cab to chat to the characters. The loco was now a black American tender locomotive with a ringing brass bell.

 

Shocking!

Sounds like someone was trying to win a bet as to how much cr4p he could cram into one movie.

[Bernard Lamb]

I went to see Paddington 2 yesterday.

Some "interesting" railway scenes.

Not recomended for those in the H & S or real railway operations fields.

Bernard

[Pacific231G]

I went to see Paddington 2 yesterday.

Some "interesting" railway scenes.

Not recomended for those in the H & S or real railway operations fields.

Bernard

Compared wiith which a bear that can speak better English than most English people is completely accurate?

Mind you, while enjoying Paddington 1 over Christmas  I did catch my inner pedant wondering why a postal van was travelling from Tilbury (?) docks to Paddington Station carrying loose sacks of mail from a container ship; how a bathroom door, floor and window  could hold back about ten cubic metres of water with a pressure head of at least 1.5 metres and how a handful of toy balloons could support the entire weight of a bear- even an English speaking one.  

Edited January 7, 2018 by Pacific231G

[TheQ]

Other errors in comparatively modern films.

A rehash of Colditz had the RAF Officers of making their way to the train station, My dear Chap it's a RAILWAY STATION...

 

In Dunkirk there are shots of the "little ships" complete with plastic fenders a man-made plastic ropes. They moor up on a floating fibreglass pontoon.. the East mole at Dunkirk was made of stone concrete and timber.

 

The one in the film is steel and concrete.

Edited January 7, 2018 by TheQ

[Liam]

TheQ beat me to it. In the cinema I couldn't help but give a disapproving shake of the head when the soldiers boarded the train at 'Weymouth' and tried to make themselves comfortable on seating of a very similar colour to the seats on the DMU on the Glos Warks Railway . . .

 

It didn't spoil the film though, which I've got on DVD.

 

But in 'The Imitation Game' having West Coast Railways Mk1s in the Cross simply is not the same as Euston in 1939 ......

[Clearwater]

In the first episode of the Netflix series "The Crown", they use a green 9F (out of necessity more than anything but still).

In the latest series, The Queen arrives in Norfolk (Loughborough on the GCR) behind a Black 5. I think was in late crest. It’s supposed to be 1957.

[brianusa]

While its fun to spot the mistakes, these films were made for Joe Public, many of whom are not well up on the intricacies of railway working or even railways these days.  So you are left with those who want to make a movie as cheaply as possible using any old train; to these guys a train is a train, no matter if it puffs or not!  OTOH, some directors care about their pictures and in 'The Train', John Frankenheimer made it as realistic as possible.

 

Brian.

[andyram]

While its fun to spot the mistakes, these films were made for Joe Public, many of whom are not well up on the intricacies of railway working or even railways these days.  So you are left with those who want to make a movie as cheaply as possible using any old train; to these guys a train is a train, no matter if it puffs or not!  OTOH, some directors care about their pictures and in 'The Train', John Frankenheimer made it as realistic as possible.

 

Brian.

I certainly take your point here. Whilst it is amusing to some, irritating to others, when trains from the wrong era are portrayed I can forgive this to a point. An early BR crest when a late one should be used and vice versa are forgivable in my book. But using BR liveried locos on stock in a war time film is definitely wrong especially if it is a portrayal of real historical events.

I appreciate that film makers are limited by what is available but there is no excuse for continuity errors such as the ones I described in my previous post.

[Enterprisingwestern]

While its fun to spot the mistakes, these films were made for Joe Public, many of whom are not well up on the intricacies of railway working or even railways these days.  So you are left with those who want to make a movie as cheaply as possible using any old train; to these guys a train is a train, no matter if it puffs or not!  OTOH, some directors care about their pictures and in 'The Train', John Frankenheimer made it as realistic as possible.

 

Brian.

 

 

I certainly take your point here. Whilst it is amusing to some, irritating to others, when trains from the wrong era are portrayed I can forgive this to a point. An early BR crest when a late one should be used and vice versa are forgivable in my book. But using BR liveried locos on stock in a war time film is definitely wrong especially if it is a portrayal of real historical events.

I appreciate that film makers are limited by what is available but there is no excuse for continuity errors such as the ones I described in my previous post.

 

My two penn'orth FWIW, if a film allegedly portraying an historical fact based story line can't get the railway details right, what else is wrong?

Never let the facts get in the way of a good movie?

 

Mike.

[phil-b259]

I went to see Paddington 2 yesterday.

Some "interesting" railway scenes.

Not recomended for those in the H & S or real railway operations fields.

Bernard

 

I saw it before Christmas and wasn't offended by said 'doggy' operating practices (of which there were many) - but then again as far as I know Marmalade loving exceptionally polite English speaking brown bears are not strictly speaking 'realistic' or accurate either

[45156]

I once spoke to the guy on one preserved railway which is able to offer just about any era and combination to meet the flm maker's requirements. 

 

Often the jobsworths agreed an accurate representation of what was wanted, and were over-ridden by the director selecting something more "interesting" such as a Bulleid pacific instead of a two coach local headed by a tank loco.  He said that the railways try hard to offer as close a consist as possible to the era and region, only to be over ruled.  And of course, the railway gets the stick for an inaccurate presentation.

 

However, how many of us do play "spot the location" with the railway scenes - how often, for example, does the quite unusal platform arrangement at Horsted Kenyes present itself as other locations - and is given away by the signs being in SR Green when the location is somewhere totally different.  Likewise the so obvious GWR heritage of the SVR in many TV shows and films - at least Father Brown lives in a location in the Cotswolds so GWR stock from the SVR works, though the setting of 1956 or so, and a loco in GWR green and a post war livery is still not right (but not as wrong as using the Gresley set with an LMS loco would have been)

Edited January 8, 2018 by 45156