Railways "Howlers" in Literature

[faulcon1]

I have two howlers.

One is from a book on the worlds railways but with Britain predominating.

1. In describing the journey in New South Wales Australia into the mid western city of Bathurst the author spells it Bathers. The other is saying that the train crosses the Hawksbury River before ascending the Blue Mountains. Actually the train crosses the Nepean River. Which is akin to saying that before train enters....say Charing Cross it must cross the River Medway.

 

2. This one is from a film called 'Eye of the Needle' and is set in WW2 in England. In one part of the film the villain (a German spy) takes a train to Liverpool. The loco hauling the train is a black mogul No. 31874 with a 'Lion on Wheel' emblem on the tender. I don't know if Maunsell Moguls ever hauled trains to Liverpool during the war and I thought that British Railways didn't come into being until 1948.   

[rob D2]

Stuff the through train to watlington dilemma, can we hear more about whether Florence ' gets it on '....?

 

I'm waiting for the release of " 50 shades of BR blue " by B.Achmann

[Vanders]

I'm waiting for the release of " 50 shades of BR blue " by B.Achmann

The BR ham sandwich as a form of sadomasochistic torture? I'd believe it.

[Andy Reichert]

Avoid any book by Mark Frost (USA). "The List of Seven" is a supposed British historical thriller novel, in which the heroes manage to secretly drive a "stirling single" type locomotive from the South Coast Coast way up into the North of England. Without any knowledge or support from signalmen along the way. . . .

 

Apparently he co-created the "Twin Peaks" TV series (soap?) and it shows.

 

Andy

[ForestPines]

Twin Peaks was more of a paranormal detective thriller with soap parody elements. I think it's fantastic, but I can see it could be an acquired taste; and I don't think co-creating it would have required much in the way of historical research skills.

 

However as it's a TV show and film with minimal but (probably) correct railway content, I will stop talking about it on this thread now!

[MJI]

Hi

 

How about the James bond film " From Russia with Love" , I was watching it last weekend, in the latter part of the film they board a train in I believe Istanbul.

 

In the series of shots that follow along the journey there is a vast mixture of different European and British steam locomotives and rolling stock including BR green southern coaches.

 

Still good stuff all the same.

 

Regards

 

David 

 

Is that the one with the 20?

[ajwffc]

No that was Goldeneye

[station cat]

Probably the most famous railway-related howler in fiction, of course, is platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross in the Harry Potter novels. It can't be where JK Rowling describes it as being, because in reality platforms 9 and 10 are part of the suburban station and have no brick piers between them.

 

 

JK Rowling has admitted that it was an error, though, and that she intended it to be a correct location. She's said in an interview that she got Kings Cross and Euston mixed up when thinking about it.

 

If you read the books, that's actually a consistent theme - the non-magical (real world) locations are described accurately. That's because Rowling wanted to give the impression that the magical world really does exist in this world, it's just that we muggles aren't aware of it.

 

 

Actually it isn't JK Rowling that's wrong about the platform - though she is wrong about the station - it's the film. In the books the entrance to platform 9 3/4s is located in the ticket barrier between platforms 9 and 10 and such a thing does, more or less, exist. The pillar is just used in the films. Those naughty film makers also included exterior shots of St Pancras rather than KX.

[JZ]

101 Dalmations. Not the cartoon, but the early 2000s remake. Haven't time to list the errors.