Railway footage in feature films and television...

[luckymucklebackit]

Do Music Videos count?  The video for David Gilmours latest single "Between Two Points" (with Romany Gilmour) features a class 69 no less.

https://youtu.be/zvq7PbrD3U4?si=X8LEtxw20NFJaCZD

[rodent279]

If we're talking music videos,  Peter Shop Boys "Rent" has some scenes of KX pre-NSE, shot in about 85/86 by the look of it.

[Northmoor]

2 hours ago, rodent279 said:

If we're talking music videos,  Peter Shop Boys "Rent" has some scenes of KX pre-NSE, shot in about 85/86 by the look of it.

It's round about the 10th/11th October 1987. 

 

How can I be that precise?  Because at 3:18 Margi Clarke and Chris Lowe embrace in front of the Special Notices of Engineering Works!  Probably why they were able to film at Kings Cross, there were no trains running.....

[Enterprisingwestern]

7 hours ago, rodent279 said:

then some of it arriving in what looks like Bedford.

 

Where did the rest of it arrive?

 

Mike.

[billy_anorak59]

Don't know if it's been posted before but spotted this in a short clip on TPTV's 'Footage Detectives' last night - the clip is from the 1961 film 'Murder in Eden'.

 

Reelstreets says that it was filmed in Dublin - it was the CIE 121 (?) Class that caught my eye, as it looked like an English inner-city scene at first glance.

 

Photo from the TV screen:

[Hobby]

I was about to post that as well! It looks like a 121, I thought initially it was industrial, but your post makes more sense and explains the housing and side of the road the car was driving on! Thanks for that!

[John M Upton]

On 07/09/2024 at 15:24, rodent279 said:

Watching "The Fourth Protocol", 1987 movie of Frederick Forsyth's 1984 novel starring Michael "you're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off" Caine and a pre-007 Pierce Brosnan.

About 90 min in there are some scenes of a (very clean blue & grey) class 312 in St Pancras, then departing St P, some footage inside the train, then some of it arriving in what looks like Bedford.

 

Slightly odd that bit, Caine gets on the rear unit, sits down near the guy he is following, both of whom alight from the front unit at their destination (all be it, Caine alights trackside) but there is no corridor connection between the two units...

[rodent279]

59 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

 

Slightly odd that bit, Caine gets on the rear unit, sits down near the guy he is following, both of whom alight from the front unit at their destination (all be it, Caine alights trackside) but there is no corridor connection between the two units...

312 bashers, they hopped out and into the other unit at an intermediate stop!

[Jeremy Cumberland]

1 hour ago, rodent279 said:

312 bashers, they hopped out and into the other unit at an intermediate stop!

The train took the wrong road at Kentish Town and had to reverse at Upper Holloway.

[Johann Marsbar]

On 07/09/2024 at 15:24, rodent279 said:

Watching "The Fourth Protocol", 1987 movie of Frederick Forsyth's 1984 novel starring Michael "you're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off" Caine and a pre-007 Pierce Brosnan.

About 90 min in there are some scenes of a (very clean blue & grey) class 312 in St Pancras, then departing St P, some footage inside the train, then some of it arriving in what looks like Bedford.

 

Just watched the film on YT as there is actually a full version on there.   The Wiki entry says that the place you thought was Bedford was actually filmed Colchester, and looking at the shot, I'd agree, though the train actually stopped short in the platform and didn't put the whole train in the platform!

The three track layout wheere MC is standing also fits with Colchester.

[Northmoor]

I've just been watching John Betjemen's "Metroland" which was shown on BBC4 a few months ago.  Obviously some good footage of LT A-stock (and Class 115 DMUs on the Marylebone lines) but also of the Laureate on Quainton Road station, standing on the footbridge looking East over an overgrown site which became the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.  I think when it was made in 1972, they had only just restored the station.  The clips of him climbing into the old Met coaches though, not sure where they were filmed.

 

On another front, the new BBC series involving a sleeper train which is hacked and forced to crash, looks abysmal.

[KeithMacdonald]

29 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

I've just been watching John Betjemen's "Metroland"

 

Was that the same as this one?

 

 

[4630]

34 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

The clips of him climbing into the old Met coaches though, not sure where they were filmed.

 

 

If you scroll down on the linked page below, there's a suggestion that it was on the Bluebell Railway.

 

"...As such, they ran occasionally for filming work, including the Betjeman "Metroland"...."

 

https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/bash/hist.html

[Rugd1022]

On 09/09/2024 at 10:03, billy_anorak59 said:

Don't know if it's been posted before but spotted this in a short clip on TPTV's 'Footage Detectives' last night - the clip is from the 1961 film 'Murder in Eden'.

 

Reelstreets says that it was filmed in Dublin - it was the CIE 121 (?) Class that caught my eye, as it looked like an English inner-city scene at first glance.

 

Photo from the TV screen:

 

That looks similar to the location used in 'Robbery' where a large truck deposits a green Mk1 Mini 850 out the back.

[ajwffc]

5 hours ago, Northmoor said:

 

 

On another front, the new BBC series involving a sleeper train which is hacked and forced to crash, looks abysmal.

looks interesting 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0jh028t/nightsleeper-trailer-nightsleeper

[Hobby]

TBH I watched the trailer and that put me off watching it seems they took too many liberties with reality to make it watchable for me, it seems they've taken even more liberties than Tom Cruise in the first MI moves, though at least the rest of that movie made up for it!

[Hobby]

I've a feeling this has been mentioned before, but I've just been watching the Rupert Davies Maigret episode "The Golden Fleece" filmed on a canal with electric "tug" locos. Any idea where it was filmed?

[Jeremy Cumberland]

38 minutes ago, Hobby said:

I've a feeling this has been mentioned before, but I've just been watching the Rupert Davies Maigret episode "The Golden Fleece" filmed on a canal with electric "tug" locos. Any idea where it was filmed?

It has been mentioned before, and there was some discussion of canal haulage in France, prompted by the Maigret episode, in posts leading up to the one linked to below with its remarkable map. I don't think anyone identified the location, though.

 

[Pacific231G]

Update I've just watched the "Golden Fleece" episode of Maigret again and examined a couple of Frecnh waterways guides from around that time. 

I'm now certain it was filmed at the Ecluse Longueil-Annel (Oise) now known as Ecluse 4 (Janville) the last lock on the Canal latéral à l’Oise before it joins the River Oise (which is canalised and navigable down stream from there) at Janville.

This double chamber lock had the overhead aerial electric tractor "Chéneau" system to help non motorised boats to enter and exit the lock more efficiently as well as the CGTVN line (which predated it) running through to the barge port at the end of the canal at Janville.  it's about 100km from Janville to the Oise's confluence with the Seine just to the west of Paris. Janville was as close as the towing railway network came to Paris with "touage" by tugs available for unpowered barges going on down the Oise.

 

Images of this lock from when the railway was in use show several tractors there. and there was a siding near the lock for spare tractors to be kept. so they presumably dropped their tow for it to be taken through the lock to be picked up at the other end. The Chéneau system, which can be seen working in the episode was remotely operated by the lock keeper along with the gates and sluices from an overhead control cabin. 

 

Although we see quite a lot of the towing railway in the episode the tractors are simply shuffling up and down rater aimlessly without tows, (doubtless as requested by the director)  The buildings in old postcard views also look to be the same as the BBC location though looking at it on Street View it all looks rather different today.

Edited September 16 by Pacific231G
update with new information

[rodent279]

Question for those over a certain age. Can anyone confirm that the sax riff from Gerry Rafferty's 1978 hit Baker Street was used in a 1980's TV advert for chocolate? I've Googlised and YouTube'd, but can't find any reference to it.

 

(I know its not strictly on topic-but at least Baker Street is a major railway station!)

[ess1uk]

On 12/09/2024 at 08:23, Hobby said:

TBH I watched the trailer and that put me off watching it seems they took too many liberties with reality to make it watchable for me, it seems they've taken even more liberties than Tom Cruise in the first MI moves, though at least the rest of that movie made up for it!

I’ve heard the trailer on the radio and that was enough to put me off, I’d spend too much time shouting at the tv!

[Pacific231G]

2 hours ago, ess1uk said:

I’ve heard the trailer on the radio and that was enough to put me off, I’d spend too much time shouting at the tv!

I rather enjoyed the first two episodes of Night Sleeper which required rather less suspension of belief than I'd anticipated. I was expecting a really good laugh at the producers' expense with something as absurd as The Cassandra Crossing but, in the event, found it far better than that, both as a drama and in terms of rail probability. Credibility was stretched of course but not to breaking point and they'd anticipated the obvious, why not just turn the power off, with a hybrid loco. There were absurdities of course,  including that the locomotive was totally separate from the rest of the train but could be controlled from it, including disabling the dead man's  system; that all the emergency door releases could be centrally overriden; that one hackable system controlled every aspect of the train's operation; and that in an out of control train, liable to collide with something at any time, the passengers hadn't already been directed to the rear carriage.

Edited September 16 by Pacific231G

[Ben B]

8 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

I rather enjoyed the first two episodes of Night Sleeper which required rather less suspension of belief than I'd anticipated. I was expecting a really good laugh at the producers' expense with something as absurd as The Cassandra Crossing but, in the event, found it far better than that, both as a drama and in terms of rail probability. Credibility was stretched of course but not to breaking point and they'd anticipated the obvious, why not just turn the power off, with a hybrid loco. There were absurdities of course,  including that the locomotive was totally separate from the rest of the train but could be controlled from it, including disabling the dead man's  system; that all the emergency door releases could be centrally overriden; that one hackable system controlled every aspect of the train's operation; and that in an out of control train, liable to collide with something at any time, the passengers hadn't already been directed to the rear carriage.

 

We ended up box-setting it over 2 nights. There's odd moments of course if you're an enthusiast and know the network, and I'll admit to the occasional shout at the tv, but it was quite watchable. And a lot of the sillier plot bits like the complex electronics that control everything are at least silly in-universe, exasperate the characters, and are a plot point in that they're shown to be weakneses in-universe that allowed the hack to happen.

 

Clearly there's some decent CGI and by the look of it, some composited miniatures work, but a lot of real- world filming too. I'm guessing the loco is a redressed 94 or HST with a new nose, but I'll need to look it up to be sure.

[Cruachan]

1 hour ago, Ben B said:

Clearly there's some decent CGI and by the look of it, some composited miniatures work, but a lot of real- world filming too. I'm guessing the loco is a redressed 94 or HST with a new nose, but I'll need to look it up to be sure.

Class 94 is a fictional classification purely invented for the show - it's likeness appears to be derived from the class 397 units that are regular visitors to Glasgow Central on Transpennine services from Manchester and Liverpool.

Edited September 17 by Cruachan

[Ben B]

15 minutes ago, Cruachan said:

Class 94 is a fictional classification purely invented for the show - it's likeness appears to be derived from the class 397 units that are regular visitors to Glasgow Central on Transpennine services from Manchester and Liverpool.

 

Sorry, I meant a redressed 91, teach me to type when I'm half-asleep :)  I couldn't tell looking at the shots if they'd modified an old power car with a new nose for the filming at station scenes, or borrowed one of those off-lease TPE sets and done a new livery.

 

EDIT

Having re-watched the scenes at Glasgow Central, I think you're right, and it's a TPE Nova 2/class 397 with vinyls covering the windows of the dvt to make it look like a power car.

Edited September 17 by Ben B
Found more information out