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Trains in movies

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anamyd

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Oh OK - I assume the footage did come from the GWML. Thanks for the info about the Merlin livery. Interesting!

-Peter
1994 was when the BR sectors were split into "shadow franchises" (I watched a 1994 "South West Trains" training video on YouTube; Stagecoach then took that over in 1996) but 1996-1997 was when operations transferred, not all at once - for example in 1996 the GWML transferred from BR to Great Western Holdings (later bought by FirstBus), along with the ECML to GNER, yet BR were still running the WCML until it was handed over to Virgin in 1997, and BR were also still running many regional services until 1997 when they transferred to operators like Wales & West and Central Trains (two of the once many National Express-owned TOCs). BR continued to exist until 2001 for winding down.
 
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Peter C

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1994 was when the BR sectors were split into "shadow franchises" (I watched a 1994 "South West Trains" training video on YouTube; Stagecoach then took that over in 1996) but 1996-1997 was when operations transferred, not all at once - for example in 1996 the GWML transferred from BR to Great Western Holdings (later bought by FirstBus), along with the ECML to GNER, yet BR were still running the WCML until it was handed over to Virgin in 1997, and BR were also still running many regional services until 1997 when they transferred to operators like Wales & West and Central Trains (two of the once many National Express-owned TOCs). BR continued to exist until 2001 for winding down.
OK. Very interesting - thanks a lot! :)

-Peter
 

Peter C

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If Paddington and Paddington 2 haven't been mentioned yet, they are two films which contain trains - the latter a lot more than the former. The shot of the Brown family finding Paddington at Paddington station contains a FGW HST, if I remember correctly. The second film contains Tornado and an LMS Crab!

-Peter
 

rogercov

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Thanks for posting, I've ridden those units + the Oerlikon Open saloon sets back in the day.....
(My father's preferred route from Walthamstow to Windsor was 35 bus to Dalston, NL line to Richmond & a 2-NOL to Windsor Riverside.)
Thanks. I remember seeing the Oerlikon sets but never got to travel on one. By the time I was old enough to travel around by myself, there were still some ex-LMS units but the BR standard ones were coming in.
 

Peter C

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Apologise if it has already been mentioned, but the film The Last Passenger is all set on a train. Go watch it - a diesel train on the southern region going to Hastings creates sparks on a 3rd rail whilst speeding through SWR stations and one of the characters consults a Network Rail rule book whilst in a slam door train. No year is said. Hmm...

-Peter
 

anamyd

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a diesel train on the southern region going to Hastings creates sparks on a 3rd rail
Maybe it was a rare third rail bi-mode prototype...? :lol: will definitely have to watch this sometime!
 

Peter C

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Maybe it was a rare third rail bi-mode prototype...? :lol: will definitely have to watch this sometime!
It was definitely something! It was in Connex in one scene, BR Blue the other, and then it sometimes looked like a 423 and sometimes like a 205... and, without wanting to spoil the film, it all takes place on the same three-car formation! It is one mess of a film.
All I will show is this:
v1.aDs5OTM3NztqOzE4MTgxOzEyMDA7MjA0ODs4ODk

(From IMDB)

In this one, it's in BR Blue and Grey! And that signal in the top left is nothing like any British signal I have ever seen.
And again, from IMDB:
v1.bjs0MDk5O2o7MTgxODA7MTIwMDsxODY3OzEyNDE

Looks like SWT colours to me.

-Peter
 

MarlowDonkey

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I seem to recall a brief night time shot in the second Bond movie, From Russia with Love, where the Orient Express has been relocated to the Southern Region and consists of Green coaches hauled by a Standard Five.
 

LOL The Irony

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It was definitely something! It was in Connex in one scene, BR Blue the other, and then it sometimes looked like a 423 and sometimes like a 205... and, without wanting to spoil the film, it all takes place on the same three-car formation! It is one mess of a film.
All I will show is this:
v1.aDs5OTM3NztqOzE4MTgxOzEyMDA7MjA0ODs4ODk

(From IMDB)

In this one, it's in BR Blue and Grey! And that signal in the top left is nothing like any British signal I have ever seen.
And again, from IMDB:
v1.bjs0MDk5O2o7MTgxODA7MTIwMDsxODY3OzEyNDE

Looks like SWT colours to me.

-Peter
Wikipedia states they usec 421's & 423's.
 

Peter C

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Wikipedia states they usec 421's & 423's.
1497 was one of the Lymington units, so yes - it would have an SWT interior scheme.

Class 421.
Thanks both - I still find it interesting that they decided to portray the 421 as being diesel-powered. Having seen the film, I know it plays a part in one scene, and that's it. For the rest of the film, it chops and changes between diesel and electric!
Turns out the film is set in 2004, which raises the question of why it was in BR Blue and Grey! :)

-Peter
 

Murray J

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in the Doctor Who Episode flatline (2014) what looks like a BR green 121 or 122 appears in CGI form, interestingly set in modern day Bristol. also it's headcode switches between scenes and it appears to be 2 car but 1 unit. there is also seemingly a 489 in "the woman who fell to earth", with the unit number 9110, a preserved unit with barry tourist railway. exterior shots seem to be done with an unidentified loco and a rake of carriages.

also there's a BR blue class 47 in life on mars.
 

richieb1971

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This scene didn't make sense to me in Hugo. Hugo was 6ft-12ft from the buffers at a terminus and yet the driver is going 60mph into the station screaming "boy on the track". The buffers are only 12ft behind the boy and the train goes through the back of the station.



Unstoppable. Stanton curve at 02:00 in the clip where the train tilts at 45 degrees onto one side of wheels is hilarious.


The best train movies are Runaway train and the Northwest Frontier imho.
 

Peter C

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Apologies if this has already been posted, but the children's TV show Horrible Histories used the Bluebell Railway (I assume Horstead Keynes) for their section in an episode about the Great Western Railway. An S15 hauls a GWR train formed of SR stock. :) The BBC seem to have used it quite a few times for filming.

-Peter
 

LAX54

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I could ignore TOPS codes on goods wagons supposedly in wartime Poland (The Password is Courage) but I did find the words "British Railways" on the side of a supposedly Victorian locomotive (The Secret Agent) jarring.

Although the film was made in 1962, and BR found out about TOPS in 1968 :)
 

d9009alycidon

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If you want a film sequence with as many errors as possible then the original Mission Impossible is hard to beat, the sequence is here
. So we have a "TGV" running without OHLE and a double track Channel Tunnel with a single portal. Of course the OHLE would have got in the way of the ridiculous scenario where the heicopter flies into the tunnel after the train. It was actually filmed on the GSWR between Kilmarnock and Dumfries using a 4TC unit and a class 33.
Best has to be the 1959 version of the "39 Steps", the colour footage of the trains is superb, you can almost forgive the Aberdeen train leaving form the wrong end of Waverley (it could have gone round the sub)
 

Cletus

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Yesterday on Film 4, I re-watched the 1960's film The Train starring Burt Lancester.

No idea if the trains used were authentic, but a very good film.
 

bastien

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After I'd watched 'Source Code' (dir. Duncan 'Zowie Bowie' Jones) I had to check that those double-deck Chicago commuter trains were real. They're bizarre, the upper level is basically a mezzanine running the length of the coach.
 

STEVIEBOY1

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I seem to recall a brief night time shot in the second Bond movie, From Russia with Love, where the Orient Express has been relocated to the Southern Region and consists of Green coaches hauled by a Standard Five.
Yes, I noticed that too.
 

STEVIEBOY1

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156457 rolling into Attadale station in Hamish Macbeth (1995)

View attachment 68676

There was another scene in Hamish Macbeth I recall, where I think Hamish and a girl were waiting at a small fully open/uncovered Terminus Station, presumably supposed to be in his village of Lochdubh and a 1 or 2 carriage sprinter train came in, don't know where they filmed that, but it could not of been on the Kyle or Far North lines.
 

STEVIEBOY1

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I was watching a Poirot film the other night, based I think in the mid 1930s, on the Moors in West Yorkshire, which had some train scenes. I think filming the railway shots may have been done of the KWVRly. An all stations stopping train to London King's Cross was announced, but when it came in, it was only 3 or 4 carriages in Maroon and the loco had LMS on the side. The journey time was about 3-4 hours. (Did any LMS trains ever go into King's Cross, I thought it was all LNER at that time.)
 
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