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Railways in films

  • Thread starter Thread starter glaciermint
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glaciermint

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Reading that Buster Keaton's 'The General' was the first film to feature railways in a big way led me to thinking what other films have been made where a railway theme dominates. I can think of

The Railway Children - Yorkshire
The Titfield Thunderbolt - Somerset
Murder on the Orient Express
Oh Mr Porter - Ireland ?
St Trinians Train Robbery - ?

Any others spring to mind?

Bob
 
The Train, Burt Lancaster

Strangers On A Train, Robert Walker ( Hitchcock)

The Lady Vanishes (Hitchcock)

4.50 From Paddington (Agatha Cristie)

Man In London Railway Station (Hithcock)
 
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glaciermint said:
Reading that Buster Keaton's 'The General' was the first film to feature railways in a big way led me to thinking what other films have been made where a railway theme dominates. I can think of

The Railway Children - Yorkshire
The Titfield Thunderbolt - Somerset
Murder on the Orient Express
Oh Mr Porter - Ireland ?
St Trinians Train Robbery - ?

Any others spring to mind?

Bob
Click to expand...

In case we send forumers on a wild goose chase; regarding Oh! Mr. Porter: although the fictional setting was near to Enniskillen in N.Ireland, the filming was nearly all in the Basingstoke,Hampshire area. Cliddesdon Station (now swept away) was the main feature.

Regarding The Railway Children, I hear there is anytime now to be a cast reunion 40 years to the day on the preserved railway line,where it was filmed. Regrettably, the films director Lionel Jeffries died just a few weeks ago.
 
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Ghost Train starring the little chap who sang the Busy Bee Song Arthur Askey.
The Great Train Robbery with Richard Burton /
 
Arkrite said:
Ghost Train starring the little chap who sang the Busy Bee Song Arthur Askey.
The Great Train Robbery with Richard Burton /
Click to expand...

Wasn't the Ghost train written by Arnold Ridley of Dads Army fame?
 
Sorry a bit off topic but can i recommend you all to this book i picked up on EBay.
it gives you every films made to do with Railways & location
bit of a Bible really ........ ragga :)View attachment 47049
 
ragga said:
Sorry a bit off topic but can i recommend you all to this book i picked up on EBay.
it gives you every films made to do with Railways & location
bit of a Bible really ........ ragga :)View attachment 47049
Click to expand...

There is a copy of it here in the Yam-Yam town library system. Birmingham Libraries don't appear to own one at any branch. Just ONE error to date in it: the location of "The Mercenaries/Dark of the Sun" is given as Spain but its Jamaica. I have recently returned from Jamaica with material with which to author a magazine article later in 2010.
 
I guessed there would be many more than I could think of but am surprised to see there is a book on the subject!
Richie - I thought Oh Mr Porter had been filmed in Ireland but as you say it was just the fictional setting
Dek - I should have remembered Von Ryan's Express, I stood on the metal girder bridge where it entered the tunnel about 3 years ago (in Spain)

Bob
 
Hi Everyone.

There was a cracking 1950's film with Arthur Askey and Thora Hird called "The Love Match" which I have on DVD which had a lot of railway shots in it.

Rob.
 
the greatest was the "Titchfield Thunderbolt" 1952, this is the England I want to return too, but sadly has gone for good.
paul
 
The Railway Children was on the box this afternoon - I never miss an opportunity to watch it, mainly because I was, and am, deeply in love with Jenny Agutter. Does anyone know the identity of the village used in the film?

Big Gee
 
Filming locations

Lionel Jeffries used the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and its station at Oakworth as the backdrop for the film, referring to it as the Great Northern and Southern Railway.[2] A number of working locomotives were used in the making of the film, including MSC67, 5775, 520444744 (69523), all of which survive. They were painted in brown like the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, green like the Great Western Railway or black like British Railways.
A number of different locations were employed for various scenes. Bronte Parsonage in Haworth was used as the location for Doctor Forrest's surgery. The scenes of the children sitting on a bridge were filmed at Wycoller near Colne. Mytholmes Tunnel and the train tracks running through it was used extensively in the film, including being the location for the paperchase scene and when the children tried to warn the train about a landslide by waving the girls' petticoats in the air. The landslide sequence itself was filmed in a cutting on the side of Mytholmes Tunnel nearest to Oakworth. The fields of long grass where the children waved to the trains are situated above O (Preserved as L&Y 957),
 
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Well, thank you Mike. Oakworth near Keighley. For whatever reason I always thought that the locations were further north. I was in Keighley quite recently, bit run down these days, but the surrounding countryside is wonderful, especially up towards Skipton. Haworth is still a nice place, too.

Big Gee
 
There are several DVDs out under the title "Steam on 35mm" The contents consist of footage shot by British Film studios as stock footage for insetion into feature films etc. Apart from being shot on quality 35mm film stock with sound, some in colour, the cameras were kept rolling for long periods. For example the footage for the comedy "The lady Killers" shot just outiside Kings Cross has long running shots in colour of trains. I have most of these on VHS tape and they are qute fascinating with interesting commentry from John Huntley.

For example, Jack Warner fell into a turn table pit whilst shooting a film at a London Shed and recieved back injuries that remained with him for the rest of his life.

https://www.video125.co.uk/acatalog/Steam_on_35mm_3___4_DVD.html


I think the link above only shows part of the range available, unless they have been slightly condenced for DVD release into one DVD set
 
Thanks for that info Mike. We're staying near Wycoller for a few days at Easter so I'll try and look for one or two of the locations. Wish I'd known it was on today I'd have paid attention to the scenery (and I don't just mean Jenny A, Big Gee! - though I agree she has a certain je ne sais quoi)

Bob
 
Hi Glaciermint,

my missus always asks why I watch The Railway Children whenever it's on...I tell her because I am incredibly interested in steam trains....

Big Gee
 
Going further afield...at one time a cowboy film had to have a railway thread. Who can forget the tension at the railway station in "High Noon", the fight on the timber wagons in " How the West was Won". That great silent film of a hand powered trolley cart travelling from one coast of the U.S.A to the other. The main character in The
Waltons​
,
JimBob​
, starred as a
hobbo​
on a
freight​
train with a sadistic guard ( Eli
Wallach​
? ). The scenery was fantastic but like so many films I have
forgotten​
the titles.


Now What happened There ???........Its going to be one of those days, I just know it !!!!
 
And although the trains only had a roll on part they were significant to the plot in Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid and Buster, & someone already mentioned the First Great Train Robbery
 
One outstanding source of railway film that deserves mention is the British Transport Film Unit, which was set up after the nationalisation of the railways partly to promote business but also to raise people's spirits in that very hard time of austerity. Most of the films were documentary in character, but the technical quality is outstanding, as is so much of the content of the films. The film unit continued in a high profile way (with a massive budget) through the 1950s, but the tory government in the early 1960s soon cut that. The unit continued from hand to mouth into the very early 1970s at least. Working as an architect for the railways I had a few things to do with them, on projects like Sheffield Tinsley Marshalling Yard (1964) and the last was in 1971 or 1972 on the reconstruction of London Bridge Station.
You can often see old BTF footage on television. Last night for example there was ten minutes with John Betjamin on BBC Channel 4 TV at 7.00.
On a different theme, I was a student when the 'Titfield Thunderbolt' film came out in 1953. I was also Publicity Officer of the Midland Area of the Railway Development Association, and we arranged to do a deal with the manager of the Odeon (I think) cinema at Sutton, to put up a display pressing for better service on the Sutton line, with more frequent trains, diesel rather than steam and a new station at Butlers Lane. This was part of a wider campaign which received a lot of support from MPs and local councils and eventually we got all we asked for - very much like the Titfield Thunderbolt story!
Peter
 
Not really a film about railways as such, but I always liked 'The Ladykillers' (1950, I think) for the railway and station scenes that feature in it. Great film.
 
Perhaps I'm a little old than some but two of the greatest railway fims was The 39 Steps and Brief Encounter.

While I was doing my National Service I was sent on a course to Beaconsfield and had to travel through Marylebone Railway Station in London and they were filming the Oscar Wilde with Peter Finch.

The scene was when he was going the France they used an East Region B1 loco the train pulled in and out of the platformthat many timesand a foot of film was rolled.

I've never seen such a bad tempered person in my life as Peter Finch swearing pushing and shoving and walking off the set, I'm surprise the film ever got finished.

there I go again dragging up old memories.

Ray
 
Hi All,

How about the Ghost Train - "Where do it come from, where do it go?" is a line I always remember from that film.

Old Boy
 
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