St Trinians

ITV 3 are broadcasting (again) the 1966 film "The great St Trinian's train robbery". I know a lot of the railway scenes were filmed on the Longmoor Military Railway, but were the locos MoD ones repainted, or BR lo0cos hired for the film?
During te chase sequence, the thieves are on a J50 68950 and the school girls on a J94 68011. Both locos are black and have the BR emblem on as well as their BR number. I know the MoD had J94s at Longmoor, but J50s?
Intriguingly, the shed plate on 68011 is AD2 which presumably denoted Army Depot 2. I was not aware of any J50s making it that far South from their usual haunts though.

 

Info is here anazingly - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_St_Trinian's_Train_Robbery

 

Errol Lonsdale back on the MHR a few years back


Errol Lonsdale at Alresford by Arle Images, on Flickr

 

One of the locos was mocked up to look like a J50, but both were J94s.

 

I thought this thread was about the GWSR gving 2999 a more appropriate name

Indeed. I never cease to be amazed at how many people prefer to spend more time posting a longer question on internet forums than doing a quick Google search and answering questions for themselves.

 

925 "Cheltenham" had some improvised "St Trinian's" plates at Ropley once!

 

I have every sympathy with people who don't trust Wikipedia!
I'd be very interested to know why the film makers decided they wanted a mocked up J50, never quite understood why that was chosen...

 

As an aside, the Hampshire unit was driven by an Eastleigh crew. Apparently it was easy work and free food from the film caterers....

Cheers, Neil

 

I am afraid that I have reached the age where anything related to St Trinians is prohibited for health reasons....................

 

Presumably they wanted it to look a bit different, so viewers could easily tell the difference between the robber’s train and the schoolgirl’s train.

Maybe a J50 was just felt to be the easiest loco to disguise an Austerity as?

 

And the J50 style, with those socking great cut-outs at the bottom of the tanks, means you can still oil round whilst in fancy dress. Not a bad solution.