Recent Filming at NVR

Snowfall hits Cambridgeshire as a new episode of 'Poirot' is being filmed at the Nene Valley Railway. The episode is based on the 'Murder on the Orient Express' and uses the railway's continental stock (mainly the corporate Wagon Lits set) and BR Standard 5MT 73050.

This is the second time Poirot has been filmed at NVR with 'Mystery of the Blue Train' being filmed in 2005 and shown on New Years Day 2006.

Pics of the filming can be found here:

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=13

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=12

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=11

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=10

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=14

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=15

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=17

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=18

This is certainly a good money earner for the railway and another reason why the continental stock is worth having!!!

 

wow! the standard 5 looks, looks....!

 

Did it feel colder with the artificial snow in place and warmer when washed away?

Certainly did at Grosmont about 15 years ago when a train crash in the snow was filmed for Heartbeat. At one point, the whole of the track area from the tunnel right into the platforms was covered with foam representing snow and it felt freezing!

(One of my strangest jobs as a signalman was "waggling" the point leaver for Grosmont crossover for the filming of the points that caused the crash refusing to go across due to ice - after the point blades had received "make-up" to look frosted. Obviously, the story depended upon ignoring signal interlocking!)

How did they do the snow draft that the Orient Express gets stuck in?


Steven

 

i know what you mean,we had the tweenies up here at Peak and uncle Max was operating church lane, the film crew managed to get the interlocking completely mixed up in editing...

looking forward to seeing you on telly, I like Poirot, especially if its David Suchet doing him,must get down to see your line too,only got a quick look in at Peterborough when i was on a course there last year.

 

That lamp looks familiar! 101A?

As for the 'snow' on the loco, I've seen worse attempts at weathering in OO scale ;-)

 

As far as I know the head lamp is from 101, certainly lights up the track for miles!!

The filming of Poirot does star David Suchet and also filming has taken place at Pinewood Studios with the some of the NVR's stock, mainly the Corporate Wagon Lits Set.

I'll add more info as when I get it

 

Some more pics from the recent filming also showing 5MT 73129 which by the looks of it was also used. News to me!!

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=20

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=16

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=18

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=19

http://www.nvr.org.uk/gallery/?gal=49&index=22

 

Very interesting, thanks for posting. Good to see some of the Continental stock being used as the fantastic asset that it is for these sorts of projects. Hope the filming brings a useful sum of money to the railway. The shots are far more convincing than the mk1's sometimes used in historic and/or 'foreign' tv/films!

Regards,

Paul

 

Yeah it should do and with Santa bookings looking strong we'll hopefully have a great end to the year financially.

Filming ended during the week at NVR so coaches will be cleaned and ready for the start of the Santa's this Sunday.

Looks like 73129 was used for filming at Pinewood Studios and 73050 used for fillming at NVR.

A film with 2 Standard 5's!!

 

That answers my question about the snow drift - looks like Black Park next to Pinewood Studios - I think that this is where Olton Hall and the Hogwarts Express ends up for the Hogsmeade end of the journeys in recent Harry Potter films.

Clever way round Nene Valley not being able to spare 73050 - and a good boost for 73129's new tyres, I am sure!

 

David Suchet is on the Bluebells 50th Anniversary Patrons.Don't they use the Bluebell to film sometimes.

 

Yes, almost all the filming for the original series of hour long episodes (and feature lengths produced at the same time - with Hasting, Japp and Miss Lemon) based on short stories was done on the Bluebell, sometimes using elsewhere for exteriors; the very first episode used the NYMR with 6619 and a set of Maroon Mark 1s for a train the Lake District (!) whilst The Plymouth Express used 777 at Hull Paragon for both Paddington (!) and Plymouth.

Both stories also had scenes filmed on the Bluebell, including all interior carriage shots. The 1st episode also had a single shot at Marylebourne with the "filming set" (DMU trailer cars in GWR livery also used in the Miss Marple The 4:50 from Paddington), whilst The ABC Murders also had a shot at Marylebourne (I think) as Doncaster as well as much filming on the Bluebell.

Nene Valley was used for The Mystery of the Blue Train, the original novel of which was a lengthened verison of The Plymouth Express.

Steven

 

One production I've seen of that story has Miss Marple walking up to Paddington station and a newspaper vendor is shouting out the "Russians have launched a satelite" which makes it 1957 or if it was "Man in space" sets the story in 1961. Needless to say inside Paddington, the loco tenders all read Great Western Railway and all coaching stock is in chocolate & cream.

 

The reason quoted at the time by the BBC for using GWR livery was that the Severn Valley, where the bulk of the filming was done, had two GWR sets but just one "Blood & Custard" set. The locos used on the Valley were 80079 and Raveningham Hall, which had "British Railways" on the tender in the GWR style at the time. 80079 had to be "doubled" at Marylebourne - by 34028!!!

The key part of the story was a friend of Miss Marple's on one train ("The 4:50 from Paddington") saw a murder committed as the train overtook a stopping train on the stopper. This needed two trains to run parallel in the dark, which was done at the Kidderminster end of Bewedley. Some extra panels of track were relaid on the Stourpart branch to give 80079 "stopping distance". A friend of mine was SVR representative with the camera crew filming the two trains passing from where the two tracks diverged and said it was a most memorable experience seeing steam train charge past on both sides of where he was standing!

Steven

 

Here it is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOPLtplVVaw