Foxfield features in "Cranford" 20th & 27th Dec

The Foxfield Railway will feature in the BBC "Cranford" drama to be sceened on 20th & 27th December @ 21.00 - 22.30.

It remains the case that the railway is not able say more, clips are now on the BBC web site however & trailers are being screened on BBC.

Resident VCT owned "Bellerophon" and coach's from Tanfield were used along most of the railway, we look forward to the end result !.

 

Also a filming of Cranford on BBC4 - will find out when, with luck we will also feature in this.

 

A couple of the 'stars' of the forthcoming production? Of course Bellerophon will be the real star... hope Dame Judi doesn't mind being upstaged!

 

More Cranford stuff http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.u...m-railway/article-1622575-detail/article.html

 

Nice warm up this week - Lots more of Foxfield next week.

 

Nice choice of Bellerophon and the VCT coaches for this job. In one of the "distant" shots there appeared to be an open wagon and a SR brake van tacked on, was this for "brake force" as they say nowadays?

Where was "Hanbury Halt" built? (In my ignorance I thought that was one of the stations on the Gwili Railway)

The linked press article mentions two Staffordshire villages used as locations for filming, but also the "wide main street" shots were at Lacock village in Wiltshire. We called at Lacock abbey in August and were told of the filming, which I think had already taken place.

 

"Hanbury Halt" is Dilhorne Park Station ( sitting at the top of Foxfield Bank ), is our current limit of passenger service - set to change next year. The wooden structure was made for the filming.

The coach's were not from the VCT but from our friends on the Tanfield Railway.

We we be able to say more after next Sunday's episode.

 

Well that is a wrap as they say.

How the Tanfield lads laughed after they were told that the two wrecked coachs in the field were replicas. For a few moments the well known C&W supt from Gateshead thought that the BBC had killed his two prize coachs during the filming !.

 

The staging of the boiler explosion wasn't too badly done. My only disappointment was that we hardly got a decent view of the beautiful Bellerophon through the whole two programmes.

 

Film and TV companies do tend to be wonderful! Given that they had to buld two replica bodies with ends, a roof and one side (and presumably a mock up compartment interior), you would have thought it might have been easier to build the other side as well and mount the replicas on flat wagons thereby avoiding hiring and transporting complete coaches at all!

How many people remember an episode of Silent Witness which included a very similar modern crash to the Cranford one (substitute a Land Rover for a cow and the Nene Valley's Class 117 DMu for the train). A full size, wooden Class 117 driving car was made for that and used both for after immediately the crash and the subsequent "accident investigation" - no mention of HMRI in that mind! (At least Cranford mentioned the Board of Trade Inquiry)

Steven

 

i loved the whole programe, are there plans to do further episodes it would be intreging to see the changes as the lives of the village open up as travel to futher flung places becomes the norm and maybe introduce railway people into the story,what would some make of a station master etc locals going to work at the station etc

 

The writer has said that there will be no more episodes of Cranford, because it has reached a 'natural conclusion'.

Regards,

Dan

 

It is indeed sad that the series is not to be taken on further into the "railway era". I wonder who advised them about the historical aspects of the railway at the time, ie the 1830's? The name "Grand Junction Railway" was accurate, and for the location in Cheshire. Sometimes I tear my hair out when I see historical dramas on the TV, and you see glaring" railway" inaccuracies.

The Grand Junction Railway was opened in July 1837, our first truly "trunk" railway, and ran from Birmingham via Wolverhampton,Stafford and Crewe, to Newton Junction on the much better known Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

Very enjoyable last episode. Why did it have to be on at 9pm, when you consider it was a ninety minute programme, and considering the other rubbish we had to put up with on the telly over the festive season!

 

I would say 'never say never' regarding further episodes, I'm sure the cast and crew would be happy to do it and there are still plenty more Elizbeth Gaskill stories about Cranford as yet un-treated. I would guess that if the viewing figures were right and the finance was available it would be considered, don't forget that the first series came in for several award nominations. As far as Bellerophon and Foxfield goes, we would be more than happy to have them back, although we might have to rename Bellerophon seeing as as she was 'blown up'!
Regarding the explosion the crew took pains to try and make the 'explosion' as realistic as possible and the FX guys were open to advice on the subject. In fact the whole team were happy to listen and take heed as they turned up with a red and green flag for the guard and it was pointed out that the correct colour for all clear at that time was white. How many of you spotted the guard gave the right away with a white flag in episode 1?
The 5 days spent filming were very enjoyable and entertaining and we were able to provide the production team with everything they required, and a bit more as we stepped up to provide a diesel and brake coach to transport supplies to Hanbury Halt, I mean Dilhorne Park, when the weather turned bad and prevented the 4x4's getting over the fields!
There are many more little tales to tell about the five days but I will just relate the comment made by the runner for the film crew at the end of the Wednesday evening shoot for the jump off the bridge. He had been on the footplate with us all evening relaying from the director as we stormed up and down the Bythe Bridge branch and they were able to finish 30 minutes early. As we blasted the loco and train back out of the cutting (1 in 40) to go back to Caverswall Road station he said that in the 10 years he'd been involved in film work this was the first time he was sorry to wrap early!
If you want to catch Bellerophon she should be in steam on the 2nd and 3rd January 2010 taking visitors to Hanbury Halt, although we won't be able to recreate the full train as the Tanfield lads had their coaches back!

 

On the coach front we are able to borrow suitable alternatives, its a gamble however.

Our NSR coach trust is doing well, two chassis almost finished, and £5k in the pot. Most of use would like to see these coach's in regular use ASAP, very suitable for our older engines and gets us away from thr MK1's.

Did you notice the Blythe Line in use - rare stuff !. Since then a great deal of clearance has taken place on this section - be good restore this last section once the bank is dusted.

 

Not quite on topic but it seemed a little daft to start another thread about the Foxfield. In an old issue of the 'Railway Magazine' the colliery site of what is now the Foxfield Railway is called 'Godleybrook Colliery'. Does anybody know when the name of the colliery changed?

Regards

 

I thoroughly agree with martin butler about the potential for Cranford-type stories about the effect of a new railway on a 19th century town. I loved the bit in the first episode when the girl realised you could stand up in the moving carriage and not be dashed against the compartment wall (lurched, maybe, but not dashed).
Now that Michael Portillo has proved to be such an eloquent interpreter of the impact of the railway in his new series, perhaps he could be asked to prod his chums at the BBC.