The Linear Scrapyard: Which locos/coaches/wagons in it would you most like to see get restored ?

I thought I'd heard that the film company knowingly chose a post war Mk1 over period vehicles for practical reasons.

 

Wouldn’t surprise me. There were a few historical inaccuracies that were made on purpose for dramatic/practical purposes

 

I started watching the film on a flight from Heathrow to Singapore - however the first 5 minutes were enough to put me off watching any further when I saw the length of the hair on the 1940 squaddies. If the film makers couldn't even get something as simple as that correct..............

 

And if I remember correctly the train was hauled by the Dukedog running with an SECR tender...

 

deleted as off topic.

 

Going OT, but you missed something rather special despite the lack of literal accuracy at times.


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In all this talk about filming, people are forgetting that appropriate rolling stock is only one consideration (and possibly not the most important one).

Firstly, the physical characteristics of the location itself may be an important point. For example, the film may require a tunnel, or train going over a viaduct, or along a river, which automatically narrow the choices of location down.

Secondly, there's a whole paraphanelia of filming (especially for big films) - can the railway provide parking space for the umpteen lorries of equipment, generators, lighting and so on? What about security? Are there good quality hotels nearby if the shoot is going to take several days?

Then there is fitting in with the railway: can the filming, and maybe the setup / strike down of the set take place when there is no other traffic (easier for the film company and probably the railway, but limits the shoot to certain times of the year). Can the railway help with things like a mobile camera vehicle for tracking shots and so on?

Then, finally, you get to the question of appropriate locomotives and rolling stock. But maybe it is not surprising if that is what you compromise on if it means better choices in the first three.

If the money is available, the one item that isn't fixed is the rolling stock, so transporting rolling stock to the right location may well be easier than trying to make a location with appropriate stock look right for the film. A spectacular example of that approach was taking an Edwardian loco and eight carriages - ranging from Victorian to 1930s - by rail, up the Brighton Mainline, through London and down the last bit of the ECML into Kings Cross for a weekend of filming for "Wonder Woman". Such an approach doesn't come cheap though, and it is probably only the real blockbusters that can contemplate that level of organisation (not to mention the massive amount of work for the railway involved to actually make that happen).

Tom

 

The only utterly "right" railway sequence I can recall is an episode of "Poirot" set in Deauville where the nearest available steam train was the Pacific Vapeur Club's Etat 2-3-1- G and matching carriage rake based in Rouen. Even then the fourgon was not marshalled just next to the tender as it would have been but that's ultra fussy!

PH

 

Thanks for the compliment RE the Mk1's. Problem is, the gold ones don't stay gold! I daresay if you wanted to change some (hypothetically) you could restore other designs and slowly sell the worst of the mark 1's one by one to shift the balance over 10 or so years. But I'm talking nonsense of course! The Mark 1's are firmly set in the railway's carriage strategy and are very much here for the long term! I'm of course currently part of the team myself working on these very vehicles and its clear the NNR is putting a great deal of labour and investment into them to improve the poorer examples.

As for the Gresley and Vintage stock, that's very much the M&GN Society's call so in many ways they're quite separate to the Mark 1 (or "company") stock. That won't stop any of us dreaming though, myself included ;-)

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Tom, as ever you hit the the nail bang on the head, when we had 'Oh Doctor Beeching' filmed at Arley I recall it was done at the shoulder of the season, (end of March until May) various things that we wanted to do as regards station maintenance, we couldn't do (painting, gardening etc), as it was all 'in shot'. When you have something like 'ODB' which requires something like 5/6 weeks of filming, with something that's not a closed set, you've still got other trains (regular service, ECS or works on filming days) And this is where I do tend to get a bit annoyed with those who pick fault, as regards the Formica Mk1 at the end of Dunkirk, I tried so hard to fight back tears at that scene, rather than try and pick it apart and criticise, let's just remember there's a certain carriage in France that's 'not authentic' but it's a bloody big reminder of where things have gone wrong in the past https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiègne_Wagon

 

Having finally seen Dunkirk at the weekend I felt a little cheated! I think mainly because I'd heard and believed all the hype about it. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it, but like many on here, I spent time looking for howlers. Some because I'd heard about them and some because they were just too obvious and it wasn't just the railway scene which was one of the obvious ones. Did anyone else notice that in the view of Weymouth Harbour in the 8th minute, there was a clear view of the Jurassic Skyline Tower which only opened in 2012? Even an amateur with access to basic editing equipment could have erased that.

I accept that many films can carry off anomalies when they are pure fiction and have no specific date but when the film is supposed to portray an historical moment in time, it does somewhat jade the experience.

Going back on thread, the loco I most want to see restored has a future but no timeline. 34058. Yes, it's a Bulleid and yes we have many examples of them already restored but a rebuilt lightweight would ideally replace Bodmin like for like at the MHR and you can never have too many Bulleid's anyway!

 

Well, nearly all right- the train and half the locomotive -not bad for 1970!

 

Just getting back onto thread, one vehicle I am really looking forward to seeing fully restored is the second LNER Coronation Beavertail.
Now, I know this is already the subject of another thread, and one of our well-known members is working on this particular carriage under conditions of confidentiality, so nobody actually knows what will happen to it when it is completed. As it will probably be in full "Coronation" regalia, personally, I hope it ends up in the NRM behind Mallard, it would seem to be the only meaningful place for such a carriage, as it would probably look silly hitched up behind ordinary Gresley stock.
Does anyone have any snippets on this?
http://www.rvp-ltd.org.uk/images/BH3.jpg

 

That's a very sobering thought, Matt.

 

I hate the expression 'first world problems' but, if errors in blockbuster films is something that people genuinely get angry about, then my goodness the rest of those people's lives must be utterly awesome!

 

Maybe so, but if I was that much against passing on information, then why did I offer copies of maintennce manuals etc to all?

From March 22, 2009:

"If any C&W people would like an electronic copy of the two BR workshop manuals for MK1 and 2 coaches, drop me an email to xxxxxxxxx, and the two documents will come as seperate emails (3.0MB and 2.9MB)

regards

Frank N.

N.B. Offer now withdrawn due to ungrateful people not even having the courtesy to acknowledge receipt or thank me for the manuals."

I await your apology!

 

Pity about that as I work on much earlier vehicles !
Sometimes there isn't much left to work with, either ...

 

Maybe it was felt that someone with such apparently crippling shyness and modesty would be too afraid to come out of their shell and tell everyone else how it should be done?

That's the trouble with irony- it so often gets lost on the printed page

 

The old authenticity canard... an authentic train from my childhood would be an industrial and some mk1s. Normally authenticity is what the behold thinks is authentic rather than what was. Authenticity is the imagined good bits and forgets the awful bits.

Authenticity is the smell of stale smoke, filthy windows, the miserable guy in the ticket office. I’m not sure I have any desire to see someone revive BR posters from the 1970s and 1980s featuring Jimmy Savile and Gary Glitter.

I was amused recently by an article praising the tv series ‘comrade detective’ for its authenticity and its recreation of 1970s and 1980s Bucharest. The only problem was that the photo they included of ‘authentic Bucharest’ included a sign for a pawnbroker. (Pawnbroking being illegal etc) but of course unless you are a Romanian speaker you aren’t going to pick up on that. So it isn’t just railways where filmmakers play fast and loose.

Oh and back to the issue in hand - I’d like to see the Binbrooke Crab and the 45 rise from the dead along with any rotting coaches or wagons. It’s all good to me.

 

I do think it's nice to see different liveries despite what some might say there's a fair old bit of variety off the top of my head we have, 2 crimson crabs, an apple green B12 and N2, there's various GW class's in GW green, then there's the Bluebell who seem to take great pride in out shopping their loco's in anything other than BR livery, (unless it's the only livery they can carry Q1 excepted
) we've had Bittern in Garter Blue, a Great Eastern Y14, then there's the transition liverys 61306 and 60163 in Apple Green and 34081 in Southern Sunshine, throw in L1 and a couple of panniers in LT red it's not all bad, there are coats of many colours, you just have to open your eyes and look for them.