The LNER at the Movies (and in books)

[coachmann]

Mickey, do those books actually feature photos taken in GNR/LNER days? Or are they the more usual fare of BR at the end of steam.....?

[2512silverfox]

Larry

The Middleton Press books are very detailed and very good. They do often include contemporary photos of buildings and trains, and also period maps of the locations. To be recommended. Vic Mitchell, one of the originators of the series, is himself a modeller and an erstwhile member of the MRC.

I suppose it depends what you want them for, but I have to admit to spending hours going over some of the areas for which I have a personal knowledge. I must get my order for the new ones off to Bob Pearman soonest!

Best wishes

Nick

[Mickey]

Yes coachmann, they show a wide range of photographs more so from the from the 1890s-1960s with one or two more up to date pictures included to maybe show a past and present location. When these Middleton press books first came out about 15 years ago or there about they seem to deal mainly with the Southern region branch lines but in more recent years they have started to look at other regions. I am actually going to go and buy the Hitchin to Peterborough book today because amongst other things there are several photographs taken at Abotts Ripton station in the 1890s which i have 'never seen' before they seem to dig up quite a number of previously unpublished photographs and the printed text seems pretty much spot on as well. Micky GNR/L.N.E.R.

[coachmann]

Thanks for that gentlemen. It must be difficult selling railway books to a wide audience these days now so many model shops have dissapeared. I live in Wales and my 'local' bookseller where I could have a browse before purchase was Norman Wisenden 83 miles away in West Yorkshire. Nowadays I mostly have to depend on word of mouth.

[Mickey]

There are two of these Middleton press books i really want to get hold of. The first is Dunstable (GNR) to Hatfield which includes part of the route that i described elsewhere on this forum that i walked in 1969 that went through Luton, Harpenden, Ayot, Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield. The other is railways around Hertford and again includes a route that i again walked in 1969 between Hertford and Welwyn Garden City and which i described elsewhere on this forum. If you enter 'Middleton press' into your pc and press enter you should get there home and index page with all the titles that they publish. Micky GNR/L.N.E.R.

[richard]

This thread was intended more for books and movies that aren't specifically railway books and movies - eg. novels and and fiction films.


Richard

[kudu]

Looking at all these movies, I'm surprised not to find Sherlock Holmes - Bradshaw was always at hand. Didn't he travel to Scotland in the Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Being a discerning man, he must surely have preferred the East Coast to the West Coast route.

Peter

No doubt he did. But the protagonist in Susan Hill's ghost story "The Woman in Black", clearly (no, not clearly, rather mistily, in fact) set in the Lincolnshire or Cambridgeshire fens, opts to change at Crewe en route from London. Susan Hill evidently did not have her Bradshaw to hand at the time.

Kudu

[giner]

Just watching the Hitchcock "39 Steps" on TV now. Backed up the PVR and paused the pic. and, though blurry, the A3 leaving Platform 10 at Kings Cross appears to be 2595 Trigo or 2596 Manna. There's also, though undistinguishable and further back in the shot, another A3 sat in Platform 7.

[kudu]

An unusual addition to the list is "The Illusionist" (2010), an animated film set mainly in 1950s Edinburgh. Plenty of rail material featuring Waverley station and, if I recall correctly, Flying Scotsman. Without having studied it on dvd to spot errors of detail, I would say it looked pretty accurate, though it may have depicted compartment stock on an express (memory fades.)

Kudu

[Mickey]

Strange that you posted something about the 39 steps film giner because i nearly posted something myself about this film a couple of days ago.

I believe that there was 3 different film versions made of this film the 1935 version the 1959 version and the 1978 version, i personally like the 1959 version myself.

In the John Huntley more steam in 35mm video/dvd there are some great colour 'out takes' from this 1959 film of A4 hauled express trains passing over the Forth bridge that wasn't used in the final release of the film.

[StevieG]

There has also been a 90-minute made-for-TV version, about three years ago. Couldn't say what railway content it might contain though.

[Rlangham]

There has also been a 90-minute made-for-TV version, about three years ago. Couldn't say what railway content it might contain though.

It featured the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway, with D49 'Morayshire'. There was quite a clever bit of CGI/fancy camera work (i'm still baffled by early silent films yet alone modern ones) where it combined the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow with a station on the Bo'ness and Kinneil to recreate St Pancras which I thought worked quite well - carriages were the usual Mk 1's though. This was by far my least favourite version of the Thirty-Nine Steps, which also featured 1920's (and I think some 1930's) cars, a late-WW1 Scout aircraft, 1930's art deco apartment building and an ending with a U boat straight out of 'Enigma'!

The 1978 Robert Powell version, which is my favourite, had an Ivatt 2mt 2-6-0 and Mk 1's on the Severn Valley Railway, but at least they went to the effort of marking stock and locomotives as Midland Railway

[Mickey]

On STEAM ON 35mm Vols.1 & .2 video/dvd theres an interesting sequence of b&w film footage shot at WELWYN GARDEN CITY station sometime in the 1930s showing about three A3s speeding through the station and also a 'very rare' piece of film of W1 no.10000 'Hush hush' pulling a 'dynamometer car' passing through on the up the fast line at the south end of the station heading south towards Kings Cross. Also theres a nice shot of no.22 down fast line inner home signal (still a somersault signal) returing to danger behind an down express as well as the old footbridge which is still there to this day!.

[giner]

I've only ever seen the 1935 version of '39 Steps', and mentioning about the latest TV version, i don't think I could enjoy it simply because the whole ambience of the time is purely that, because of the time at which it was made. All these newer incarnations can't possibly have the authenticity of feel of the originals. They are a time capsule, if you will, and the viewing experience is the richer for it. Just the way I see it.

[Mickey]

Yeah i agree with you there giner although i like the 1959 version with the A4s and B.R.Mk1 coaches in maroon livery going across the Forth railway bridge.

The 1978 version when it comes to the railway scenes is (in my humble opinion) a bit of a joke.

An Ivatt class 2 'Mickey mouse' pulling a motley collection of coaches over a bridge on SVR the Forth railway bridge it ain't!!.