AMY FOSTER

GB / US
1997
1hr 55mins
Dir: Beeban Kidron
Starring: Vincent Perez and Rachel Weisz

In 19th century Cornwall, a shipwrecked Ukrainian peasant starts a doomed love affair with a simple country girl

This Anglo-American drama is based on the 1901 short story Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad and is usually seen under its US title of Swept from the Sea. The snowy railway scenes supposedly set in Ukraine were in fact filmed in the UK, using both the Keighley & Worth Valley and the North Yorkshire Moors Railways. Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Aspinall Class 27 0-6-0 No.1300 was employed for these scenes for which it was renumbered ‘H-17’, and suitably weathered to look like a vintage Russian locomotive. It was fitted with a cow-catcher and a huge headlight to add to the Continental-style effect and was hauling a mixed bag of freight stock and parcels vans. Nonetheless, a significant amount of CGI was undertaken in the scenes that show the train passing through the vast prairie landscapes and arriving into Hamburg at night.

Ukrainian peasants board their train, formed of what looks suspiciously like UK rolling stock. CCT’s of Southern and LMS origin to be precise.
Beneath that enourmous headlight and the traditional cow catcher can be found the unmistakable lines of an Aspinall 0-6-0
This is the North Yorkshire Moors Railway which is hilly, but not THAT hilly. The background mountains are a CGI creation.
The train pulls into Hamburg. This now appears to be somewhere on the Keighley & Worth.
The passengers prepare to disembark from their motley collection of rolling stock
I can not work out what is real or not in this shot. The Aspinall is the loco on the right and its train is standing on the left, but much in the background doesn’t add up.