FLOOD TIDE

GB
1934
1hr 03mins
Dir: John Baxter
Starring: George Carney and Janice Adair

An elderly couple swap lock-keeper duties for a riverside pub

This ode to the Thames may be a poor spectacle story wise but it does feature some interesting riverside scenes of a changing face of London between the wars, and it is actually rather good fun. It also features two shots of trains. The first is an excellent shot of Southern Railway U Class 2-6-0 No.163? passing through an unknown station at speed, whilst the second shows Leslie Hatton sat in a studio-bound carriage with a montage shot of a train passing over the image. As a result of this, the exact identity of the locomotive is obscured. It has a tender with big outside springs so could be a former SECR O Class 0-6-0, though this merely assumes that it too is Southern in origin. In addition to the trains, a single tram can be seen crossing Westminster Bridge in the scenes filmed from the barge as it heads down the Thames through London.

Maunsell U Class 2-6-0 No.163? passes through a suburban station at speed. This is possibly somewhere on the former South Eastern.
Leslie Hatton in his studio-bound carriage
Moments later and a train passes over the image
The Houses of Parliament under repair, and it is interesting to think that scaffolding is not a new phenomena. A bus and a tram can be glimpsed crossing Westminster Bridge bottom right.