GB
1978
1hr 58mins
Dir: Guy Hamilton
Starring: Robert Shaw and Harrison Ford
During the Second World War Commandos are sent to blow up a bridge in Yugoslavia
This war film is loosely based on Alistair MacLean’s 1968 novel of the same name and is a sequel to the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone. Although the majority of the film was set on the continent there is a railway scene that was filmed in Britain that features railway stock largely out of sync for a Second World War movie. The scene takes place in a goods yard at night where the commandos smuggle themselves onto a freight train, hiding inside modern BR-designed freight vans. This was filmed at the Royal Naval Dockyard (South Yard) Devonport, Plymouth, and VBA 4-wheeled van No.200425 is prominent along with others, including VCA No.200328 and various mineral wagons. The letters P.S.T.O(N) can be seen on several internal user vehicles, this stands for ‘Principal Supply and Transport Officer (Navy)’. Identifiable wagons in this series include Nos.151 and 451 both 7-plank opens, a 4-plank bogie open tube No.336, and No.695, a small four-wheel flat. There is a locomotive as well in the opening shot when one of the dockyard’s fleet of F.C. Hibberd 4wDM ‘Planet’ shunters trundles past with a couple of wagons. Built in 1955 or 1956, the locomotive is too young for a film set in WWII, but since when has continuity ever mattered!!
