*COLD COMFORT FARM
GB
1995
1hr 35mins
Dir: John Schlesinger
Starring: Kate Beckinsale and Rufus Sewell
A London cousin visits a family of misfits on their country farm and changes their lives for the better
This comedy drama is an adaptation of Stella Gibbons’ 1932 book of the same name. Kate Beckinsale’s journey from London to the country by train utilised the Kent & East Sussex Railway with Northiam station masquerading as ‘Beershorn Halt’. The locomotive at the head of the train is Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST No.14 Charwelton.
*DRACULA
GB
1973
1hr 40mins
Dir: Dan Curtis
Starring: Jack Palance and Nigel Davenport
Count Dracula comes to England and is pursued by Van Helsing
This 1973 adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel features a scene at Tenterden Town station on the Kent & East Sussex Railway with a short train
arriving behind one of the lines diminutive ex-LBSCR A1X Class ‘Terrier’ 0-6-0Ts. Tenterden Town masquerades as ‘Whitby’. The later railway scenes, however, feature two ground level run-bys of GWR 5700-series 0-6-0PT No.5775 from the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. Painted in the fictitious light brown livery of the ‘Great Northern & Southern Railway’ and working the ‘Old Gentleman’s Train’, it can be assumed that these shots were filmed for The Railway Children (qv) and then not used. The onboard scene shown in this sequence is almost undoubtedly filmed
on the Kent & East Sussex Railway.
*LAST PASSENGER
GB
2013
1hr 37mins
Dir: Omid Nooshin
Starring: Dougray Scott and Kara Tointon
A small group of everyday passengers trapped on a speeding train battle their warped driver who has a dark plan for everyone onboard
This modern-day suspense film centres around a train driver who is hell bent on murder suicide, and takes place on a fictitious train running between London and Tunbridge Wells. The identity of the driver and his motivations for committing a murder-suicide are left unknown throughout. The film was generally well received, with some good ‘cause and effect’ scenarios, though the completed movie doesn’t quite work and it lacks serious bite with several weak characters and even weaker links. None the less it is infinitely better than the classic ‘over-the-top’ Hollywood blockbuster and the lead characters, particularly Kara Tointon, work their roles nicely. The film was set onboard two Class 421 4 CIG EMU carriages, vehicle numbers 76747 (a DTC) and 62385 (an MBSO), from unit 1399, and painted in mock Connex livery. Despite being part of an electric train, artistic licence was taken and the carriages were portrayed as diesel powered for the purpose of the storyline. The film is presumably set when ‘slam door’ trains were still in service. The two Class 421 carriages were delivered to Shepperton Studios and mounted on off-set hydraulic rams. Instead of using the more common technique of green screen to create the illusion of movement outside the train’s windows, Nooshin designed a six-screen system of rear projection, maintaining a near 360 degree view, something only now viable with digital projectors. Some sequences, however, required a more complex combination of techniques. The ‘train surfing’ scene towards the end of the film was shot in four different locations over six months, the main bulk on Shepperton’s ‘H’ Stage, pick-ups on Pinewood’s Bond Stage, and on the Bluebell Railway, who are owners of a similar Class 423 4 VEP unit, along with background plates shot from a freight train. The Last Passenger production team visited the Kent & East Sussex Railway in November 2011 to shoot the carriage fire scenes at the end of the film. The level crossing crash scene was filmed using CGI, but the location used was Milford, in Surrey, a bit of a distance from the Hastings route on which the train was supposedly running. Milford station also appears in a later scene, masquerading as ‘Crowhurst’. The train displays Headcode 74, which on the South Eastern section would be either a Charing Cross-Gravesend or Maidstone West via Bexleyheath service, or a Victoria-Dover Western Docks via Herne Hill and Chatham service. However, in the tunnel scene, passengers trapped on the train cannot alight due to the narrowness of the tunnels preventing the doors from opening. This is clearly aimed at replicating the restricted width tunnels on the Hastings line, although they are now single track and this would not have been a problem for the passengers. Guildford station was used for several scenes and the opening credits feature a cab ride at night on the Great Western mainline passing through stations in the following order: Reading, Taplow, Twyford, Goring & Streatley, Maidenhead and Slough. HST sets pass in this sequence and a Class 165 ‘Turbo’ is seen at Reading, in the old east facing bay platform 6. There are plenty of other night scenes in the film that show the train moving around various locations. The new Reading Traincare depot, under construction at the time of filming, is notably visible in one shot but the others are largely unidentifiable, including the large station in which the runaway train passes through. The train incidentally is entirely a CGI creation as it is a three-car unit.
THE MAN FROM NOWHERE
GB
1975
59 mins
Dir: James Hill
Starring: Sarah Hollis Andrews and Ronald Adam
In 1860, a young orphaned girl is sent to live with her uncle, but she is troubled by a shadowy figure who appears and disappears
This short drama mystery from the Children’s Film Foundation is actually pretty effective. It also features excellent opening scenes on the Kent & East Sussex Railway at Tenterden Town station. A train arrives behind ex-LBSCR AIX Class ‘Terrier’ 0-6-0T No.3 Bodiam. As it departs, there is a glimpse in the background of unrestored Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST W/No.1955 of 1917. It later became the line’s No.14 Charwelton and is seen working in the 1995 film Cold Comfort Farm (qv).
*NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (aka 1984)
GB
1984
1hr 50mins
Dir: Michael Radford
Starring: John Hurt and Suzanna Hamilton
The squalid existence of people in a totalitarian superstate
This dystopian drama film is based upon George Orwell’s 1949 novel of the same name and should not be confused with the 1956 film version. There is a scene that is shot on the Kent & East Sussex Railway with ex-SR USA Class 0-6-0T No.30065 and a suitably bleak-looking train. The locomotive is weathered in a dull grey livery with ‘INGSOC’ (English Socialism) state plaques on the smokebox and tank sides whilst the coaching stock is rather battered and includes a number of broken windows. The loco does not carry any numeric identity.
*OVERLORD
GB
1975
1hr 25mins
Dir: Stuart Cooper
Starring: Davyd Harries and Julie Neesam
A teenager is called up in 1944 and is killed in the D-Day landings
Taking its name from Operation Overlord, the code name for the Battle of Normandy, this excellent drama was filmed in black and white to allow inclusion of a large proportion of wartime newsreel footage. There is quite a large amount of railway shots appearing in these scenes, though the story used the Kent & East Sussex Railway and Tenterden Town station as a centrepiece for the flashback scenes where a young soldier’s meditations give way to foreboding premonitions of death. A number of dream sequences took place onboard trains on the line and there is a good shot of the signal box at Tenterden Town. The actual wartime footage includes an excellent shot of LNER D16/3 Class 4-4-0 No.8797 leaving an unknown Eastern region terminus station with a troop train, and a shot of a pair of LNER J20 Class 0-6-0s on a train consisting largely of armoured tanks. There is a shot of an LMS Class 7F ‘Super D’ 0-8-0 on a freight filmed, unusually, from a freight heading in the opposite direction, and another shot filmed from the rear of a freight train entering a tunnel, though the loco is not seen. There is a close up going away shot of an express that looks to be hauled by an LMS ‘Royal Scot’ 4-6-0 and there are actual shots of trains being strafed by aircraft fire. Although most of these are foreign, a number could be British. Finally, there are several shots of passengers and evacuees at unknown station termini and a shot of an unknown Southern Railway station. Overlord remains today the only feature film ever produced by the Imperial War Museum.