Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the gd-system-plugin domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114 NIGHT TRAIN FOR INVERNESS - British Railway Movie Database
GB 1960 1hr 09mins Dir: Ernest Morris Starring: Norman Wooland and Jane Hylton
An ex-con kidnaps his young son and heads for Inverness not knowing that his son is diabetic and needs insulin injections to survive
This train-bound drama is now rather overlooked, and despite being no more than a B-movie it is actually quite tightly written. It really does become a race against time as the police try to track down the sick boy’s whereabouts. Although notable to most as marking the film debut of a very young Dennis Waterman, it unsurprisingly features a lot of railway footage. Euston station appears at the beginning, with Norman Wooland alighting from a train that has arrived in the hands of a ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0, but most of the station scenes that follow appear to use the Eastern Region (King’s Cross perhaps, or Liverpool Street?) as the coaching stock carries the ‘E’ letter prefix. Mk.1 coaches are visible in these scenes, yet the only locomotive we see is a lower three-quarters glimpse of ex-LNER V2 Class 2-6-2 No.60890 pulling away. The journey to Inverness is then depicted by a number of shots of passing expresses which seem to have been filmed on Midland Region lines. There are many rather indistinct night time run-bys but locomotives that appear in the daytime shots include a pair of ex-LMS ‘Royal Scot’ Class 6P 4-6-0’s passing through a station, and an ex-LMS Class 5MT ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 on a van train. In addition to this, another ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 also features in the form of No.45003, which is seen arriving at Kings Langley for Abbots Langley. Finally, three further stations feature, but all are again as yet unknown. One shows Jane Hylton on the platform as Eastern Region coaching stock pulls out, and the other shows the view of the rear of a departing train as seen from inside the station buffet (possibly back-projection showing a Southern Region train). Both are described in the film as being ‘Perth’. The final station scene shows a train of Mark 1 coaching stock in a station referred to as ‘Blair Atholl’.
The first railway shot in the film shows a grimy former LMS ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 arriving at London Euston
The main journey starts here, at what the film suggests is Euston. In all honesty though, this could be the concourse of any station.
In a near perfect rendition of the British Cinema picture shown at the top (please see), Dennis Waterman, Norman Wooland and Jane Hylton board the Inverness train. Although the destination is denoted on the carriage roofboard, the coach number is prefixed E for Eastern so it can not be Euston, which was on the Midland Region. My guess is that this is King’s Cross. The full number of the coach is 34603, a Mk1 BSK built in 1955.
Sadly, this is all we get to see of ex-LNER V2 Class 2-6-2 No.60890
This shows an ex-LMS ‘Royal Scot’ Class 6P 4-6-0 passing through an unknown station on the Midland Region
Astonishingly, the next shot in the film is nearly identical only at dusk!
The journey to Inverness continues through the night with this shot of an express thundering through a station
Followed by this shot of an express approaching the camera under a full head of steam
Jane Hylton standing on the platform of an as yet unidentified station. The coaching stock that pulled out was again prefixed for use on the Eastern Region. So where is this?
A train pulls into a station at the hands of another ex-LMS ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0
The Black Five’s identity is revealed to be No.45003, and just enough of the station nameboard is captured to tell us that this is Kings Langley station in Hertfordshire, confusingly named Kings Langley for Abbots Langley at the time of filming. The origin of this shot is not clear. It may have been filmed for this movie, but it went on to appear twice in The Talented Husband, the very first episode of The Saint TV series, which aired on 4th October 1962.
Still at ‘Perth’, this shot is perhaps the odd one out. The back-projection view out of the buffet window shows the rear of a departing Southern Region train.
The final run by does not show a passenger train at all, but a parcels train hauled by yet another ‘Black Five’.
The final station scene shows the train being held at ‘Blair Atholl’ for the police and doctors to attend the train. This is not ‘Blair Atholl’, and it is again, as yet, unidentified.
The final railway scene shows ambulance staff at the station entrance. Any ideas?
