THUNDER IN THE CITY

GB
1937
1hr 28mins
Dir: Marion Gering
Starring: Ralph Richardson and Luli Deste

An American salesman helps a duke promote a non-existent metal

There is one railway scene in this drama that features a shot of a passing LMS express on water troughs. The footage is very grainy and it is edited over another frame making it difficult to positively identify the locomotive. However, it would appear to be an ex-LNWR 4-6-0, probably the stock shot of a ‘Claughton’ on Dillicar Troughs. The scene that follows with Edward G Robinson and the crew on the footplate of an express engine uses a very detailed and quite effective studio mock-up of a GWR tender loco cab with back projection.

This is the grainy image of the express train that looks be hauled by an ex-LNWR ‘Claughton’ 4-6-0. It is probably therefore the stock shot of one that is taking water on Dillicar Troughs. It also features in The Ware Case (1938), The Common Touch (1941), Theatre Royal (1943), and Frieda (1947).
Some versions of the film have been tidied up to modern standards making the picture quality a lot clearer. Most frustratingly these versions have the shot edited in such a way that the loco is never seen at all!!
This the footplate of the GWR tender loco, which is in fact a set, and was incredibly detailed for the standards of the time