UPSTAIRS AND DOWNSTAIRS

GB
1959
1hr 41mins
Dir: Ralph Thomas
Starring: Michael Craig and Anne Heywood

A married couple struggle with their live-in domestics

This comedy drama features a railway journey that opens with a slightly sped up shot of an express passing on an embankment hauled by an ex-GWR ‘Castle’ Class 4-6-0. This lengthy journey used quite an elaborate set, but this is interspersed with a number of genuine shots taken from outside the window of a moving train, and in one of these an express train passes hauled by what might be an ex-LNER A3 Class 4-6-2. There is also a scene filmed at Windsor & Eton Central station, with red-liveried ex-GWR suburban stock present. The departure scene at the end took place at Edinburgh Waverley with shots of ex-LNER A4 Class 4-6-2’s No.60012 Commonwealth of Australia and 60027 Merlin. The footage was filmed for the same year’s The 39 Steps (qv) but not used. Note that the close up shot of the engine whistle blowing is actually the cab of an unidentified locomotive and certainly not an A4!

The shot of a Castle-hauled express crossing an embankment
The only railway feature of note which passes during the ‘external’ shots of the train journey is this signal box
Though one train does pass, possibly hauled by an ex-LNER A3
The busy scene at Windsor & Eton Central station
This train’s arrival into Edinburgh Waverley is captured in the 1959 version of The 39 Steps – which see. The locomotive is A4 Class 4-6-2 No.60012 Commonwealth of Australia, but it has come to a stand now and all we see of it is its well-filled tender.
The stock shot of a locomotive whistle used to announce departure
Another A4, No.60027 Merlin, pulls away from Edinburgh Waverley. This is a shot taken for The 39 Steps but not used. In that film, a more conventional departure shot of the locomotive was used. Note the ship’s badge on the side of the boiler casing.