Never mind the technical breaches of regulations, continuity failures etc just enjoy what is a uniquely quaint British comedy film from the halcyon days when it was always sunny, no one swore or got hurt and all ends happily ever after. It is a masterpiece if you haven't seen it I urge you do so.
I loved this film as a kid. It's amazing how well it holds up today. My wife done her PGCE in Liverpool hope and upon one of the weekends visiting her stumbled across Lion in the museum there. Having not thought about the film in 20+ years I still distinctly remember my asking "what was the matter" and the slowly building excitement of me recognising I knew the engine from somewhere. Trying to comb through my thoughts to place where exactly I knew it from for it all to slowly come flooding back. While I always enjoy visiting heritage railways and riding steam trains I've never had that level of excitement for seeing one before as that day.
That behind the scenes image of Lion and the 14xx right next to each other, plus all the stuff I've learned from this video, have completely warped my perspective of this legendary film. My childhood feels like a lie, but I still love it.
Thankyou for the name check on the correction about the steam roller. It was a very lovely surprise. In the early 1990's, my late Grandad videoed the Titifield Thunderbolt off Channel 4 for part of their "trains on film" week. I watched it so much, I wore the cassette tape out! The other one I wore out was a copy of the 1962 "Iron Maiden" which is well worth a watch if you haven't already. I'd never noticed all those people in the background before. You learn something every day. :-). I remember reading a interview with the author published in Railway World many years ago, he said from memory the summer was exceptionally fine, but he couldn't remember how the steam roller/1401 duel was made. I suspect it was careful editing as well as back screen projection (I think you will find blue screen wasn't about as we know it, in 1952). I remember he also said the thing that made him decide to look into making a screen play about a closing branch line, after seeing a poster "amateur plate layers wanted" (or something like that) for the Talyllyn . You can imagine if the film was to be made today, the loco starting as Thunderbolt would most likely be a non working replica so damage wouldnt be a issue, as we have seen in a number of films over the last few years. The movie has been claimed as helping the preservation movement in the 1960's. A lovely video, keep up the good work, and you may call me Jim :-)
I must have seen Titfield Thunderbolt soon after its release 70 years ago as I remembered the title but vaguely remember the plot. This post jolted my neurones into serious activity!
It's really not. The Chassis (frames, wheels, cylinders, valve gear) are all of a piece: the stamps other than for the leading axle and wheelset (which are different) are all the same. They all date from the 1840s. The boiler dates from 1866 and it was heavily repaired in 1901. The tender is entirely new. Believe me, I've crawled all over the locomotive and carried out an archaeological survey of the original material. It's an 1840s running gear with a later (1860s) boiler.
I turned 70 last summer, and ran a filmshow in our church hall as my party. I showed two films that were in production in 1952, these being 'Monsieur Hulot's Holiday' and 'Titfield Thunderbolt'.
They broke every single rule in the rulebook (passenger trains with no continuous brakes, train crews with no qualifications at all, dragging a loco out of a museum where it had been for years and steaming it with no boiler inspection at all - just think about that!), and all the Ministry of Transport inspector was concerned about was that they didn't exceed the 25 mph speed limit. Shocking. 😑
not to mention trespass, blocking the highway by immobilising the steam roller, water extraction from a river without a licence, intoxicated in charge of a rail vehicle,
So just like the Tallylyn in the early reservation days of the 1950s - no continuous brakes, amateur crews, a museum-piece engine, on a railway that had not seen a government inspection since the 1860s. Pretty much the only certification they had was that Dolgoch had passed a boiler inspection for insurance purposes! :D
@@rbdaviesTB3 I think the rules for continuous brakes was different for narrow gauge and miniature railways, as I remember several NG railways (admittedly mostly in museum sites) with nothing more than a hand brake (if any) on the coaching stock until the 1990's. I can imagine a member of the H&SE having a heart attack if they saw the things that people got up to years ago. :-)
I was born at the beginning of the 50s and started work as a apprentice engineer in 68, health and safety was pretty much none existence and rules were at the discretion of whoever was breaking them at the time, it was a different world then
An excellent interesting collection of facts. I recall an article in one of the railway magazines years ago on the making of the film and asking if anyone knew the names of the actual BR staff on the trains.
Wonderful. Just about all of the film stands up well today. I was at a zoom meeting yesterday, with an early Bedford coach following Welsh narrow gauge charters. I commented 'Crump', and another participant was quick on the ball 'I see a Titfield Thunderbolt reference'. Sid James, the steamroller driver, got very glowing obituaries after a stellar career, with the 'Carry on' series dominating.
If I recall correctly, it was the Britain's first Technicolor movie. I have lost track (no pun intended) of how many times I've watched this great movie. I first saw it, when I was a kid, at my local theater, later on TV, bought it on VHS video and, eventually, I bought it on DVD. I never get tired of re-watching it.
I never knew until today that John Rudling (who played Mr Clegg) was the butler Brabinger in "To the Manor Born" which was his last acting role, or that the Titfield Thunderbolt was Godfrey Tearle's last film (he played the Bishop) who died exactly 3 months after the release of the movie. Hugh Griffith (who played Dan), whilst looking like a old man, was only 40 at the time of production, while Edie Martin (Emily) and Herbert C. Walton (Seth) were well into their 70's, and George Relph (Sam) was 64, and was 2 years older than Stanley Holloway (Mr Valentine).
Nice stuff. Though at 6:17, that's an actual 14XX driving off the turntable, not the road-going prop, which was considerably wider. The rails of the siding appear to have been camouflaged by grass and ash/cinders. At the top of the screen you can just see the rails re-emerge and merge with another siding.
@@Terrier55Stepney Cheers. Examining the scene closely, it looks like they buried about ten or so feet of track with compacted cinders/ashes, enough to just about cover the rail-heads, and then dug a channel inside the rails to guide the locomotive's flanges. After those first ten feet the overgrowth gets thick enough to hide the rails, though I guess the production team potentially planted some extra grass and small plants to hide the track as thoroughly as possible.
@@Terrier55Stepney Alright explain to me how you have all of this footage because either it's like did you find a video of it or is it like going to be a chest tape or something
I have fond memories of this great film and should really look for a DVD for my collection. Guess I could have seen it 50+ years ago and still remember many fantastic scenes from it. Besides, now when I am familiar with British railways and GWR in particular it will be interesting to watch the movie again.
Director Charles Crichton's surname is pronounced Kry-ton. Red Dwarf fans - the character Kryten in that show refers back to the title character of the butler in The Admirable Crichton stage play and film.
The Titfield Thunderbolt was the first film that I was allowed to visit the cinema to see on my own. That was soon after it's release. On moving from the East Midlands to the Bath area for work I decided to investigate the area and the railway route. Soon after that the film was shown for the benefit of locals at the Limpley Stoke village hall so I was able to reacquaint myself with the film after several years. Since then it has made occasional appearances on TV and is available on DVD from several sources. A few years ago the Wiltshire Times local newspaper interviewed a gentleman who had been a driver at Westbury depot and was involved in the film action on one of the 14xx locomotives.
I have been fortunate to travel behind this loco in Sept 1980 during the Liverpool and Manchester celebrations, where we travelled from Eccles to Liverpool Rd, Manchester,the original terminus of the L & M. It resided on that site for a few years,(now known as M.O.S.I.)..I then trvelled behind it again at Crewe Heritage Centre in the 90s,and have seen it at Liverpool, where I find it sad, it is "stuffed and mounted", but so pleased it has been saved, and seeing it brought back those memories..I also know Anthony Dawson, as we worked together on the footplate of Planet, at M.O.S.I.(a loco very similar in appearance to Lion), and he has written many excellent books on the early railways...This is a very interesting video on the background of the making of this film. and one of passions is seeing how things are put together for film and tv..and 32 yrs as a railwaymen, this vid ticks all the boxes..(boxes?..well I was a signalman).
If you look VERY carefully in one of the scenes taken from the brake van as Lion leaves Titfield, you can see a loco coming round the corner from behind the barn/shed.
I've spotted a bit of steam rising in the distance, but it seems to be over the treetops, not from an engine within sight. What I have seen is that, as Thunderbolt passes the chickens (just before the cricket pitch scene) you can see steam from the 14XX that gave her a shove rising from beyond the chicken coop.
Classic, wonderfully innocent film. I love it. Apparently the girl playing Sid's girlfriend seems to have 'dropped out of sight' afterwards, only appearing in this film and no one knows what happened to her. I loved this video - just great!
YES--agreed. it's easy to spot errors, but first and foremost, it was a COMEDY, not a documentary, although no doubt, there was also a lot to learn from it. And there was cost, and tehnical restrictions. But still, a great little film.
I think she was in other films. Pretty sure she passed away in 2005, making her the only cast member to live into the 21st century (minus child extras).
"Them" = plural. "It" = singular. One Dolgoch = "fate of the entire railway relying on *it* ". Having said that, this is an excelletn video: I'm learning a lot. I remember watching the Titfield Thunderbolt as a kid but it seems quite hard to get hold of it now.
A slightly bigger and more modern loco starred in the 1965 film "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines." It was the "Jones Goods," a former Highland Railway engine, which co-incidentally was the first 4-6-0 to be built in the British Isles. You might like to check that one out. Congratulations on your video production and your channel. You have both an informative and entertaining style.
Thank you for your kind comment. I remember seeing the Jones goods at the Glasgow riverside museum some years ago. It'll briefly appear in a video I'm making on the Strathspey Railway next month, but it's one I'm otherwise not too familiar with history-wise.
Not only was Lion fitted wtih a damper at Westbury but also with a proper pressure gauge and a new gauge glass. The big problem with Lion was that because it has no blower, the fire was hard to control and the locomotive would sit and grumble until it moved off, when the draw on the fire from the blast would start the loco blowing off like mad. Something the loco did during the filming of Victoria the Great. Lack of a damper to control the fire, or an injector, the only resort was to run the loco up and down with the pumps on to quieten things down. There's a hilarious story where it coughed up a load of gack over the APT and waiting VIPs. hehehehe. The tender is made from pine (softwood) so wasn't "bent out of shape", and the large crack in the rear buffer beam of the tender was present before the filming of Thunderbolt 🙂 I don't think it's film damage. Hope this helps 🙂
Thank you for the corrections Anthony, my bad! Do you know what was damaged on the tender during production? That's a very amusing story of taming Lion! Paints a picture of what firing was like during the early railway years.
@@Terrier55Stepney Not your bad at all! Firing was *very* different as a coke fire is much much deeper than a coal fire. It doesn't need a blower but will burst into life once the loco starts moving. The only thing I miss with an early engine like Rocket is the lack of an injector - that has a hand pump! I dont know what was damaged during the filming, but I've a feeling that a lot of the stories about the extent of the damage are exagerated. The paint put on by the film company was slapped over in one thick coat over the existing paint. And, after the filming, was very hastily repainted to its original livery in another thick blobby coat of paint!
I've been reflecting this for some time, but if there's one thing that I think "The Titfield Thunderbolt" could have taken advantage of more was its options for referencing railway history and operational practices; something that it fairly skims over to get to the heart of the story, but it undermines some depth in the process. A lot of the finer details of the film - like the locomotives used - were choices made after the script had been written. This is something I felt even as a kid, who happened to be exposed to a lot of railway material, and it highlights to me how relatively classified the interest for railways is among general society. Cars get a lot of the mainstream attention, in total irony of one of the key moments of this film; that of course being the Squire's speech. I wrote a treatment where I used the real-life survival of the 1848 locomotive 'Fire Queen' - which was left in a shed for decades after retirement - to justify the endurance of the titular locomotive. Imagine if the scriptwriters had thought that one. To sum up, the movie was expecting to accomplish more than what it did. That's what interests me about how it could be done better. Regards, Samuel Farris.
Hey Max, hope your having a great day and great video. I have a video idea for guide rail which is to do one on the Middleton railway as I am a volunteer there as part of its youth group Just a suggestion -Oliver
Dang I remember staying up late as a teen 45 years ago when the movie would show on Chicago's WGN late night movie to watch Titfield Thunderbolt. Have to wonder if the 1987 movie End Of The Line wasn't inspired in some way as an American version or at least homage.
when Dan is late on the first trial day I understand that the Rev's house keeper who I believe is called Emily helps out by getting the fire alight inside the tank engine. I understand that when the Rev finds her in the cab he then tells her that she has done it the wrong way. I feel that he has been a bit mean to her as she was only helping him out.
A very well done video! Though I would like to point out one detail. At 6:14 I don’t think those are tire marks from the 1462 van mockup. Those look like covered up rails for the actual working 1462 to ride on making look like it’s going off rail. If you look at behind the scenes pics you can see that the 1462 they used on the turntable was the real thing. And you can tell which one is which as the mock up was a bit wider than the actual engine being fitted on a transit van.
4:06 - I think you mean blue screen. You can even see all the blue haze around the foreground edges. Green screen is a modern creation with digital cameras.
Green screen, blue screen, it all means the same thing! Some sort of monochrome background, onto which other imagery is added in post-production. (I know filmmakers have to distinguish between the two, but the phrases "green screen" and "blue scree" are basically interchangeable to a casual fan like me.)
One interesting fact about the film, In the scene when the lion s on the viaduct, you can see midford station and signal box in the background, The signal is set to danger. a few minute's later you can see it drop down to clear.
The boiler does not explode. If insufficient water is covering the firebox, then the fusible plug melts and boiler puts out the fire. Messy and very steamy but not that sort of explosion.
depends if the plug has a lead core or if some unscrupulous bodger has replaced it with a solid plug or if the plug is scaled over. I love the way the 14xx's pressure gauged jumped all over the place even though the water was going in the tanks not the boiler lol.
Lion has a fuseable plug, whether that was fitted when restored in 1930 or when the new boiler was fitted in the 1840s. In any case it was the ex GWR 14xx that needed water carried to it, and that would definitely have had fuseable plugs fitted since new in the 1930s.
There is a Society which promotes the LION with many members having models in 3 sizes 3 1/2" 5" and 7 1/4" which can pull passengers behind as you drive and fire them. We went to the Guildford event several years ago when we were members.
I've always wondered something. At the time the Titfield Thunderbolt script with being written, Wilbert Audrey was volunteering at the talyllyn railway. Did T.E.B Clarke meet Wilbert and base the railway loving vicar Mr Weech on him...?
Well now, mes amis, some years back, outside a 'Foreign Film' motion picture house, in Paris, I heard it said that the title referred to a rural British nudist-field. As a young girl...a...my curiosity was piqued.
@@ivanolsen8596 Everybody is forgetting that the name also refers to a colourful species of English bird, one adorned with feathers and commonly found in fields.
I think there might have been a deleted scene where the train gruesomely takes out a bunch of goats and very nearly takes out a few cows too. But, I love this movie. It was made in a different time in a very different world.
Great movie but I've got a question: Was Vicar Sam based on Rev. Wilbert Awdry? Although Sam was the driver & Wilbert was a guard on the Talyllyn Railway.
The Limpsey Thunderbolt just doesn't work as a title. And for those saying about rules broken in the movie, I say just look at it as a fun movie. It's not a documentary.
It was revived around 1978 or 1979 by Ruston of Lincoln with a 5 year boiler certificate. It was for the big shindig at Bold Colliery. Rocket 150?? Nobody knew just how old the boiler really was, but working pressure was between 100 and 120psi The locomotive received two new driving wheel tyres on one side to correct wear from extended running on a circular track after it's last revival. The tyres were wrought iron.
Obviously it's a film for fun -- train movies are never realistic all the way through. Can't believe they have Sid James remove rail and then send the 1401 and train downgrade to its demise and he doesn't go to jail. That was quite the felony and as they say in the film "National Treasure" ... "someone has to go to jail!" Where this film really shines is on the Blu-ray release. Great color and remarkably sharp for a film released the year I was born ... 1953!
the narrow gauge railway in North Wales was also the inspiration for the Thomas the tank books ,I was lucky enough to work on the TV series created by clearwater productions and britt allcroft with David Mitton the director
@Terrier55Stepney I was at battersea where filming actually started for thomas my job was basically the runner taking the rushes to rank and anything else that needed doing including taking all the locomotives to harrods for a Christmas window photo shoot, had to have security with me all day and be parked outside while it happened and not one cup of tea offered lol
@@patoverend7395 I see! Right at the beginning then. How wonderful, apart from the grumpy security haha. If you drop me a line at maxdaviest55s@gmail.com at some point I'd love to discuss this more with you if you were open to that. Any experience from the production side of the show is a topic that a lot of people are quite interested in, myself included.
I wonder what the best place to get a really high-quality version is - one where the drums from "The Triumph of the Thunderbolt" don't sound almost like strings.
34043 on her 5th take apparently. S&D regular from B/mouth shed & not a good un. Prob due too mods applied ie spark arrester, ashpan dampers etc. 34011 & 65 were also likewise modded & all were poor steamers compared to rest of class. There, thas enough trivia for one day. 🙂
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I watched for the first time last weekend, it truly is a masterpiece of its time.
Never mind the technical breaches of regulations, continuity failures etc just enjoy what is a uniquely quaint British comedy film from the halcyon days when it was always sunny, no one swore or got hurt and all ends happily ever after. It is a masterpiece if you haven't seen it I urge you do so.
I loved this film as a kid. It's amazing how well it holds up today.
My wife done her PGCE in Liverpool hope and upon one of the weekends visiting her stumbled across Lion in the museum there. Having not thought about the film in 20+ years I still distinctly remember my asking "what was the matter" and the slowly building excitement of me recognising I knew the engine from somewhere. Trying to comb through my thoughts to place where exactly I knew it from for it all to slowly come flooding back. While I always enjoy visiting heritage railways and riding steam trains I've never had that level of excitement for seeing one before as that day.
That behind the scenes image of Lion and the 14xx right next to each other, plus all the stuff I've learned from this video, have completely warped my perspective of this legendary film. My childhood feels like a lie, but I still love it.
Thankyou for the name check on the correction about the steam roller. It was a very lovely surprise.
In the early 1990's, my late Grandad videoed the Titifield Thunderbolt off Channel 4 for part of their "trains on film" week. I watched it so much, I wore the cassette tape out!
The other one I wore out was a copy of the 1962 "Iron Maiden" which is well worth a watch if you haven't already.
I'd never noticed all those people in the background before. You learn something every day. :-). I remember reading a interview with the author published in Railway World many years ago, he said from memory the summer was exceptionally fine, but he couldn't remember how the steam roller/1401 duel was made. I suspect it was careful editing as well as back screen projection (I think you will find blue screen wasn't about as we know it, in 1952). I remember he also said the thing that made him decide to look into making a screen play about a closing branch line, after seeing a poster "amateur plate layers wanted" (or something like that) for the Talyllyn .
You can imagine if the film was to be made today, the loco starting as Thunderbolt would most likely be a non working replica so damage wouldnt be a issue, as we have seen in a number of films over the last few years. The movie has been claimed as helping the preservation movement in the 1960's.
A lovely video, keep up the good work, and you may call me Jim :-)
The Iron Maiden - another great British movie.
I must have seen Titfield Thunderbolt soon after its release 70 years ago
as I remembered the title but vaguely remember the plot.
This post jolted my neurones into serious activity!
I think that the Lion, as with all preserved steam locomotives, is like Trigger's Broom.
It's really not. The Chassis (frames, wheels, cylinders, valve gear) are all of a piece: the stamps other than for the leading axle and wheelset (which are different) are all the same. They all date from the 1840s. The boiler dates from 1866 and it was heavily repaired in 1901. The tender is entirely new. Believe me, I've crawled all over the locomotive and carried out an archaeological survey of the original material. It's an 1840s running gear with a later (1860s) boiler.
I love this film. My other favourites are Genevieve and The Iron Maiden, all classics.
I turned 70 last summer, and ran a filmshow in our church hall as my party. I showed two films that were in production in 1952, these being 'Monsieur Hulot's Holiday' and 'Titfield Thunderbolt'.
They broke every single rule in the rulebook (passenger trains with no continuous brakes, train crews with no qualifications at all, dragging a loco out of a museum where it had been for years and steaming it with no boiler inspection at all - just think about that!), and all the Ministry of Transport inspector was concerned about was that they didn't exceed the 25 mph speed limit. Shocking. 😑
not to mention trespass, blocking the highway by immobilising the steam roller, water extraction from a river without a licence, intoxicated in charge of a rail vehicle,
BUT SOOOO--BRITISH !" especially in the 1950's. the that'll do era. makes me so proud.
So just like the Tallylyn in the early reservation days of the 1950s - no continuous brakes, amateur crews, a museum-piece engine, on a railway that had not seen a government inspection since the 1860s. Pretty much the only certification they had was that Dolgoch had passed a boiler inspection for insurance purposes! :D
@@rbdaviesTB3 I think the rules for continuous brakes was different for narrow gauge and miniature railways, as I remember several NG railways (admittedly mostly in museum sites) with nothing more than a hand brake (if any) on the coaching stock until the 1990's.
I can imagine a member of the H&SE having a heart attack if they saw the things that people got up to years ago. :-)
I was born at the beginning of the 50s and started work as a apprentice engineer in 68, health and safety was pretty much none existence and rules were at the discretion of whoever was breaking them at the time, it was a different world then
watched it for the first time the other day really enjoyed it
An excellent interesting collection of facts. I recall an article in one of the railway magazines years ago on the making of the film and asking if anyone knew the names of the actual BR staff on the trains.
Wonderful. Just about all of the film stands up well today. I was at a zoom meeting yesterday, with an early Bedford coach following Welsh narrow gauge charters. I commented 'Crump', and another participant was quick on the ball 'I see a Titfield Thunderbolt reference'. Sid James, the steamroller driver, got very glowing obituaries after a stellar career, with the 'Carry on' series dominating.
Very enjoyable follow up to your other ' The Titfield Thunderbolt ' video. Cheers from British Columbia, Canada.
If I recall correctly, it was the Britain's first Technicolor movie.
I have lost track (no pun intended) of how many times I've watched this great movie.
I first saw it, when I was a kid, at my local theater, later on TV, bought it on VHS video and, eventually, I bought it on DVD. I never get tired of re-watching it.
I never knew until today that John Rudling (who played Mr Clegg) was the butler Brabinger in "To the Manor Born" which was his last acting role, or that the Titfield Thunderbolt was Godfrey Tearle's last film (he played the Bishop) who died exactly 3 months after the release of the movie.
Hugh Griffith (who played Dan), whilst looking like a old man, was only 40 at the time of production, while Edie Martin (Emily) and Herbert C. Walton (Seth) were well into their 70's, and George Relph (Sam) was 64, and was 2 years older than Stanley Holloway (Mr Valentine).
Nice stuff. Though at 6:17, that's an actual 14XX driving off the turntable, not the road-going prop, which was considerably wider. The rails of the siding appear to have been camouflaged by grass and ash/cinders. At the top of the screen you can just see the rails re-emerge and merge with another siding.
Thank you for this correction, that's even more intriguing to me!
@@Terrier55Stepney Cheers. Examining the scene closely, it looks like they buried about ten or so feet of track with compacted cinders/ashes, enough to just about cover the rail-heads, and then dug a channel inside the rails to guide the locomotive's flanges. After those first ten feet the overgrowth gets thick enough to hide the rails, though I guess the production team potentially planted some extra grass and small plants to hide the track as thoroughly as possible.
@@Terrier55Stepney Alright explain to me how you have all of this footage because either it's like did you find a video of it or is it like going to be a chest tape or something
@@Terrier55Stepney2:21 is very questionable 🌝
"...The road-going prop, which is considerable wider."
**Wide Putin Walking music**
A Wonderful review of such an iconic film,
I have fond memories of this great film and should really look for a DVD for my collection. Guess I could have seen it 50+ years ago and still remember many fantastic scenes from it.
Besides, now when I am familiar with British railways and GWR in particular it will be interesting to watch the movie again.
Director Charles Crichton's surname is pronounced Kry-ton. Red Dwarf fans - the character Kryten in that show refers back to the title character of the butler in The Admirable Crichton stage play and film.
Such a lovely film, one of my favourites for many years, and living relatively close, makes it very special.
I live very near to the Liverpool museum so I see Lion quite a lot so I might have to check out titfield thunderbolt
I LOVE this movie. Simpler times. Liked and subscribed.
Wonderful thank you!, one of my favourite films, I watch it regularly and very much a fan of John Gregson. Best wishes. Gérard lacey in Ireland.
The Titfield Thunderbolt was the first film that I was allowed to visit the cinema to see on my own. That was soon after it's release. On moving from the East Midlands to the Bath area for work I decided to investigate the area and the railway route. Soon after that the film was shown for the benefit of locals at the Limpley Stoke village hall so I was able to reacquaint myself with the film after several years. Since then it has made occasional appearances on TV and is available on DVD from several sources.
A few years ago the Wiltshire Times local newspaper interviewed a gentleman who had been a driver at Westbury depot and was involved in the film action on one of the 14xx locomotives.
I have been fortunate to travel behind this loco in Sept 1980 during the Liverpool and Manchester celebrations, where we travelled from Eccles to Liverpool Rd, Manchester,the original terminus of the L & M. It resided on that site for a few years,(now known as M.O.S.I.)..I then trvelled behind it again at Crewe Heritage Centre in the 90s,and have seen it at Liverpool, where I find it sad, it is "stuffed and mounted", but so pleased it has been saved, and seeing it brought back those memories..I also know Anthony Dawson, as we worked together on the footplate of Planet, at M.O.S.I.(a loco very similar in appearance to Lion), and he has written many excellent books on the early railways...This is a very interesting video on the background of the making of this film. and one of passions is seeing how things are put together for film and tv..and 32 yrs as a railwaymen, this vid ticks all the boxes..(boxes?..well I was a signalman).
If you look VERY carefully in one of the scenes taken from the brake van as Lion leaves Titfield, you can see a loco coming round the corner from behind the barn/shed.
I've spotted a bit of steam rising in the distance, but it seems to be over the treetops, not from an engine within sight. What I have seen is that, as Thunderbolt passes the chickens (just before the cricket pitch scene) you can see steam from the 14XX that gave her a shove rising from beyond the chicken coop.
I need to see these when I rewatch the film. These sound really fascinating.
6:15 - No, that's the real locomotive running onto a siding that was disguised using dirt and grass. See how the "tyre marks" are barely 1 1/2" wide?
Classic, wonderfully innocent film. I love it. Apparently the girl playing Sid's girlfriend seems to have 'dropped out of sight' afterwards, only appearing in this film and no one knows what happened to her. I loved this video - just great!
YES--agreed. it's easy to spot errors, but first and foremost, it was a COMEDY, not a documentary, although no doubt, there was also a lot to learn from it. And there was cost, and tehnical restrictions. But still, a great little film.
I think she was in other films. Pretty sure she passed away in 2005, making her the only cast member to live into the 21st century (minus child extras).
Thought she played John gregson lady in london to Brighton film Genevieve
"Them" = plural. "It" = singular. One Dolgoch = "fate of the entire railway relying on *it* ".
Having said that, this is an excelletn video: I'm learning a lot. I remember watching the Titfield Thunderbolt as a kid but it seems quite hard to get hold of it now.
Always loved this film, & now I'm just about to build a K's kit of Thunderbolt, + add Dans home & a guards van all suitably attired with the people 😁
I just watched the film and enjoyed it .
Loved the movie. bout 6 times, waitin for it to come back. Nice job m8.
I've got vague memories of seeing this film when I was a kid from the driving off the track scene.
A slightly bigger and more modern loco starred in the 1965 film "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines." It was the "Jones Goods," a former Highland Railway engine, which co-incidentally was the first 4-6-0 to be built in the British Isles. You might like to check that one out. Congratulations on your video production and your channel. You have both an informative and entertaining style.
Thank you for your kind comment. I remember seeing the Jones goods at the Glasgow riverside museum some years ago. It'll briefly appear in a video I'm making on the Strathspey Railway next month, but it's one I'm otherwise not too familiar with history-wise.
A look back to much gentler times when we weren't all trying to annihilate each other. Thank you.
Another great video. Thanks.
Not only was Lion fitted wtih a damper at Westbury but also with a proper pressure gauge and a new gauge glass. The big problem with Lion was that because it has no blower, the fire was hard to control and the locomotive would sit and grumble until it moved off, when the draw on the fire from the blast would start the loco blowing off like mad. Something the loco did during the filming of Victoria the Great. Lack of a damper to control the fire, or an injector, the only resort was to run the loco up and down with the pumps on to quieten things down. There's a hilarious story where it coughed up a load of gack over the APT and waiting VIPs. hehehehe.
The tender is made from pine (softwood) so wasn't "bent out of shape", and the large crack in the rear buffer beam of the tender was present before the filming of Thunderbolt 🙂 I don't think it's film damage. Hope this helps 🙂
Thank you for the corrections Anthony, my bad! Do you know what was damaged on the tender during production?
That's a very amusing story of taming Lion! Paints a picture of what firing was like during the early railway years.
@@Terrier55Stepney Not your bad at all! Firing was *very* different as a coke fire is much much deeper than a coal fire. It doesn't need a blower but will burst into life once the loco starts moving. The only thing I miss with an early engine like Rocket is the lack of an injector - that has a hand pump!
I dont know what was damaged during the filming, but I've a feeling that a lot of the stories about the extent of the damage are exagerated.
The paint put on by the film company was slapped over in one thick coat over the existing paint. And, after the filming, was very hastily repainted to its original livery in another thick blobby coat of paint!
You are my inspiration 🚂
I've been reflecting this for some time, but if there's one thing that I think "The Titfield Thunderbolt" could have taken advantage of more was its options for referencing railway history and operational practices; something that it fairly skims over to get to the heart of the story, but it undermines some depth in the process. A lot of the finer details of the film - like the locomotives used - were choices made after the script had been written. This is something I felt even as a kid, who happened to be exposed to a lot of railway material, and it highlights to me how relatively classified the interest for railways is among general society. Cars get a lot of the mainstream attention, in total irony of one of the key moments of this film; that of course being the Squire's speech.
I wrote a treatment where I used the real-life survival of the 1848 locomotive 'Fire Queen' - which was left in a shed for decades after retirement - to justify the endurance of the titular locomotive. Imagine if the scriptwriters had thought that one. To sum up, the movie was expecting to accomplish more than what it did. That's what interests me about how it could be done better.
Regards, Samuel Farris.
i went off an xqc stream for this, THANK YOU
'Stop it William; we're staff'.
Hillarious line.
This Video essentially taught me that the Titfield Thunderbolt to Railfans is what Days of Thunder is to Nascar Fans.
Really interesting. I do love this movie.
I loved the Titfield Thunderbolt. That film was great and I even liked the part where the 14xx pushed the Steamroller out of the way.
Hey Max, hope your having a great day and great video.
I have a video idea for guide rail which is to do one on the Middleton railway as I am a volunteer there as part of its youth group
Just a suggestion
-Oliver
Dang I remember staying up late as a teen 45 years ago when the movie would show on Chicago's WGN late night movie to watch Titfield Thunderbolt. Have to wonder if the 1987 movie End Of The Line wasn't inspired in some way as an American version or at least homage.
You had me at Titfield.
when Dan is late on the first trial day I understand that the Rev's house keeper who I believe is called Emily helps out by getting the fire alight inside the tank engine. I understand that when the Rev finds her in the cab he then tells her that she has done it the wrong way. I feel that he has been a bit mean
to her as she was only helping him out.
My family and me have often noted that. But then again the housekeeper (who is indeed called Emily) is kinda harsh towards Dan.
A very well done video! Though I would like to point out one detail. At 6:14 I don’t think those are tire marks from the 1462 van mockup. Those look like covered up rails for the actual working 1462 to ride on making look like it’s going off rail. If you look at behind the scenes pics you can see that the 1462 they used on the turntable was the real thing. And you can tell which one is which as the mock up was a bit wider than the actual engine being fitted on a transit van.
4:06 - I think you mean blue screen. You can even see all the blue haze around the foreground edges. Green screen is a modern creation with digital cameras.
Green screen, blue screen, it all means the same thing! Some sort of monochrome background, onto which other imagery is added in post-production.
(I know filmmakers have to distinguish between the two, but the phrases "green screen" and "blue scree" are basically interchangeable to a casual fan like me.)
Can’t wait for the rapido train to come out
One interesting fact about the film, In the scene when the lion s on the viaduct, you can see midford station and signal box in the background, The signal is set to danger. a few minute's later you can see it drop down to clear.
The boiler does not explode. If insufficient water is covering the firebox, then the fusible plug melts and boiler puts out the fire. Messy and very steamy but not that sort of explosion.
depends if the plug has a lead core or if some unscrupulous bodger has replaced it with a solid plug or if the plug is scaled over.
I love the way the 14xx's pressure gauged jumped all over the place even though the water was going in the tanks not the boiler lol.
LION may have been built before the luxury of fusible plugs.
Lion has a fuseable plug, whether that was fitted when restored in 1930 or when the new boiler was fitted in the 1840s.
In any case it was the ex GWR 14xx that needed water carried to it, and that would definitely have had fuseable plugs fitted since new in the 1930s.
There is a Society which promotes the LION with many members having models in 3 sizes 3 1/2" 5" and 7 1/4" which can pull passengers behind as you drive and fire them. We went to the Guildford event several years ago when we were members.
3:43 wow I didn’t know there were any references of the old firebox!
I've always wondered something. At the time the Titfield Thunderbolt script with being written, Wilbert Audrey was volunteering at the talyllyn railway. Did T.E.B Clarke meet Wilbert and base the railway loving vicar Mr Weech on him...?
Well now, mes amis, some years back, outside a 'Foreign Film' motion picture house, in Paris, I heard it said that the title referred to a rural British nudist-field.
As a young girl...a...my curiosity was piqued.
My curiosity would have been piqued too, by a field overgrown with ----
hang on best stop there -
@@ivanolsen8596 Everybody is forgetting that the name also refers to a colourful species of English bird, one adorned with feathers and commonly found in fields.
@@boblennox9251Yes, there is an English Species known as a Tit,
I believe there are several types of bird belonging to this species!
I’m not sure if calling it the Limpsey Thunderbolt would have been any better that Titfield.
was that picture of Lion at 4.22 made during filming
someday I gotta watch this & get it on DVD
I think there might have been a deleted scene where the train gruesomely takes out a bunch of goats and very nearly takes out a few cows too. But, I love this movie. It was made in a different time in a very different world.
When you get a chance watch the cricket match - the ball flies over the wicket BUT the bails fly off!
Very Interesting.
Dan got around a lot during the Big 4 era. He kept getting sacked for obvious reasons, but each railway was willing to give him a go, nonetheless.
She was steamed and ran on the mainline in the 1980’s and 1990’s
Great film have the video.
Great movie but I've got a question: Was Vicar Sam based on Rev. Wilbert Awdry? Although Sam was the driver & Wilbert was a guard on the Talyllyn Railway.
The Limpsey Thunderbolt just doesn't work as a title. And for those saying about rules broken in the movie, I say just look at it as a fun movie. It's not a documentary.
i love your video
Pity its GWR.
When i watched the movie as a kid the crash scene made me cry ugly 😅
I never really cared about lion until Now!
I would love to drive the 14xx on rainbow road in Mario Kart
I wonder what the rivet-counters made of it at the time...
I believe Lion was running in the 1980's still.
It was revived around 1978 or 1979 by Ruston of Lincoln with a 5 year boiler certificate. It was for the big shindig at Bold Colliery. Rocket 150??
Nobody knew just how old the boiler really was, but working pressure was between 100 and 120psi
The locomotive received two new driving wheel tyres on one side to correct wear from extended running on a circular track after it's last revival. The tyres were wrought iron.
Sorry, but Charles Crichton is prononunced 'Cryton', not 'Crickton'.
Apologies, thank you for the correction!
What's the 1937 film called again ?
The ghost train
Written by Arnold Ridley, yes that Arnold Ridley, Godfrey from dads army
I thought he had a go at driving the tank engine not Lion?
12:00 Where can I find the adaptations and the original movie
Apparently, the Bulleid in the opening shot caught fire when the camera pans to the 1400
Where did you find the footage of the miniature crash?
"The Titfield Thunderbolt - Ealing Documentary" uploaded by TheAudioMystic.
3.25 thomas comes from Dinner
Where is Lion today??
Obviously it's a film for fun -- train movies are never realistic all the way through. Can't believe they have Sid James remove rail and then send the 1401 and train downgrade to its demise and he doesn't go to jail. That was quite the felony and as they say in the film "National Treasure" ... "someone has to go to jail!" Where this film really shines is on the Blu-ray release. Great color and remarkably sharp for a film released the year I was born ... 1953!
the narrow gauge railway in North Wales was also the inspiration for the Thomas the tank books ,I was lucky enough to work on the TV series created by clearwater productions and britt allcroft with David Mitton the director
As becomes clear quickly from my other videos, I'm quite the appreciator for the original show! What role were you involved in at Shepperton Pat?
@Terrier55Stepney I was at battersea where filming actually started for thomas my job was basically the runner taking the rushes to rank and anything else that needed doing including taking all the locomotives to harrods for a Christmas window photo shoot, had to have security with me all day and be parked outside while it happened and not one cup of tea offered lol
@@patoverend7395 I see! Right at the beginning then. How wonderful, apart from the grumpy security haha. If you drop me a line at maxdaviest55s@gmail.com at some point I'd love to discuss this more with you if you were open to that. Any experience from the production side of the show is a topic that a lot of people are quite interested in, myself included.
@Terrier55Stepney when I get a chance I will, lot going on with hospital at the moment
@@patoverend7395 Sorry to hear that, hope everything works out okay.
There was a rumour that one of the actors died due to exhaustion.
and of course it was a remake of the French film comedy "Gargousse" (1937)
1:06 Love the Talyllyn railway, I think its my Welsh blood speaking to me. 🏴🏴🏴🏴
Is that same steam roller that the channel lawire mechanical marvel ?
i need that remix at the end someone give me the link i beg
I wonder what the best place to get a really high-quality version is - one where the drums from "The Triumph of the Thunderbolt" don't sound almost like strings.
Wow.
Was that a Bulleid engine steam engine steaming over the mainline viaduct?
34043 on her 5th take apparently. S&D regular from B/mouth shed & not a good un.
Prob due too mods applied ie spark arrester, ashpan dampers etc. 34011 & 65 were also likewise modded & all were poor steamers compared to rest of class.
There, thas enough trivia for one day. 🙂
was that eight plus 10 or kate plus 10 ?
Kate Plus Ten. Apologies, subtitles coming soon.
boiler water puts out the fire...typo
What a shame 'iconic' had to rear its head.
hi
Interesting video but over, over enunciation spoiled the narration. Normal, natural speech is what's required.
Mh
BOUT time a similar movie 2as made with CGI the world could do with a laugh before someone hits the button