The Train (1964 Film)

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by The Scorer, Aug 24, 2020.

  1. The Scorer

    The Scorer Active Member

    This was a film released in 1964 starring Burt Lancaster and Paul Scholfield about the theft of museum artefacts from France by the Nazis and the successful attempt to stop it happening.

    I've been asked on another (railway) forum whether there's a remake in hand. The reason it's on there is that someone has seen a former British Railways steam locomotive "mocked up" to look like a French locomotive. It's been suggested that this has been done for a remake of the film, but nobody can find any trace of this.

    So, does anyone know anything about this, please? Thanks.

    (My apologies if there is a topic on the original film; I did search, but couldn't find it.)
     
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  2. hutt

    hutt Member

    Hope not. The original is a classic, real French locos set up in a genuine crash while in steam. Plus you'd be hard pressed to make anything British look like a French loco.
     
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  3. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    If you are interested in this film (and especially if you are nuts for railroads) then this link has lots of information, including stuff about the various engines, the routes and stations used, etc. Reelstreets | Train, The
     
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  4. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Actually a lot of French locos in Northern France in service in WW2 were British 0-6-0s left over from WW1 when ROD ran the line
     
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  5. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

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  6. hutt

    hutt Member

    Indeed they were. Another interesting 'blend' were the French compounds that the GWR commissioned. A strange mix of French and the distinctive GWR style.

    I'm not sure how English looking teh MOD locos remained or if they ended up with lots of 'local' fittments such as air brakes.

    Another visual blend being the LMS 8F and WD locos that ended up in the Middle East and Turkey.
     
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  7. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    In the early decades of the 20th century some of my relatives were officers of the Baldwin Locomotive Company in Philadelphia. During the First World War Baldwin sent considerable numbers of locomotives to Russia under Tsarist contract (one of the agents in these transactions was Sidney Reilly, of all people; he later sued Baldwin, unsuccessfully). During WWII Baldwin and other US firms sent still more locomotives and railroad equipment to the USSR.The great wartime expansion of the Soviet rail network was thus a combination of American technology and Soviet Gulag slave labor, an odd combination but nonetheless a very valuable one to the Soviet war effort. I have done a good deal of rail travel across the southern Great Plains of Kansas, eastern Colorado, and northeastern New Mexico, and every time I cross that region I am struck by the resemblance of the land to Russia (lots of expatriate Volga Germans settled in that area). But really, if you'd seen a train crossing our plains between 1920 and 1945 and another crossing the Russian steppe in those same years you might have been struck not only by the similarities of the landscape but of the engines and trains as well.

    American locomotives for Russia: Russian locomotive class Ye - Wikipedia
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2020
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  8. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    Tractors too :)

    The Soviet 15/30 STZ Universal was a copy of the International Harvester (McCormick Deering) 15-30

     
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  9. canuck

    canuck Closed Account



    They excelled at that:

    Tu4.jpg
     
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  10. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

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  11. hutt

    hutt Member

    Interesting post. Baldwin also built the SNCF 141R locos post WW2 and they have a distinct French American look about them.
     
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  12. The Scorer

    The Scorer Active Member

    Thanks for your advice, folks, it's very much appreciated.

    I wasn't suggesting a remake, just saying that it had been suggested by someone else. We're actually no nearer than finding out what it is for, though.

    This is a very good web site, and I've seen other films on it.

    I've had a look at the suggested films, and none of them are remakes of The Train - or, indeed, anything like it. I've also spend ten minutes which I'm never getting back doing a check on the actual title, and finding nothing! Still, if nothing else, it's shown me many, many films that I won't be looking for!

    If anyone's interested, the loco is now at the Great Central Railway - but we're all none the wiser about it's history!

    Best wishes to you all.
     
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  13. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

    Hello Scorer, and apologies for any confusion my post above has caused you, I should have been more explicit, so to clarify:

    I wasn't suggesting any of the film numbers I quoted from the IMDB list were remakes of "The Train", but the most likely current films that may have used a mocked up train as you've described, so again, apologies for any confusion caused.

    I now think that the most probable explanation for the mocked up train is previous, cancelled, and future "1940s Wartime Weekend" events that the Great Central Railway run ( a google of same may enable you to identify the train in question), pending the GCR having staff available to respond to phone calls and emails (which will likely give you the answer to the rumour of a remake of "The Train")

    Good luck with your searching, and the rumour mill!

    Kind regards, always,

    Jim.
     
  14. The Scorer

    The Scorer Active Member

    Thanks, Jim, that makes it clearer.

    You might be right, but the loco was first seen (by someone else) on a low loader going to the Great Central Railway where it now is. No-one on the forum that I'm referring to seems to have seen it before, so it's quite a mystery as to where it was and why it's gone to the GCR.

    Thanks again!
     
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  15. ploughman

    ploughman Junior Member

    From a railway based forum.

    Apparently there is a new locomotive on the GCR....It is a French looking 4-6-2 that seems to be there for a filming contract. It is however an expensive, quite well made "Faux loco".
    On twitter it is said " From an unknown source “Three smoke generators, electric generator and a steam boiler in the “boiler” all driven from a scania engine in the tender”
    Needless to say there must be all sorts of confidentiality clauses hence the lack of information.
     

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