TV show films in Port Colborne
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ shot scenes for next season in railway yard
An iconic Port Colborne location filled in for the totalitarian state Gilead Wednesday, as crews filmed Season 4 of “The
Handmaid’s Tale.”
Ceres Global Ag’s Port Colborne terminal — formerly Robin Hood — and the rail line leading into the facility on the west bank of the Welland Canal and the weir served as a film set for the Hulu show.
Production company crew and cast members filled the roadway at the south end of the company property during shooting.
The show is an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel of the same name and stars Elisabeth Moss as
June Osborne, renamed Offred.
In the novel and the show, handmaids must bear children for childless government officials, and women are treated as second-class citizens.
Kevin Reles, Ceres Global Ag’s terminal manager, said the production company was looking
for a site that had a rail line on it.
“A location scout was out with Gio Railways and they came across our site,” he said.
The terminal in Port Colborne has rail lines leading directly into the building used as a storage facility for grains — wheat, corn and soybeans — from across Niagara and beyond.
“They selected our site based on the rail access, the age of the building and what it looks like. It looks like the big A-frame structure will be in the shot, that’s pretty cool to me,” said Reles.
The A-frame is a steel structure at the south end of the facility used for unloading vessels in years past.
Season 4 of the show was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic but restarted with scenes filmed Wednesday.
Crew members on set were wearing masks as action got underway.
When Reles learned the facility was going to be a film set, he reached out to see what he could expect.
It didn’t prepare him for what he was facing Wednesday.
“I thought it would be five or six trucks and a bunch of people. It ended up being close to 300 people and all kinds of cars and trucks.”
Reles and his staff watched part of the filming, and he said he appreciated the business it brought to the facility.
“Hopefully, we can have some more shoots down this way.”
Gio Railways Paul Robinson, the general manager of operations, said the company was approached by a location scout.
“He came down for a look and we showed him around our yards including the Sherwood Yard. When he saw the Robin Hood location his jaw dropped to the ground,” said Robinson.
Gio Railways took over Trillium Railways, which operated in Port Colborne and Welland and had rail lines and yards scattered across the two municipalities and Wainfleet.
The Sherwood Yard is at Ceres Global Ag on Sherwood Forest Lane.
Robinson said the production company was using two of the rail company’s older engines for filming.
“They painted engines and put their own decals and numbers on it … gave them a bit of a facelift.
“It was surprising to me that they painted them and then aged them. They could have just left them the way they were,” Robinson said with a laugh.
He said Gio hosted a film crew on its Orangeville line in the past but nothing to the scale of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”