The Line You Have All Loved For 50Years
In the 50thanniversary year of the big- screen dramatisation of TheRailway Children, whichwas filmed on theKeighley& Worth Valley Railway, the line is fighting a survival battle, anddesperately needs donations from well- wishers to help it meet day- to- d
In the 50th anniversary year of the big- screen dramatisation of
The Railway Children, which was filmed on the Keighley& Worth Valley Railway, the line is fighting a survival battle, and desperately needs donations from well- wishers to help it meet day- to- day overheads, writes Robin Jones.
From the start, there has evolved a symbiotic relationship between the worlds of railways and drama. Historians have argued that the world’s first railway comprised grooves set in the stages of the theatres of ancient Greece, to facilitate the efficient movement of props and scenery. Today, an encyclopaedia would be needed to provide a complete list of the location filming carried out in Britain’s heritage railway portfolio over the decades. Indeed, in its ability to re- create cameo scenes from our transport history, our heritage lines form one of the greatest stages of all.
The true purpose of drama is not merely to entertain but to enlighten, educate and above all inspire. In 1953, the Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt, which told the story of a group of enthusiasts trying to stop British Railways closing the branch line to their town, was largely based on the exploits of Tom Rolt’s volunteer team which took over the Talyllyn Railway two years earlier and so started the operational heritage railway sector. In those days, long before information was freely available on the internet, the film introduced the concept in the minds of an enthralled audience and may well have sown the seeds of what was to come later.
On December 21, 1970, the EMI Elstree’s movie version of The Railway Children directed by Lionel Jeffries, and starring Dinah Sheridan, Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett and Bernard Cribbins in leading roles, was premiered in London. Shortly afterwards, it was screened at the former Ritz cinema in Keighley. The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway ( KWVR) wasted no time in capitalising on the film’s overnight soaraway success, and printed leaflets to be given to cinemagoers, outlining all of the featured locations.
The filmwas the ninth most popular movie at the British box office in 1971, and has remained a firm favourite in the half century
branch, but still under the control of BR. It then needed a Transfer Order to acquire running powers outright from BR.
The British Railways ( Keighley& Worth Valley) Light Railway Order came into force in October 1967. The Transfer Order came through onMay 27, 1968.
The KWVR then became the first revivalist company to buy a former BR line, and in drawing up a blueprint for the procedures involved, blazed a trail for other revival schemes to follow.
All that was then needed to start running public trains again was for the branch to be inspected by the Department of Transport ( DoT).
Saturday, June 8, saw inspector Colonel JRH Robertson of the DoT give the green light.
After six years of long hard slog, the KWVR revivalists then found themselves standing at the top of a mountain which had proved far more difficult to climb than had been anticipated, on the verge of transport history being made by local people who were determined that their railway should not go the way of the others closed before, during and after the Beeching Axe.
Aseriesof serials
Russo- Japanese War and to attitudes taken by British people to the conflict.
The novel was adapted for radio in 1943, before BBC TV, which had a monopoly on Britain’s one- channel television service – adapted it for a Children’s Hour series in 1951, starring Jean Anderson, with eight episodes each half- an- hour long.
A second TV version was then produced using some of the footage from the first but with a few cast changes and new material. It had four hour- long episodes.
BBC TV produced another version in 1957, again produced by Dorothea Brooking, with an eight- episode series. Location filming was carried out at Baynards station in Surrey on the old Guildford to Horsham line.
In 1968, the BBC revisited the evergreen story again. Thanks to this particular production, screened on black and white TV in seven 25- minute episodes, The Railway Children was on track to become an international box office blockbuster.
In February 1968, the KWVR received an enquiry fromBBC TV about the possibility of using the line for location filming. It had all the necessary ingredients – period builds, no regular trains and passengers to get in the way and most importantly, steam locomotives.
The director, Julia Smith, had worked on Dr Finlay’s Casebook, Dr Who and Sixties soap opera The Newcomers ( and later produced Eastenders). Her assistant, Nicolas Johns visited the line and a works train consisting of a diesel railbus was provided on February 17.
On Monday, March 25, the filming unit arrived and set up headquarters at Oakworth station.
Before then, volunteers had pulled out all the stops to have the closed branch ready. An NER signal was erected at the curve before Oxenhope and featured in the title sequences. It was pulled to the off position by means of a wire fed through the boundary wall.
The shots of the train stopping, the signal releasing and the train starting were more complicated than the audience ever realised. Three men including two BBC prop men crouched low out of camera range heaving and tugging on the thin strand of wire emerging from the wall until the signal moved, knees and feet squelching in the familiar products of a farmyard.
Oakworth station had the eight broken windows replaced and was repainted for the occasion. The majority of the fence was given a coat of white paint and the gas lamps, long since smashed, were given new glass globes, the platform edge was adorned with the traditional white stripe and the whole area was cleaned and weeded.
The BBC provided contemporary notice boards, and station signs. Oakworth became ‘ MeadowVale’, bushes were also planted on wooden bases to give the whole station an authentically well- groomed appearance. Coal in the nearby yard was cleared by the local coal merchant, Norman Feather, to permit a long shot free from pylons.
Three days were allocated for the use of steam engines. On the first morning, Manning Wardle 0- 6- 0ST provided a few anxious moments when the right- hand injector refused to function and the left- hand one seemed sulky and would only work in a half- hearted fashion. However, a quick dash to Oxenhope water tank solved the problem and also ended its brief TV career.
The cast featured Joseph O’Conor as the Old Gentleman, Ann Casde as The Mother, Gordon Gostelow as Perks the Porter, Brian Hayes as the Stationmaster, John Ringham as the Doctor, Mary Healey as Ruth the Parlourmaid, Stefan Gryff as the Foreigner, Frederick Treves as the Father, Gillian Bailey as Phyllis, Christopher Witty as Jim, Neil McDermott as Peter and Jenny Agutter as Roberta ( Bobbie).
The first episode was screened at 5.25pm on Sunday, May 12, 1968. The adaptation was placed 96th in the BFI’s 100 Greatest British Television Programmes poll of 2000. Of the four BBC TV versions of the Nesbit novel, this is the only one known to survive and was decades later made available on DVD.
The nationwide screening brought swathes of publicity for the branch, and when it reopened on June 29, 1968, no doubt played a significant part in drawing the crowds.
Also watching was English character actor and screenwriter Lionel Jefferies, who was so impressed with the BBC series that his daughter persuaded him to buy the film rights and make his debut as a director.