Bahamas all set for big-screen stardom
LMS Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45596 Bahamas is set to become the latest UK preserved locomotive to achieve cinema celebrity status through its role in the forthcoming sequel to the 1970 blockbuster The Railway Children.
No. 45596 appears on the first posters released by Studio Canal, the producers of the new Railway Children Return film, and stars in its first-look video.
Filmed on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway like the original, which was released in UK cinemas on December 21, 1970, and the 1968 BBC TV series that preceded it, Bahamas features (as No. 5596) alongside two other locomotives in the line's fleet, Midland Railway 4F 0-6-0 No. 43924 (as 3924) and USATC S160 2-8-0 No. 5820, which previously appeared in the feature film Yanks, filmed on location in Keighley.
Agutter returns
The Railway Children Return stars Jenny Agutter, who resumes her role as Roberta ‘Bobbie'Waterbury from the original film adaptation of the 1906 Edith A Nesbit novel, as well as having appeared in the earlier TV series. The film also stars Sheridan Smith, BAFTA award-winning Tom Courtenay and John Bradley.
The story follows a new group of children who have been evacuated to Oakworth during the Second World War, where they encounter a young soldier who, like them, is far away from home. Their new home is with Bobbie, who has long since grown up.
Haworth and Oakworth were chosen as the main locations, with the Blu-Ray and DVD release including a documentary and interviews with key original cast members. The movie is directed by Morgan Matthews, who has previously directed TV documentaries including When Harry Left Hogwarts and Shooting Bigfoot. He was also behind British drama film X+Y, known in the US as A Brilliant Young Mind.
KWVR operations manager Noel Hartley said: “More than two years ago, a producer came to see me to see if the KWVR would be interested in being involved in making a new Railway Children film.
“It's just fantastic to see that after all that time of working with the film company and encouraging it to use the railway more than they originally planned, the complications and delays of Covid, and then the mammoth task of the shoot that it's almost there.
“Hopefully the film will give the whole heritage railway sector a boost and engage audiences, young and old, with steam.
“This is a time when it could be seen as unwanted dirty technology and not the awesome working representation of the industrial revolution that we should continue to protect.
“The trailer looks great. There is still some work to do with the film company on some aspects for the final picture, but first impressions are brilliant!”
April release
The locomotives that featured in the original movie were Manchester Ship Canal Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T No. 67, GWR 0-6-0PT No. 5775, L&Y 2F 0-6-0 No. 52044 as ‘The Green Dragon' and GNR N2 0-6-2T No. 1744. The film famously shows the children waving their red petticoats to stop No. 5775 to avert a disaster. The scene is paralleled in the sequel's trailer, when the children wave bedsheets with the words ‘Please Stop'painted on them in an attempt to bring the S160 to a halt.
Filming for the sequel began on May 10 and took eight weeks. It is due to be released in the UK on April 1, 2022.
Next year will see the centenary of the merger of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway and LNWR, and talks are underway about running a train from the KWVR to the East Lancashire Railway behind Bahamas before the spring, as well as a tour from Keighley to Buxton.