{"id":5582,"date":"2023-03-08T19:01:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T19:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therailwaydog.co.uk\/?p=5582"},"modified":"2023-03-14T10:58:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T10:58:58","slug":"titfield-70","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therailwaydog.co.uk\/?p=5582","title":{"rendered":"Titfield @70"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wednesday 1st March 2023 to Tuesday 7th March 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
“The Titfield Thunderbolt” film poster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I love an Ealing Studios film, and this week, \u201cThe Titfield Thunderbolt\u201d celebrated its 70th<\/sup> Anniversary having been released to the public for the first time on 5th<\/sup> March 1953 with a Gala Premiere at the Leicester Square Theatre in London as part of the British Film Academy’s award ceremony, before going on general release from the 6th<\/sup>. Filmed in 1952, the feature was mostly shot on the Camerton branch between Camerton and Limpley Stoke on the Cam Brook Valley near Bath which had closed to traffic in February of the previous year. Monckton Combe railway station stood in for Titfield while the village scenes were shot in Freshford. The Fish Bay platform at Bristol Temple Meads makes cameo appearances as Mallingford railway station. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Yoshi watches “The Titfield Thunderbolt” <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Titfield Thunderbolt\u201d was inspired by the real life story behind the rescue of the Welsh narrow-gauge Talyllyn Railway in 1951. Directed by Ealing stalwart Charles Chrichton (1910-1999), starring Stanley Holloway (1890-1982) and with a screenplay by another Ealing old hand T.E.B. Clarke (1907-1989) the film opens with a view of Midford Viaduct on the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR) as a train on the Camerton branch passes underneath. Midford is on our bucket list to explore one day, especially as there is a conveniently placed pub – the Hope & Anchor \u2013 located under the old S&D viaduct, the trackbed now forming a footpath and cycleway. The pub website<\/a> notes: \u201cThe single line section between Midford & Bath required a special safety device known as \u201cThe Tablet\u201d. A train about to enter this section had to pick up the tablet by means of a mechanical catcher. If the tablet was not there it meant another train was already on that stretch of track. Sometimes the act of giving up the tablet on the outward journey would result in the (accidental?) dropping of the tablet down the embankment into the garden of the inn. By some strange quirk of fate, this seemed to happen a lot more frequently during opening hours and climbing down to retrieve it was thirsty work!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n