The Titfield Thunderbolt

Infobox Film
name = The Titfield Thunderbolt


caption = Original movie poster
director = Charles Crichton
writer = T.E.B. Clarke
producer = Michael Truman
executive producer = Michael Balcon
starring = Stanley Holloway
George Relph
Naunton Wayne
John Gregson
Hugh Griffith
Gabrielle Brune
Sid James
music = Georges Auric
cinematography = Douglas Slocombe
editing = Seth Holt
distributor = GFD (UK)
Universal (USA)
released = March, 1953
screened =
runtime = 84 mins.
country = UK
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
imdb_id = 0046436
footnotes = Infobox movie certificates
Australia = G
United_Kingdom = U
Iceland = L

"The Titfield Thunderbolt" is a 1953 comedy film about a group of villagers trying to prevent British Railways from closing the fictional Titfield branch line. The film was written by T.E.B. Clarke and was inspired by the restoration of the narrow gauge Talyllyn Railway in Wales, the world's first heritage railway run by volunteers.

It starred Stanley Holloway, George Relph and John Gregson, and was directed by Charles Crichton. Michael Truman was the producer. The film was produced by Ealing Studios. It was the first Ealing comedy shot in Technicolor and one of the first colour comedies made in the UK.

Plot summary

The residents of the rural village of Titfield rely on the railway branch line to commute to work and transport their produce to market. So they are shocked when the government announces that it is to be closed. Particularly hard hit is railway enthusiast Vicar Sam Weech (George Relph); he comes up with the idea to run it locally. He and Squire Gordon Chesterford (John Gregson) persuade wealthy Walter Valentine (Stanley Holloway) to provide the financial backing by telling him they can legally operate a bar while the train is running – he won't have to wait all morning for the local pub to open.

The branch line supporters are bitterly opposed by bus operators Pearce (Ewan Roberts) and Crump (Jack MacGowran), but, with the help of the town clerk George Blakeworth (Naunton Wayne), they persuade the Ministry of Transport to grant them a month's trial period, with an examiner to decide their fate at the end. Retired railwayman Dan Taylor (Hugh Griffith) also signs-on to the venture.

On the maiden run, Crump and Pearce try to block a crossing with their lorry and then a passing steam roller operated by Harry Hawkins (Sid James), but the steam locomotive (GWR 1401) is too powerful and pushes them off the track. Later, Crump and Pearce persuade an irate Hawkins to shoot holes in the water tower, but the passengers form a bucket brigade and refill the engine from a nearby stream.

The night before the inspection, Hawkins, Crump and Pearce sabotage the unguarded train, by using the steamroller to tow the engine and coach down the gradient. The runaway engine then runs off the track where the three men have removed a rail.

However, with the assistance of Blakeworth, Weech raids the local museum for the antique, but still-working "Thunderbolt" locomotive. They also commandeer Dan Taylor's home (an old railway carriage body), which is hastily strapped to a flat wagon, and they are back in business. Valentine and Taylor are arrested when they drunkenly try to "borrow" another engine (driving it off the line through Mallingford), and Weech is left without a fireman. Fortunately, the vicar's friend and fellow railway devotee, Ollie Matthews (Godfrey Tearle), the Bishop of Welchester, is visiting and is hurriedly drafted in to assist. There is another problem though: they have to improvise a weak coupling to connect the engine with the train. When that fails during a braking test, Joan Hampton (Gabrielle Brune) has to promise to marry Hawkins to get him to lend them the chain from his roller's steering mechanism, with the Ministry inspector (John Rudling) none the wiser.

The train finally reaches its destination late. The villagers worry that this will prove their downfall, but it turns out that if they had been just a bit faster, they would have exceeded the speed limit for light railways. Instead, the line passes inspection, clearing the way for the Light Railway Order to be granted.

Cast

*George Relph as Vicar Sam Weech
*John Gregson as Squire Gordon Chesterford. Gregson had never driven a car before making this film. Ironically in his next film, "Genevieve", he raced a veteran car.
*Stanley Holloway as Walter Valentine
*Hugh Griffith as Dan Taylor
*Ewan Roberts as Pearce
*Jack MacGowran as Vernon Crump
*Naunton Wayne as George Blakeworth
*Sid James as Harry Hawkins
*Gabrielle Brune as Joan Hampton
*Godfrey Tearle as Ollie Matthews, the Bishop of Welchester
*Reginald Beckwith as Coggett
*Michael Trubshawe as Ruddock

Driver Ted Burbidge, fireman Frank Green and guard Harold Alford were not actors: they were British Railways employees from the Westbury depot and were to be uncredited extras. Charles Crichton spoke with them on location and realised they "looked and sounded the part", so they were given speaking parts.

Production

Shooting was largely carried out near Bath, England, on the recently closed branch line along the Cam Brook valley between Camerton and Limpley Stoke, formerly part of the Great Western Railway. Titfield station was in reality Monkton Combe station, whilst Titfield village was nearby Freshford, with other scenes being shot at the disused Dunkerton colliery. Mallingford station was Bristol Temple Meads. The opening scene shows Midford Viaduct on the Somerset and Dorset Joint, where the branch passed under the viaduct.

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway locomotive "Lion" starred as the "Thunderbolt", repainted in a colourful red and green livery to suit the Technicolor cameras. In filming the scene in which the "Thunderbolt" is "rear-ended" by the uncoupled train, the locomotive's tender sustained some actual damage, which remains visible beneath the buffer beam to this day.

The steam roller

The steam roller used was still in commercial service at the time of filming, and was not sold for preservation until some years later. After six years off the road for a full restoration, the roller returned to steam in 2006, and was in action as part of the road-making demonstration at the Great Dorset Steam Fair that year.

Trivia

* T.E.B. Clarke was a neighbour of Richard Beeching, then Director of ICI, at the time of writing and filming. Beeching's 1963 report "The Re-shaping of British Railways" resulted in the closure of many branch lines like the one portrayed in the film.

External links

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Further reading

*cite book
last = Castens
first = Simon
title = On the Trail of The Titfield Thunderbolt
date = 2002-07-22
publisher = Thunderbolt Books
id = ISBN 0-9538771-0-8
*cite book
last = Huntley
first = John
title = Railways In The Cinema
year = 1969
publisher = Ian Allan
id = SBN 711001154
pages = 76-79
*cite book
last = Mitchell
first = Vic
coauthors = Keith Smith
title = Frome to Bristol including the Camerton Branch and the "Titfield Thunderbolt"
year = 1996
month = June
publisher = Middleton Press
id = ISBN 1-873793-77-4