European Railroad Discussion > Endeavour Series 5/Episode 3 features a Trainspotter!

Trailer: https://www.pbs.org/video/preview-2pjg2u/

I guess this episode was seen in UK this past spring but PBS now has the episode available on-line:
https://www.pbs.org/video/passenger-rsq44z/

Railway scenes were apparently filmed on the Mid-Hants Railway at the Ropley station per IMDB web site, although I must admit I didn't recognize that from my visit there 11 years ago!

Notable quotes from the Episode: "This is the Night Mail" (looked like a goods train to me though...) and my favorite: "What is it about men and trains?"

But then there's the scene of the steam locomotive easing into the "Norborough" station (really Ropley I guess?) with a diesel horn blaring!

Good episode!
 

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JPB Wrote:
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> Notable quotes from the Episode: "This is the
> Night Mail" (looked like a goods train to me
> though...)

The "trainspotter" character was reciting the famous poem by W.H. Auden.  https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/night-mail-2/

Most of the railway scenes were definitely shot on the Mid-Hants, although there was one featuring a scruffy station (abandoned in the show, where one of the victims was deposited) with a platform signalbox in the background and multiple tracks overgrown with weeds. TV props specialists can do wonders in converting a scene, but I wondered if this location was elsewhere than the Mid-Hants.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/18 02:45 by railsmith.

railsmith Wrote:
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> JPB Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Notable quotes from the Episode: "This is the
> > Night Mail" (looked like a goods train to me
> > though...)
>
> The "trainspotter" character was reciting the
> famous poem by W.H. Auden. 
> https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/night-mail-2/
>
>
>  
Excellent to know - I'm not familiar with the poem. But now that you mention it, I had forgotten that Cedric, the trainspotter, was reciting it as he operated his model RR at the opening of the episode. Thanks.

JPB Wrote:
-----------------------------------------
> Excellent to know - I'm not familiar with the
> poem.

It was commissioned from Auden in 1935 by the General Post Office Film Unit for their documentary Night Mail, which is something of a landmark in documentary film making. Music was by Benjamin Britten.

Trainspotter's and their cousins planespotters are fairly common in the UK.

JPB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Trailer:
> https://www.pbs.org/video/preview-2pjg2u/
>
> I guess this episode was seen in UK this past
> spring but PBS now has the episode available
> on-line:
> https://www.pbs.org/video/passenger-rsq44z/
>
> Railway scenes were apparently filmed on the
> Mid-Hants Railway at the Ropley station per IMDB
> web site, although I must admit I didn't recognize
> that from my visit there 11 years ago!
>
> Notable quotes from the Episode: "This is the
> Night Mail" (looked like a goods train to me
> though...) and my favorite: "What is it about men
> and trains?"
>
> But then there's the scene of the steam locomotive
> easing into the "Norborough" station (really
> Ropley I guess?) with a diesel horn blaring!
>
> Good episode!
>  

Great show....."Morse" as a younger detective. Of the "bad guy" was a trainspotter and model railroader.