…and a Hiring

“and would I like to represent the Terrier Trust?” Brian Heyes, Chairman of TTT had phoned me to ask if I was working on Wednesday the 4th of January and as he had an urgent dental appointment, could I go to the railway as there was some filming scheduled involving 32678 at Rolvenden and up the hill to Tenterden. Checking with General Manager Graham Baldwin, I was asked to report to Pete Salmon at Rolvenden Station for 0900.

The filming turned out to be for the series British Steam Railways published by Planet Three Publishing Network Ltd/De Agostini UK Ltd. If one Never Says Never with Railways, then I also have another – the Weather has no sense of Occasion. It is a fact of life that for one-off events, the weather never behaves when the need is greatest.

January 04 is the anniversary of the start of freight only period for the southern stub of the K&ESR under BR auspices. A depressing thought in itself not helped by a raw wind under leaden skies and a colourless countryside reduced to gooey mud pudding thanks to the holiday snows.

The film crew were a little late arriving so after introductions and outline of plans, it was getting on for 10am before they started with a few runs of 32678 light engine towards the pit at Rolvenden. A couple of times the skies threatened to brighten, only for it to darken again with the breeze getting lazier, seemingly no longer bothering to go round and just taking the shortcut through.

It wasn’t helped by this part of the filming involving yours truly giving an impromptu interview for the production crew about the Terriers in general, their work on the K&ESR and 32678 in particular as it involved a lot of standing around and a few retakes. Especially as virtually everyone else took the opportunity to disappear indoors for a thaw; Knowle’s firebox was as attractive to huddle around as a roaring open log fire.

This part of the filming actually didn’t take that long but I recall it was rather like an exam at school! Not being pre-planned, retakes of questions seemed to change slightly and even simple facts like the history of extended bunkers on Isle of Wight Terriers, of which 32678 was one, dissolved from memory. And when we’re talking history, there is a tremendous amount of it when it comes to Terriers!

The forecast had indicated the possibility of some brightness later in the day but the filming people didn’t want to take any chances. So after a quick coffee, they took scenes of 32678 backing onto its mixed train on the Main by Rolvenden. The next take was of the complete train crossing the A28, then, as the weather showed not the slightest sign of improvement, the team took a ride to Tenterden Town to plan their filming locations for the afternoon.

Movie photography is completely different from stills. Locations seem to be completely different and with the latter, there is definitely an element of the hunting instinct – precision is almost everything. On the other hand, with movies the emphasis seems to be on a much broader, sweeping canvas.

At Tenterden Town there was a delay due to coaches in the loop, so in order to get the Terrier back on the Bodiam end, the Class 08 Dover Castle had to be employed to shunt the filming train whilst 32678 was in the Pullman siding.

With slightly brightening skies, and hint of blue, the crew together with Pete Salmon were deposited near the bottom of Tenterden Bank just below the Rolvenden Down Outer Home signal. One took up position on the north side of the line to get a panorama of Orpin’s Curve whilst the other went with Pete out in the field to the south side of the track.