North West Frontier India Partition Film

softwerkslex · **Posted:** Thu Sep 19, 2024 5:37 pm

The film North West Frontier of 1959 is now available on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/gN2fg4XC0Wg?si=4vz0fmi0bJVx0klj

I am planning a lecture on the film. Can anyone supply railway related comments and details about its filming, and the railways shown?

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2876

https://www.national-preservation.com/t ... ilm.24104/

"The following information is from a supplement called "Railway Films of the Raj" by Ray Ellis, published with the Indian Railway Study Group Newletter No.9, in January 1993.

A large part of this film was shot on location in Spain, on the 5'6" gauge Zafra-Huelva Railway, of the RENFE. Originally built by a British Company, the line runs parallel with the Spanish-Portuguese border, and has some spectacular bridges and some very Indian looking scenery. The little tank engine used "Empress of India" is one of four 0-6-0T's built by Kerr Stuart (works nos 713,714,715 & 725) in 1900 for the South of Spain Railway, and later RENFE 030.0209-212. The engine used being modified to look more like a locomotive filmed in India, which included the fitting of 'chopper' couplings.
For filming sequences on the sound stage at Pinewood Studios, full size replicas of the locomotive, rolling stock and part of the bridge were constructed, with Pinewoods usual remarkable accuracy.
Some scenes were also filmed in India using metre gauge trains, somewhere near Jaipur. These include the departure of the 'refugee' train and the scenes where the 'escape' train catches up and passes the 'refugee' train. The 'refugee' train is hauled by an OJ class 4-4-0 (built by Bagnall in 1943) and the 'escape' train is hauled by a TJ class 0-6-0T (built by Bagnell in 1942, and sent to India, despite having been ordered by a steelworks in Turkey!). This later engine was also heavily modified to look more like the modified locomotive used in Spain."

You may be able to obtain the cited original here: http://www.borht.org.uk/irsg.htm

kew · **Joined:** Sun Apr 02, 2017 3:13 am **Posts:** 134

Another good train film is "Bhowani Junction (1956)" ostensibly set in India but shot on the Longmoor Military Railway (England) and Lahore, Pakistan. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049007/

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2876

BTW what is that screeching, melodramatic music style called, it was ubiquitous in films, advertisements, public service messages etc. of the time.