Nene Valley Railway has been used as a location for over 150 different film or TV productions including feature films, dramas, documentaries, adverts and even music videos (see Filming at NVR). While many of these feature trains being used for passenger travel, there are some notable productions which have used our wagons.
1982 Octopussy (EON Productions)
Possibly the most famous use of our wagons, four ex-LMS CCTs were modified for use as the Octopussy International Circus Train Vans – with small personnel doors added to the large end doors, steps for moving between wagons, and various steps and handles to assist the stunt team. These wagons were used alongside three of the continental carriages to form the complete circus train, hauled by Danish State Railways DSB S 740 disguised as German DRG 62.015.
Octopussy Train Scenes
BBC Look East: Behind the scenes
Several Bond fan-sites cover the train related aspects of the film:
00 Aficionado – Trolley Trouble Part 4 – Octopussy
James Bond International Fan Club – All Time High
James Bond Radio – The Octopussy International Circus Train
During 2013 the Wagon Group restored CCT 37071 to the condition as used for the filming of Octopussy, and it now resides in Wansford Station Platform 1 providing static storage.
The rest of the CCTs are, sadly, currently in generally poor condition, but can be seen stored at various locations along the railway (Wansford Station, Wansford Civil Engineers siding and Peterborough Railworld).
1989 Queen – Breakthru
The band decided the drum shuffle in the song was very train like so Queen came up to NVR for a couple of days filming. They were driven along the railway while performing the song on our ex Danish State Railways flat wagon DSB-8959 hauled by ex-GWR steam locomotive 3822 (on hire from Didcot at the time), liveried as the “Miracle Express”. There are rumours about exactly what speed they were travelling during the filming, and Freddie Mercury hanging off the railings raised a few eyebrows! The loco is no longer at NVR, but the wagon can be seen in the Civil Engineering siding outside Wansford (it’s the one with “BORAIL” and “8959” painted on the side).
Not only can we see the end result in the music video, but ITV made a behind the scenes documentary about it.
The Miracle Express (Behind the scenes)
1992 B&Q “Why pay pots for paint? – Train”
A rake of box vans are transformed from a uniform drab colour to a spectacular array of colours having passed under a bridge. For the filming the colours were painted on one side of the rake only. Many of the vans had to be transported to the railway rather hurriedly from the British Sugar Spalding site in order to be available for use in the filming. Several of these vans can be seen in our demonstration freight rake, in a rather more conventional BR bauxite brown livery, with others stored around the railway awaiting refurbishment. It’s rumoured that one currently stored in the tunnel at Wansford is still painted blue on one side.
B&Q advert in Nene Park documentary
(Many thanks to Marc Hernandez for the pointer to this footage.)
2010 EastEnders (BBC)
On one of their visits to NVR for filming, EastEnders used a freight train for a near miss at the (heavily disguised) Wansford level crossing. The signal box is boarded up and the crossing has been dressed with modern automatic barriers in place of usual gates. The train was made up of civil engineering wagons hauled by a Class 31.
NVR Wagon Group 