South West Trains in the Media

[700007]

I haven't seen this elsewhere on this forum, but I've noticed that South West Trains in particular is very popular in filming and in the media - any reason why?

In the last few weeks, it was featured in a Channel 4 drama 'Electric Dreams: The Commuter' which follows the story of a ticket office worker at Woking try and find a station called 'Marcon Heights' between Farnham and Bentley (I think it was?) - in terms of portrayal of today's railway, very realistic - no edited sounds to cover up background noise - there's even one point where you can hear in the background Celia announcing 'Platform 2 for the 14:20 South West Trains service to...' before it cuts off. The station is in full SWT colours, so is the ticket office and the staff although not wearing SWT uniform (not sure why they would be), still do wear a uniform that resembles SWT colours and they don't attempt to hide the branding either. Lots of 450s are featured as the focus is on the line to Alton.

In addition to that, there is a Vodafone billboard poster that seems to feature Ashurst (New Forest), a Nutella advert that was filmed on a 444, the Haribos advert that was filmed at Woking and on a 450 and a Colgate advert that features a brandless 456 at either Bournemouth or Windsor & Eton Riverside (probably the latter).

Woking seems to be a station that reoccurs in the media as well.

Any more sightings of SWT in the media?

*I say South West Trains as all of this was filmed/photographed when they were still around.

 

[Alteran Ancient]

Paddington Station 24/7 focuses predominantly on GWR - so that's one thing in the media that doesn't focus on SWT/SWR. Then I've seen clips in other shows such as "Can't Pay?" that feature overhead and passing shots of networks such as Southeastern and Greater Anglia, but very little of SWT.

Then there's another Colgate poster that features a Photoshopped interior of an LO 378, to feature red grab poles rather than orange. Not sure why they've done that.

Maybe it's confirmation bias? If you use that network regularly and/or work on it, then you're perhaps more likely to "notice" it elsewhere more often and not notice the other things that confirm the contrary.

 

[Monty]

I haven't seen this elsewhere on this forum, but I've noticed that South West Trains in particular is very popular in filming and in the media - any reason why?

In the last few weeks, it was featured in a Channel 4 drama 'Electric Dreams: The Commuter' which follows the story of a ticket office worker at Woking try and find a station called 'Marcon Heights' between Farnham and Bentley (I think it was?) - in terms of portrayal of today's railway, very realistic - no edited sounds to cover up background noise - there's even one point where you can hear in the background Celia announcing 'Platform 2 for the 14:20 South West Trains service to...' before it cuts off. The station is in full SWT colours, so is the ticket office and the staff although not wearing SWT uniform (not sure why they would be), still do wear a uniform that resembles SWT colours and they don't attempt to hide the branding either. Lots of 450s are featured as the focus is on the line to Alton.

In addition to that, there is a Vodafone billboard poster that seems to feature Ashurst (New Forest), a Nutella advert that was filmed on a 444, the Haribos advert that was filmed at Woking and on a 450 and a Colgate advert that features a brandless 456 at either Bournemouth or Windsor & Eton Riverside (probably the latter).

Woking seems to be a station that reoccurs in the media as well.

Any more sightings of SWT in the media?

*I say South West Trains as all of this was filmed/photographed when they were still around.

SWT had an active media/filming department and had encouraged production companies to use them for filming as an additional source of revenue. Not sure if this is continuing with SWR though.

 

[700007]

Paddington Station 24/7 focuses predominantly on GWR - so that's one thing in the media that doesn't focus on SWT/SWR. Then I've seen clips in other shows such as "Can't Pay?" that feature overhead and passing shots of networks such as Southeastern and Greater Anglia, but very little of SWT.

That one slipped my mind momentarily - but also the First Great Western one a few years ago as well. Can't Pay has a lot of Greater Anglia and TfL Rail trains, I think it's filmed from Stratford and Forest Gate where they get those shots.

Then there's another Colgate poster that features a Photoshopped interior of an LO 378, to feature red grab poles rather than orange. Not sure why they've done that.

Yes, I've actually seen this at Liverpool Street billboards, it looks like if Greater Anglia had the 378s instead! I think it's to match with the Colgate red colour scheme probably....

Maybe it's confirmation bias? If you use that network regularly and/or work on it, then you're perhaps more likely to "notice" it elsewhere more often and not notice the other things that confirm the contrary.

Indeed.

 

[700007]

SWT had an active media/filming department and had encouraged production companies to use them for filming as an additional source of revenue. Not sure if this is continuing with SWR though.

I haven't seen any SWR ones as of yet, but if it's the same people still using it, I don't see why not.

 

[Nammer]

Last Saturday there was a large cast and crew filming onboard the 0909 WAT - PMH using 5 coaches of the 10 on a 444.

 

[London Trains]

Paddington Station 24/7 focuses predominantly on GWR - so that's one thing in the media that doesn't focus on SWT/SWR.

Relating to this, why is it that they always block showing Heathrow Connect trains. I haven't seen a single one, yet they show HeX a lot and same with SWR at Reading and XC at lots of places.

 

[Clip]

Relating to this, why is it that they always block showing Heathrow Connect trains. I haven't seen a single one, yet they show HeX a lot and same with SWR at Reading and XC at lots of places.

I would imagine that BAA requested this so that their premium brand is shown to increase patronage

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Was it Surbiton where a scene for the film "Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince" was filmed?

 

[221129]

Relating to this, why is it that they always block showing Heathrow Connect trains. I haven't seen a single one, yet they show HeX a lot and same with SWR at Reading and XC at lots of places.

Because the focus was on GWR/Network Rail/BTP.

 

[7031]

Was it Surbiton where a scene for the film "Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince" was filmed?

It was indeed! I've seen a few posts on various websites before actually of Harry Potter fans going to the station for precisely this reason.

 

[London Trains]

Because the focus was on GWR/Network Rail/BTP.

But then why were HeX, SWR (SWT at the time) and XC involved and mentioned?
One of the major incidents in the show was a XC train hitting a person.

Heathrow Connect were blanked when they showed pics of Paddington, yet HeX was always there. Same with Reading/Bristol/Exeter etc with other TOCs.

 

[The47Wanderer]

Reed and Belvita have used them recently as well...

 

[London Trains]

 

[Bigfoot]

There was a bbc 1 (pretty sure on that channel) about two commuters having and affair that was filmed on swt at the time. Broadcast around two years ago approximately.

There was also an advert filmed in Strawberry Hill depot. They were told it was for Google (Indian type railway scene was the set from what I was told).

 

[jopsuk]

Southeastern frequently crop up in the background of stuff filmed in London; there's lots of good "generic back street London" with elevated railways in their patch, plus their trains run on four bridges across the Thames. Many times a cop by a railway arch will claim to be in north London whilst a white and yellow train rumbles past above

 

[smilerish]

Two thoughts on this (because I don't think this is confirmation bias - I think SWT does crop up more in TV dramas/films):

• Doesn't SWT have one of the biggest/busiest commuter networks in London? I think that lends it to being a "natural choice" for dramas about commuters. So there could be some artistic choice involved.
• Isn't Shepperton on the SWR network? Maybe there's a link with the film studios (even if only historical).

 

[700007]

Two thoughts on this (because I don't think this is confirmation bias - I think SWT does crop up more in TV dramas/films):

• Doesn't SWT have one of the biggest/busiest commuter networks in London? I think that lends it to being a "natural choice" for dramas about commuters. So there could be some artistic choice involved.
• Isn't Shepperton on the SWR network? Maybe there's a link with the film studios (even if only historical).

Possibly. The film studios could always be a influence on where they film.

That said, I just saw a Yale locksmith advert for the first time on channel 4 which once again featured South West Trains, a class 450 and then a class 455 straight after. They really are active and popular!

 

[Phirstman]

There was a bbc 1 (pretty sure on that channel) about two commuters having and affair that was filmed on swt at the time. Broadcast around two years ago approximately.

'The 07:39', broadcast January 2014.

 

[Monty]

Two thoughts on this (because I don't think this is confirmation bias - I think SWT does crop up more in TV dramas/films):

• Doesn't SWT have one of the biggest/busiest commuter networks in London? I think that lends it to being a "natural choice" for dramas about commuters. So there could be some artistic choice involved.
• Isn't Shepperton on the SWR network? Maybe there's a link with the film studios (even if only historical).

As I said previously SWT/SWR has an media/filming department that is quite pro active when it comes to touting for business.

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/other/news-and-media/commercial-filming