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Staged railcrash at the GCR for BBC Casualty

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fsmr

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Nice to see our heritage railways generate extra income
One of a number of casualty episodes filmed there and on other heritage lines


http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/G...tarring-role/story-21302590-detail/story.html
A tourist attraction has a starring role in tomorrow night's episode of hospital drama Casualty.

BBC producers turned to Great Central Railway (GCR) while looking for somewhere to film a train crash.

The heritage rail attraction offered its tracks at Swithlands Sidings because they closely resemble a mainline railway.

Filming took place over several nights in February.

Modern carriages were brought in and placed on their sides across the tracks, where Great Central has four lines.

Paul Pearson, Casualty's location manager, said: "Thank you to everyone at GCR for a completely brilliant experience.

"I am so glad we chose to come to Swithland – it looks great on the screen.

"Everyone here is very excited about what we've done."

GCR general manager Richard Patching said: "We were delighted to host Casualty.

"It was a tough assignment, with lots of planning needed to get everything in place for the filming.

"Cranes had to be hired and track lifted to put the crash scene in place – all this while we were running passenger trains at the weekends.

"Our teams had to work through the night but we're sure the end result on screen will be worth it."

GCR has featured in an episode of Casualty before and is a regular destination for movie makers.

Contracts for filming have proved lucrative for the attraction.

Stars including Nicole Kidman, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Ricky Gervais have all used GCR for projects.

Shadowlands, The Hours and Cemetery Junction are among the productions to have used GCR as a location.

Mr Patching said: "Filming isn't just good business for us, it brings real economic benefit to the service sector, with the crew staying in hotels and so on.

"Afterwards, we'll get people coming to visit because they want to see where the films and programmes were made – so even counting the hard work, it's a win-win situation."

Casualty airs on BBC1 tomorrow, at 9.20pm.
 
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GatwickDepress

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I'll be sure to watch this, just to annoy everyone else by pointing out the stock!

Besides, I prefer Holby City. ;)
 

fsmr

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Ah! That explains what they were doing with the class 37 the other week :lol:
Yeh timing tad embarrassing IMHO Knowing how the tv industry works, it was probably filmed last year
I was very careful with the title wording for obvious reasons :lol:

Hats off to them though, they seem to have made themselves a useful side income over the years (Buster Shadowlands Top Gear etc etc) which also helps business and hotels etc outside the railway
 

fsmr

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It was actually shown last night, the BBC messed around with the schedules.

Yeh but I think its in part 2 which is on now?
edit GCR just tweeted it is on now , and was filmed in Feb
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
crash just about to happen now
 
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ATW Alex 101

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I must confide in being a regular casualty viewer since 2004 :oops:

Decent episode tonight, not as good as made out to be though. The choice of stock was poor and the CGI was crap however.
 

fsmr

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I must confide in being a regular casualty viewer since 2004 :oops:

Decent episode tonight, not as good as made out to be though. The choice of stock was poor and the CGI was crap however.

I dont tend to watch tv unless its a docu or news channel but watched a bit of this at the start sequence of the crash. Apart from the poor CGI, the rail crash seemed a bit far fetched as well Recognised Swithland from the shots Of course most rail crashes happen miles form any road access
Did I miss something but were the scrap fairies bona fide NWR contractors or pretendolinos
 

ralphchadkirk

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It was filmed in January. Crap storyline and crap medicine.


Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk
 

Monty

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I'd love to know who thought up derailing a train with an axe that just happens to fall across a rail after being thrown in to the air after it's user was electrocuted. Oscar winning plot line there. ;)
 

GatwickDepress

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It was filmed in January. Crap storyline and crap medicine.
Aye, it's crap on both accounts, but I still love it just for the sheer cheesiness. At least there's less "kids flying kites into power lines" these days!

I'd love to know who thought up derailing a train with an axe that just happens to fall across a rail after being thrown in to the air after it's user was electrocuted. Oscar winning plot line there. ;)
It reminds me of those over-the-top public safety films, where Little Jimmy would knock the iron onto the floor, which set fire to the carpet, that burnt down the house, ignited the gas line, and blew up most of Dorking. Ridiculously convenient stuff like that.

Who came up with the false company to put on the carriages? Any TOC called TWT would very quickly be nicknamed something else... <D
 

Tomnick

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And pretty rubbish protection of the line. Well, actually, there wasn't any shown. Surely they could've filmed something... :p
What sort of protection were you hoping to see?! Personally, with a 'no to DOO' hat on, I'd have loved to have seen the Guard go back to place emergency protection, with a narrative explaining the importance of the action, but I'm not sure it'd add much to the storyline!!
 

ATW Alex 101

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I found that a bit far-fetched. Casualty is top contender for things like that. I initially thought he was going to be not able to get in. Considering the choice of stock though, all he had to do was climb in through the door window!
 

crispy1978

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From a relatively untrained eye, I thought it looked OK. However, a few points above which have now made me think "Ah yes, hadn't thought of that!"

It does make me wonder why they don't appear to bring in an "expert" who can advise on how things should work - or if they do bring on in, why they choose to ignore what they would presumably mention?
 

meridian2

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From a relatively untrained eye, I thought it looked OK. However, a few points above which have now made me think "Ah yes, hadn't thought of that!"

It does make me wonder why they don't appear to bring in an "expert" who can advise on how things should work - or if they do bring on in, why they choose to ignore what they would presumably mention?

Possibly because it's not a rail documentary, but a medical drama, and a pretty cheesy one at that.

It does amuse me whenever this happens: people who moan that 'x is in the wrong formation, or y is not the correct type of signal'. Get over it!
 

Monty

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Possibly because it's not a rail documentary, but a medical drama, and a pretty cheesy one at that.

It does amuse me whenever this happens: people who moan that 'x is in the wrong formation, or y is not the correct type of signal'. Get over it!

Formations and the fact they use 40 year old rolling stock doesn't bother me in the slightest, but the absurd scenarios that cause these 'accidents' are somewhat bemusing.
 

Essexman

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Good income for heritage railway. Rubbish & predictable plot right down to no one bothering to put out the fire that was about to cause an explosion from leaking fuel (under the carriage of a locomotive hauled train). Fire brigade in Holby must be useless as it's always the ambulance or hospital staff who do the rescues - and witohut a risk assesment too.
 

Ploughman

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There was the other train crash back in the 90s I think when there were 3 incidents in the same week filmed for TV on the NYMR.
First off was Heartbeat with the train crash in the Tunnel and Nick Berry playing hero.
Second was Casualty and a crash on the level crossing at Grosmont.
Long trip by Ambulance to get back to Bristol sorry Holby.
Then 3rd was the Cook report about a Briefcase bomb and its effects on a train.

I believe that the same set of stock was used in all 3 with the bomb being the final curtain for at least 2 of the coaches as they were scrapped afterwards.

Somebody, no doubt, will be able to do a youtube link.
 

sprinterguy

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Proof (if you ever needed it) that long running shows such as Casualty needed putting out of it's misery when they recycle similar ideas in relatively short period of time.
At least they've demonstrated continuity in the type of rolling stock used and the (ficitional) operator involved, which is what most complaints on this forum seem to be directed towards :lol:
 
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