Stephen Jones

Film Four has shown "The Train" recently, a W.W. Two film about the French Resistance which must contain more railway scenes than most other films. Were these scenes filmed in Northern France ? Was there one main location ?

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Automotivehistorian

It looked very much like France, with SNCF locos.

Wee Sonny MacGregor

According to John Huntley, shooting began at the marshalling yards at St Ouen in Paris in August 1963. After two weeks filming the unit moved on to Vaires, some 40 miles out of Paris for three weeks of shooting scenes. Then the company moved for eight weeks to Acquiny (scene of one of the principal crashes). Location filming ended in December 1963. Shooting resumed in March 1964 at a marshalling yard at Gargenville, outside Paris - the entire marshalling yard was blown up. Then more shooting, a few nights each, at railways stations in Longueville, Provins, Troyes, Louiviers and Acquiny. The sequence where the locomotive just managed to reach the tunnel ahead of the Sptifire's guns was shot at Elbeuf, near Rouen. And "Autmotivehistorian" is right - SNCF locomotives were used and SNCF experts were advisers.

Automotivehistorian

When I first landed en France on a school exchange around 1971, there were rows of steam locos stored in sidings along the main Dieppe-Paris Nord line. I was amazed, not having seen a steam loco on British Railways since 1966! Clearly SNCF had plenty of active locos at the time of filming that they could sacrifice if required.

Wee Sonny MacGregor

Not only that but the SNCF experts recreated the sabotage used during the war!

christoph404

there is a fascinating audio commentary by director John Frankenheimer on the DVD of "The Train" In the commentary he goes into some detail regarding locations and other aspects of the film, I would recommend it if you are a fan of the film.