Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2018 April 23

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April 23[edit]

From Russia with love[edit]

In From Russia with Love, how come the front buffer beam of the Orient Express is red during the daytime shots (up to and including the failed border pickup), but then becomes green in the nighttime shots in Yugoslavia? Was it something they did in post-processing? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:0:0:0:9A39 (talk) 06:57, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Mind to post some pictures of that?--Doroletho (talk) 08:10, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
They are different locomotives. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.38.221.49 (talk) 09:13, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The first locomotive doesn’t have Smoke deflectors. The nighttime loco, which looks like stock footage of an LMS Rebuilt Royal Scot Class loco, does. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.38.221.49 (talk) 09:45, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
So does the second one really have a green buffer beam? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:0:0:0:9A39 (talk) 10:51, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]


  • The night sequence From Russia With Love: Train Sequence on YouTube (2:56) is clearly filmed in the UK. It also has a strong green cast, either from some use of "night vision" equipment, or (far more likely) a big green filter over a daytime shoot, as a cheap way to make it look like a night scene. Note the small disc signal to the lower right of the shot, with a red bar on a white disc - yet here it's dark green on pale green. Andy Dingley (talk) 11:05, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! So, a special filming technique rather than film processing? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:0:0:0:9A39 (talk) 09:29, 24 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]


The train of carriages of any given Orient Express service might travel for thousands of miles, though not necessarly the whole journey, if there were changes of gauge along its particular route (there were several, as the article describes), or any ferry crossings, but along that journey the locomotive pulling it was changed a number of times, typically (though not necessarily) at national borders. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.218.14.51 (talk) 13:50, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Where were there changes of gauge? Andy Dingley (talk) 14:39, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Russian gauge rail lines were the standard in USSR and are still common in former USSR. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 17:59, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
But the Orient Express started from Turkey, and according to Wikipedia, that's where Bond met the train in the movie. (I confess to not having seen it myself recently enough to remember the geography.) It was standard-gauge all the way from there. --69.159.62.113 (talk) 20:21, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The Orient Express didn't run through Russia. Andy Dingley (talk) 20:24, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The Orient Express didn't have a gauge change. That was the point. You could get all the way into the "Orient" without changing trains. I was only answering the question of "Where were there changes of gauge?" That answer feeds into the interest in the Orient Express. You couldn't go into Asia by rail without changing trains because it was rare for double rails to be installed to handle multiple gauges. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 11:28, 24 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
You're quite correct, of course, and I'm abjectly wrong: I was thinking of the Trans-Siberian Railway services. Erroneous statement struck through. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.218.14.51 (talk) 18:00, 24 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]