Major Railway Mistake in 'The Secret Agent'

[Merthyr Imp 729]

#15

Sacrilege no excuse.

Could have renumbered & renamed one of the preserved castles & kept them in green

Does it say in the books what colour the engine is? I've never read any of them so I've no idea, although I do know departure from King's Cross is involved, so it does seem strange that 'Castle' haulage is involved. Having said that, the Great Western didn't have a monopoly on 'Castle' names - maybe it's meant to be a B17.

As I say, I haven't read the books so don't know much of what occurs in them.

[Tim in the North East 200]

The lack of railway authenticity has been an issue for quite a while. If you take the example of the film versions of The 39 Steps then whilst none of the three versions strictly follow the book's locations all have Richard Hannay escaping from the train in Scotland. The 1935 version has Robert Donat climbing out of the train on the Forth Railway Bridge - as does the 1959 version with Kenneth More. But in the 1978 version Robert Powell's Scottish train escape was filmed on the Victoria Bridge on the Severn Valley Railway!