007 Railway Holding 1940s Weekend

The Nene Valley Railway, located in picturesque countryside near Peterborough, in Cambridgeshire, which has played host to two EON Bond films in the past, is holding a ‘1940s Weekend’ on 26-27th September to round off another successful summer.

Events include Re-enactment Battles by the ‘1939-1945 Society’, and it will be an opportunity for visitors to have a good look around the railway stock (which includes Belgian, German and other locomotives), the small museum, and the various NVR stations before the Winter months close in.

The Nene Valley Railway (NVR), which starts in Peterborough and has its main station and HQ at Wansford, near the A1 motorway, was of course the location for ‘Octopussy’ in September, 1982, and, 13 years later, ‘Goldeneye’ in the Easter period of 1995. The Railway has also seen other espionage-related filming, including the BBC war drama ‘Secret Army’ in 1978, ‘Reilly Ace of Spies’ in 1983, and ‘The Secret Agent’ (with Bob Hoskins) in 1995. Not many people are aware that sequences for ‘The Secret Life of Ian Fleming’ were also shot on the NVR in 1989. In addition, the Railway has seen numerous other dramas being made there, together with TV commercials and pop music videos. Before he even became Bond, Pierce Brosnan also made a TV commercial which made use of the NVR.

Roger Moore and the Making of Octopussy

It is now 27 years since a large EON crew, with a busy army of technicians, support staff, extras, and location caravans, took over a slightly muddy field next to Wansford Station and started the location filming on an overcast Monday morning in September, 1982. The main stars, including Roger Moore and Maud Adams, plus stunt experts such as Bob Simmons, also occupied location caravans in the same field. Miss World (Mary Stavin) and Miss Great Britain (Carolyn Seward) were also on the scene, recruited to play roles in the ‘Octopussy’ travelling circus team.

Early in the morning, Roger Moore posed for press photos with Maud Adams and Kristina Wayborn in front of a large steam locomotive, with small clouds of steam rising tantalisingly in the background, creating a suitably East German atmosphere. Much of the filming on the first day involved sequences on the main platform at Wansford Station with Moore, Adams, Louis Jordan and the then relatively unknown Indian star Kabir Bedi. This was the start of 7 days of main unit filming with the key stars, and approx four weeks of additional filming followed with a second unit (consisting mainly of stunt work).

Filming for the rest of the first week saw the crew and main unit, under the firm but easy-mannered control of John Glen, use various other location points on the NVR, including Orton Mere Station, Ferry Meadows Station (where technicians had built an impressive German border control post during August, 1982), and some complex and dusty sequences in Yarwell Tunnel, near Wansford Station. 617 yards in length, with no ventilation shafts, the long tunnel saw Glen’s crew shoot late into the evening on a Saturday, and a tired but satisfied Roger Moore was still gracious enough to sign some autographs as he emerged from the Tunnel and climbed a steep wooden stairwell up from the Tunnel entrance(the stairwell in the film saw a soldier fall from it after he was shot by 007). Apparently, during a long day of filming in the Tunnel, Roger Moore fell asleep in his chair under the hot arc lights and an ‘extra’ on the set (doubling as an East German soldier) witnessed what he said was “a large butterfly” gently landing on the 3rd 007 as he dozed. What a photo that would have made!

In 1982, the Tunnel and nearby farmland was not open to the general public, but in Easter, 2007, the NVR opened an extension to the railway and a new Station, Yarwell Junction, which now allows trains to take the public through the Tunnel and on to Yarwell. Sharp-eyed visitors can still see the stairwell.

Other Octopussy sequences on the NVR saw some spectacular car stunts being shot at Wansford station, some of which were edited out of the final film as they were too slapstick, and Bond’s borrowed car (with its slashed tyres) taking to the rails in pursuit of Octopussy’s train. This sequence was not solely down to special effects, but involved a car genuinely converted to fit the wider gauge of the railway. The crew did not even have to generate any sparks, as they were genuine and spectacular too as the racing car screeched along the tracks. A KGB helicopter, in hot pursuit of General Orlov (Steven Berkoff) was also filmed landing at Wansford Station, near the river and, again, at Ferry Meadows Station. Both Wansford and Ferry Meadows Stations also received visits from quietly-spoken Cubby Broccoli, who observed some of the filming and chatted to Roger Moore and John Glen, at one point taking Roger for a spin in his car. The last Sunday of main unit filming, with Steven Berkoff and his stunt double, also took place at Ferry Meadows Station, with Berkoff only needing a couple of takes to do his ‘death on the track’ piece.

Some dangerous stunt work also took place on the top roof and on the sides of passenger carriages while the NVR locomotive raced along the track at high speed between Wansford and Ferry Meadows. At one point, Martin Grace, Roger Moore’s stunt double, was seriously injured in second unit filming when he misjudged his step and hit a concrete post at the side of the track, ending up in Peterborough Hospital.

Pierce Brosnan and the Making of Goldeneye

In 1995, much to the delight of locals, 007 returned to the NVR to shoot sequences for the Russian locations in Goldeneye. Using a formidable-looking armoured train, which was in reality an outer shell specially built by EON technicians and crafted on to conventional rail stock , the main unit (this time under new director Martin Campbell) made use of an old Sugar Beet factory near Orton Mere Station, and also shot the villain’s mini-helicopter emerging and escaping from the top of the train. The main filming with the key stars, however, took place at the NVR’s Bridge 62, near the village of Castor, which is located on the NVR half way between Wansford and Ferry Meadows Stations.

Pierce Brosnan (who was present for one day only) and the main unit set up camp in a field next to Bridge 62, which witnessed one of the most spectacular explosions of the film, with a direct hit on the villain’s armoured train. Basically, in a shot that could not be repeated, the front engine of the locomotive was at one point set alight and this worked so well that the nearby trees were scorched as the train raced down the track. Again, the genius of EON’s technicians was very much in evidence in 1995 when they converted Bridge 62 (using scaffolding, a false wooden front and some large dark sheets) into the concrete tunnel entrance where 007 parked his waiting tank as the armoured train sped down the track, its front engine now on fire. Some Russian-looking trees and bushes were placed strategically along the railway embankment. This sequence was not shot at Wansford Station, as another website has recently claimed.

In the afternoon, a major explosion was set up and the public were cleared well away from the main filming area. This fireball was seen in the background as Bond and his leading lady jumped from the train (two brave stunt-doubles). A few yards up from Bridge 62, later in the day when many people had gone home assuming the filming had finished, Martin Campbell took his two main stars back onto the railway line for a kissing sequence between 007 and his leading lady, Izabella Scorupco. Needless to say, some paparazzi still in the area soon got wind of this and pictures appeared the following Sunday in a British newspaper, which was in fact good publicity for new boy Brosnan’s first 007 film.

Some other freelance photographers also became excited at Bridge 62 when Pierce went for a walk along the path that runs alongside the NVR with a new companion, Sheeley Kaye Smith, who later became the new Mrs. Brosnan. Pierce Brosnan handled this with good humour, at one point proceeding to lick the lens of a waiting photographer.

The NVR Today

The Railway today remains very popular with film-makers and documentary producers, and this has brought valuable income in for the Railway, which is run by a dedicated band of volunteers. For many years, the NVR shop at Wansford sold bullet cartridges which it claimed to come from the location shooting for Octopussy (!). Copies of the NVR magazine ‘filming specials’ were also on sale for a long period of time but are now quite hard to find. The Railway remains proud of its association with Bond history, however, and has made use of this for marketing purposes. A trip to the NVR is well worth the time of anybody seeking a nostalgic walk through a 007 location within easy reach.