wansford tunnel NVR... star of the silver screen ( rail bex..well sort of)

[farmer.ned]

hi and welcome to another late night mooch with your furtive farmer.
i had yet another cat job to go to march KFC and this mooch i,d already planned in advance as its been on the back burner for years and one i,d just never seem to have got round to so cat delivered 8 minutes late i took my leave and headed in the general direction of peterborough as the weather and the light turned bad
and thought it would have to be back up the A1 north and put this back on the to do list.
well by the time i,d reached peterborough the evening had brightened up and the rain stopped and the hunt was on so after driving past where i wanted to be and ending up back on the A1 i thought give it one last try if i dont find it this time im on my way home so back on to elton road ( nothing to do with the singer ) did a bit of bearings finding and there it was down a public footpath through a field and its actually the access to the nene valley railway yarwell mill station which i,ll do in a seperate report.
so i toddled off down this field and found the line and the tunnel but how to get down to it the answer came as a small gap in the hedge so i put my railway lookalike orange vest on and proceeded to take some pics untill it started to get dark so made my way back to the car before the light went quick fag and a long term to do finally ticked off at last.

history
wansford tunnel was built in 1845 as part of the blisworth to peterborough line by the london and birmingham railway and is 616 yards long with no vent shafts the line continued to yarwell junction where it split for northampton market harborough and rugby ...see seperate report
and today stands as part of the nene valley railway 7.5 peterborugh to yarwell mill line.

its claim to fame
wansford tunnel was used in the 1982 film octopussy remember the bit where the carriages are shunted ?
the yarwell mill portal was used when roger moore had his gun battle with general orlof played by steven birkof who also played victor maitland in beverley hills cop with eddie murphy.
and the wansford portal being used for the carriage scene it gave the illusion that the tunnel was double track but in reality its actually a siding within the tunnel used for dry storage but was the former up line with the tunnel being specially lit for the scenes and filming.
the wansford portal was also used for the queen video breakthru where the loco destroys a polystyrene brick wall and the dark bit of the video.

then....wansford tunnel in 1982 during the filming of octopussy.

now....apart from a bit of growth nothing much has changed its hard to believe this was filmed nearly 40 years ago.

then... the industrial shunter leaves the wansford portal of the tunnel under the watchfull eye of the soldiers.

now...looking back into the tunnel the line on the left the former up line is actually a short siding in the tunnel used for dry storage apologies for the shaky picture.

 

[Down and beyond]

Enjoyed this one many thanks for sharing it mate

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Excellent. I'd like to also point out that it was also used (more significantly for me at least) for Queens breakthru vid
Watch "Queen - Breakthru (Official Video)" on YouTube

 

[KPUrban_]

Nice. Looking at it they have removed some of the stock that used to be there.

 

[westernsultan]

Excellent. I'd like to also point out that it was also used (more significantly for me at least) for Queens breakthru vid
Watch "Queen - Breakthru (Official Video)" on YouTube

From Wikipedia -
The video of the song was filmed within two days on the preserved Nene Valley Railway, near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, England. The group members mentioned in the interviews that despite the hot summer weather, the event brought a nice refreshment to their studio work. It also helped heighten guitarist Brian May's spirits, as he was going through a bout of depression from the intense scrutiny surrounding his first marriage and Freddie Mercury's health starting to falter as a result of AIDS. The steam locomotive No. 3822 (fired by Mark Needham) and an open platform were rented by Queen from the Didcot Railway Centre in Oxfordshire and repainted for the video. In particular, the group named the train "The Miracle Express", and this name was reflected in large red letters on the sides of the locomotive.

The idea of using a train in the video was suggested by Taylor and was inspired by the rhythm of the rapid part of the song. During the introduction ("new life is born"), the video features Taylor's then-girlfriend Debbie Leng, with a black mask painted around her eyes, waking up and getting up on the rail track. The commencing of the fast part coincides with the scene of the train breaking through a polystyrene wall painted as a brick wall; the wall was constructed in a tunnel, under an arch of a stone bridge. The group was dissatisfied with this part because polystyrene could not stand the enormous air pressure buildup in the tunnel from the incoming train and the wall started breaking before the physical impact. The rest of the clip mostly shows the moving train with an attached open platform whereon the group performs the song. May, Deacon and Taylor are playing guitars and drums, whereas Mercury is moving around the whole platform with his trademark bottomless microphone stand while singing. Leng appears in some scenes on the platform and further in the clip. The train was reportedly going at a speed of between 30 and 60 mph (intermediate values were mentioned in interviews), and thus the group insured itself for £2 million against bodily damage. The clip cost £300,000 (£719,189.40 in today's money) to make.