From North by Northwest to Mission: Impossible, trains have made frequent and memorable appearances in movies. But when was the last time you spotted a cinema screen on a train?
Well, thanks to a group of volunteers and a new celebration of the UK’s railways, one train carriage is being turned back into a cinema.
The restored 25-seat cinema carriage dates back to the 1970s. It was first unveiled by Princess Margaret in 1975 as part of a travelling exhibition train celebrating 150 years of the modern railway.
It was used to screen British Rail staff training films until 1988, before being sent to a Bristol depot in 1991 for use as a meeting space.
Friends of its manager at the time, Alan Willmott, have spent six years restoring it to its original form, repanelling, rewiring and repainting it, and adding a speaker system, as well as vintage seats salvaged from a Deptford cinema.
The work was done at the Swindon & Cricklade Railway, with the help of Willmott’s family friend and BFI curator Steve Foxon. ‘Alan was the closest person I had to a grandfather,’ says Foxon. ‘When he died, he left all the cinema coach’s paperwork to me. Sitting in the carriage absolutely warms my heart and takes me back to my childhood. It’s exactly what Alan would have wanted.’
‘The coach could’ve been returned to passenger use, but so much history would’ve been lost,’ says Martin Rouse, who led the volunteer renovators. ‘What we have now is almost unique, nowhere else offers this facility, and it’s great to see what it’s become.’
This weekend, the coach will be screening British Transport films on a rebuilt 1970s Bell & Howell projector at Swindon & Cricklade Railway. Entry is free to ticket holders to the railway.
The coach won’t be moving, although in future films may be screened on the move.
The restored carriage is part of Railway 200, a nationwide celebration to mark the 200th anniversary of the railway. An exhibition train, Inspiration, is currently on a year-long, 60-stop tour of Britain.
Check out its full itinerary on the official website.
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