This film is one of over 200 titles in the list of independent feature films made available for television presentation by Advance Television Pictures announced in Motion Picture Herald 4 April 1942. At this time, television broadcasting was in its infancy, almost totally curtailed by the advent of World War II, and would not continue to develop until 1945-1946. Because of poor documentation (feature films were often not identified by title in conventional sources) no record has yet been found of its initial television broadcast. It's earliest documented telecast was Saturday 2 July 1949 on WCBS (Channel 2), New York City, as one of about three dozen British titles picked up for television distribution in the USA by the CBS Television Network. It first aired in Cincinnati Thursday 1 September 1949 on WCPO (Channel 7).
The train was portrayed by 4 locomotives 2980 Coeur de Lion, 5004 Llanstephan Castle, 4953 Pitchford Hall and 6005 King George II.
In the closing scenes GWR Star Class 4071 Cleeve Abbey is shown entering Mulchester Station. The nameplate is just visible in the bottom right corner as the train enters the station. This loco was withdrawn in December 1938 and rebuilt as GWR Castle Class 5091 Cleeve Abbey.
This was made during the golden age of Twickenham Film Studios which lasted just for just a few short years in the mid thirties. Studio head Julius Hagen invested his own fortune in top of the range equipment, borrowed from every bank he could then rather than distributing his films thru United Artists, RKO or Gaumont-British, he set up his own distribution company - this was his downfall. He found the door to the big cinema chains were locked to him which eventually resulted in bankruptcy.
A multi story train thriller filmed for real with no model shots.