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Author
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Topic: Ride of the 480
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted March 16, 2010 10:56 AM
NZR 480 in recent years
Ride of the 480
1969, New Zealand National Film Unit
(Derann Film Services, 1x400’, Color, Sound)
For a railway enthusiast, a good train film is almost like being there. If you are also a film enthusiast, it may be just as good. Some of my favorite films were shot 70 years ago on long abandoned lines by Railfans using 16mm windup cameras. They are black and white, silent, often scratchy and shot by guys who cared a lot more about the trains than Cinematography. None of these films will ever get to Cannes, but they take me places and times I could otherwise only read about. It’s all part of the magic of film.
Fine for me...but what about everybody else?
There are certain railway films that manage to jump the gap to general audiences. Very often they tell their story without getting too deep in train jargon; often there is music, sometimes even a little humor. Ride of the 480 is an excellent example of one.
The back story is that a group of railway enthusiasts had been restoring former New Zealand Railways #480 for use on their heritage line. When she was done in May 1969, they brought her home. The catch is that she started out in the dead line at Greymouth and they needed her to be in Auckland, 1000 kM away with a ferry transit from the South to North Islands in the middle.
The film begins with vintage clips and narration telling of the construction of 480 and her years of service before retirement. We then see the preservationists arrive to find her tired and rusty looking, we fast-forward through them cleaning and scraping and soon she is seen looking brand new pulling onto a turntable. After years of sitting dead, she is now ready for a great journey under her own power.
She steams across the South Island towards Christchurch, across broad plains with the sun low in the sky. The line is level and straight and they really let her roll.
Christchurch is reached and we take a minute for a retrospective on what life was like there early in the history of the railway: not your typical train film stuff!
Now it’s time to catch the ferry across to Wellington. It seems a steam locomotive in operating trim was out of the question on the ferry, so we see them dropping the fire and taking down the drive rods so she might be shoved dead onto the boat by a diesel. Soon she is underway and then back on solid ground.
The North Island is more mountainous, and they reflect on the difficulties building the line through to Auckland. We see her storming up hills and through valleys, finally home, and on time.
The scenery throughout the film is beautiful and the action accompanied just often enough by nicely done music. The filmmaking shows a lot more skill and a lot greater budget than some guy with a windup 16mm camera.
This film gains a couple of points with me for being about a narrow gauge line, but since New Zealand’s 42” narrow gauge is “standard gauge” there, it’s almost debatable!
Derann’s print is wonderful, sharp with great sound and color. I think I see a very slim, intermittent negative line, but it is only a problem if I choose to notice it.
Postscript: Engine 480 is still alive and well 40 years later, operating at the Glenbrook Vintage Railway on the North Island.
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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