In my previous blog here I wrote about a 2023 trip with my husband to Bamburgh, where the castle was used as a location for some of the fifth and final Indy film ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’. As part of that trip we also made a short visit to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, which was also used in the film, for the scenes immediately following those at the castle – as Indy escapes and ends up on a train transferring Nazi loot to Germany.
There’s a dramatic chase scene through, and on top of, a moving train as our heroes try to escape with part of the titular ‘Dial of Destiny’. We see actors Harrison Ford and Toby Jones facing off with Mads Mikkelsen as the steam train makes its way out of France heading to Berlin.
Through the magic of the movies the train never actually leaves Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. The steam train is a real working locomotive, owned and maintained by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) https://www.nymr.co.uk/ The train was a redressed to look period specific – from these pictures below I came across online they made a concerted effort to cover up the Nazi symbols when not filming
NYMR is run and maintained by dedicated volunteers with the private railway line running from Whitby to Pickering. We didn’t have time this trip to do the whole journey, but there was the option to buy a return ticket between single stops, so we chose to travel between two stations: Grosmont and Goathland. Grosmont is where the railway’s large maintenance works yard is, which was the principal base for the setup of Indiana Jones filming at that location.
From my research I understand the yard was redressed as the Nazi base and, as mentioned before, the existing stream train belonging to the museum was embellished to match. It must have been exciting for those who maintain the railway and the trains to have been involved in such a huge production. There’s a really good video here of the train during filming.
There’s also a great website here about a project called ‘Finding Ford’ – one man’s mission to meet his hero, Harrison Ford – and he did, at Grosmont in June 2021. He visited on the chance of seeing some filming and ended up catching Harrison wearing Indy’s costume for the first time since the 2008’s ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’.
We caught the train to Goathland, which was only a 20-minute journey. Goathland Station has been most famously used in the Harry Potter film series. The village of Goathland itself is probably best known for being the fictional village of ‘Aidensfield’ the setting of 1990s British ITV television series ‘Heartbeat’. The show was set in the 1950s and even in 2024 there’s a bit of a time warp going on. We had plenty of time to take the short walk from the station to the village and see the locations, it’s essentially a garage and some shops, all with lots of tie-in merchandise. This is a place that has fully embraced film location tourism.
The railway was also used in the 2023 film ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’. They filmed part of the train sequence using the NYMR line then cut to Darlton Quarry in Stoney Middleton, for the moment the train goes over a destroyed bridge. I really hope that these two films brought a load of ‘A list’ money with them that will help keep the NYMR going.
Neither my husband nor I would class ourselves as train enthusiasts, but there’s something special about a locomotive engine in full steam. The smell and sound combined to give a sense of nostalgia for an era neither of us even experienced. On our return to Grosmont there was another steam train at the opposite platform, allowing visitors to pop onboard and view the engine room. We weren’t missing a chance to do that! It was such an unexpected bonus to be able to stand by the open door of the boiler where the coals were glowing red hot. I asked the volunteer train driver about the Indiana Jones filming, and he told us which one was the train that had been used – sadly not the one we were on. Frustratingly it wasn’t running that day and it was the only train you couldn’t get a good photo of as it was parked right at the end of the works yard. The only decent view of it turned out to be from the train as you go from Grosmont to Goathland – it’s just after the tunnel. We did our best to wander around the area to get a picture but failed as it wasn’t accessible via the yard or the surrounding paths.
Flash-forward nearly two years – I’m trying to improve my photography skills and decide to upgrade from a bridge to a DSLR camera. I found one at a good price on eBay and when I took delivery I was surprised to find that it still had a memory card in it with some pictures stored on it. There were only 12 pictures, they appeared to be of some retired friends visiting an old-fashioned railway station, with a large black locomotive featured in a few shots. Looking at the style and colour of the station buildings I got the feeling that it might possibly be the NYMR. Could this mean that my quest to find the Indy train might finally be over? I looked up the number of the screen used locomotive – 92134 – and yes, it matched! So, by pure chance I’ve got some nice pictures of the ‘Dial of Destiny’ train in use. Thank you, eBay seller!
From scene to seen 