Filming
In terms of providing filming facilities, the Lavender Line is no match to our neighbours such as the Bluebell Railway where the latest version of ‘The Railway Children’ was filmed back in 2000, and recent filming jobs have involved some very famous actors.
However, in the summer of 2004 the Lavender Line was approached by the BBC to take part in the filming of a scene of a programme called ‘Brassed Off Britain’ that involved a steam engine. After some arrangements the filming team arrived mid week and started to set up early ready for the days filming.
The star of the show was our very own resident steam engine 0-6-0ST Kitson ‘Austin 1’. The BBC presenter at the time Matt Allwright arrived at the railway, enjoyed a full English breakfast in our buffet and then set to work preparing the day of filming which would be showed in the autumn of that year.
One scene showed Matt climbing aboard our train whilst explaining the problems of our modern railway system. A second scene showed a clip of ‘Austin 1’ with two Mk.1 Coaches travelling at speed towards Isfield station to recreate the days of steam and explains how the programme feels that railways have gone down hill over the years.
The day was a complete success and the film crew went away with some fantastic scenes of a steam train travelling at speed in the beautiful open countryside.
Photography
The Lavender Line can offer unique opportunities for photographers who are able to take beautiful pictures of scenes ranging from views of steam train from betweens the trees, to close up night time shots where floodlighting can be arranged to allow some fantastic silhouette shots of our steam engines.
In 2002 a small group of students from the university of Brighton took the opportunity to take some old style shots for their filming and photography course work and Isfield station proved to be the perfect location to produce photo’s which brought to life the scenes of a cosy countryside station.
The Lavender Line is always open to these opportunities and if you would like to take some unique photographs at any time of the year please don’t hesitate to enquire. Whether its for just one person or a photographic group, please ask and the Lavender Line would be more than happy to make arrangements for you to visit.