User talk:Milesoftrane

You wrote: "Wikipedia is not for picking holes in the plots of films - the loco was probably chosen because it was available for hire at a reasonable rate, and the average cinemagoer can't tell the difference anyway"

Wikipedia was for providing facts, and collecting them! That was what this was about!

January 2014
Welcome to Wikipedia. We welcome and appreciate your contributions, including your edits to BR standard class 4 4-6-0, but we cannot accept original research. Original research also encompasses combining published sources in a way to imply something that none of them explicitly say. Please be prepared to cite a reliable source for all of your contributions. Thank you. -- Red rose64 (talk) 00:04, 5 January 2014 (UTC)
 * As a newcomer, enlighten me: what would be required to document this fact? Footage from the film?
 * Isn't this an interesting fact for some of us Steam Loc enthusiasts?
 * Johan — Preceding unsigned comment added by Milesoftrane (talk • contribs) 23:27, 8 January 2014‎
 * We have various policies, the most important of which are neutrality, no original research and verifiability. Watching the film and writing about what you have concluded counts as original research.
 * Many films and TV dramas that feature steam trains use the "wrong" locomotive or "wrong" coaches for the date. To the average watcher, it doesn't matter if the loco was a BR 4MT or (say) an LMS 4MT. Show them pictures of the two and ask them to tell them apart, they will probably say that they look just the same. They don't even spot the obvious howlers in films like Oh, Mr Porter! where a train enters a tunnel with one loco - and exits with a completely different class of loco (IIRC one was a GWR "Castle", the other was something a lot smaller).
 * In Eye of the Needle, the choice of loco was probably not made by the film director: he (Richard Marquand) will have visited various heritage railways which offered facilities for filming, chosen some where the location was either consistent with the plot of the film, or suitably dramatic, and from this shortlist asked each of them to quote for the filming rights including the use of locomotive and coaches. He would have selected the railway where the terms were most agreeable, not the one where the loco was most authentic; and the heritage railway would have offered locos known to be in good working order - they might not have had any authentic locos available. You should also consider whether the inauthenticity would have affected the story; that is, would the chances of Henry Faber escaping have been different if another loco had been used? The chances are almost certainly not.
 * But if such plot inconsistencies have been written about elsewhere - preferably by a respected author in a book or a magazine that is known for its reliability, then we could report on what that author had already determined - but without drawing our own conclusions; provided that it was suitably referenced, see WP:CITEBEGIN to find out how to add references. -- Red rose64 (talk) 00:38, 9 January 2014 (UTC)