The Merry Wife - Li Ching (1971) - Tai Po Market Station, Tai Po

Anyone who has visited the Railway Museum in Taipo will be familiar with the old Chinese-style station building, constructed in 1913. It was actually still a working station until up to the track electrification in 1983 when a bunch of the old stations were decommissioned and then demolished. Luckily, the ornate design of Tai Po Market station appears to have been in its favour and it was turned into a great little museum that is well worth a visit if you get the chance.

This isn't the earliest appearance of the station on the blog, that accolade goes to I Spy which filmed here in 1965 (see my old post here).

This is where Zhenzhen goes to meet Lin Min as he arrives by train to visit her at home.

The Fighting Dragon - Yasuaki Kurata (1975) - Tsim Sha Tsui Bus Terminus

I think this was just a transitional shot, but it's worth including because it shows the old KCR train terminus just a few short years before it was demolished (in 1978, despite much local opposition to the plan).

Many of the shots in this film are quick zooms in and out and unfortunaetly the picture quality being quite poor means that there are alot of shots in this film that are too blurry to include. This one isn't so bad despite the zoom.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Kowloon KCR Terminus, Tsim Sha Tsui

We haven't had this building for a while. For those who don't realise, this was the train station that used to stand along the Kowloon waterfront and whose sole remaining artifact is the famous clocktower.

In Evidence in Camera we get to see a fair bit of the place, mainly from the inside which I don't think I have seen on this blog before.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Shatin Railway Station, Shatin

Yet even more rail nostalgia and a very quick look at the northbound platform of Shatin station circa the late 70's through to the 80's.

This is where Mitchum, after arranging with the local police to raid the drug factory at Ho Tung Lau, is attacked and drugged by some local gangsters as he leaves the station to rendezvous with the police.

This particular building sat under where the Citylink Plaza now stands - roughly halfway between Pai Tau and Tin Liu villages.

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Tai Po Market KCR Station, Tai Po

Remember I mentioned the Tai Po Railway Museum in my last post? Well, for those who don't know, the Railway Museum in Tai Po was created from the disused KCR Tai Po Market Railway station. When the track underwent electrification in 1983, the whole process saw the fall of some obsolete stations as new ones - catering for the new electric trains - came into use. Tai Po used to have two stations: Tai Po station in Tai Po Kau (later renamed Tai Po Kau station to avoid confusion) and Tai Po Market Station in the old market area. Tai Po Kau was demolished and the site was re-developed into accommodation for KCR workers, and the Tai Po Market station was turned into this fantastic little museum - well worth a visit if you are in HK.

Anyway, here is another good reason to visit the place: in the episode Affair at T'sien Cha, we get to see Cosby and Culp waiting for a train at this very spot.

I was totally astonished when AP first sent me these screen grabs, I am so familiar with this place (I lived in Tai Po for 6 years and often took my kids here) and had no idea that nearly 50 years ago Bill Cosby had beaten me to it. Amazing stuff!.

The icing on the cake is also a nicely stitched panorama, also supplied by AP, which shows the platform in its entirety.

I can tell you that the station building still looks pretty much as it does here, although I believe at some time between 1965 and the 1970's a small pedestrian bridge was added to allow people to cross the track when the train was stopped at the platform.

NB: the track was doubled here because Tai Po Market station was one of the designated passing places for trains heading in opposite directions.

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Sheung Shui KCR Station, Sheung Shui

Well, a few posts ago we saw some nice shots taken in and around the KCR Terminus in Tsim Sha Tsui, this time we are going all the way up to the opposite end of the same track (and actually, it was still a single track at the time) to the very last stop HK-side at Sheung Shui. It's a fleeting glimpse but an interesting one.

Suffice to say everything has changed and not only the station but the whole town (Sheung Shui was a small market place formerly known as Shek Wu Hui) has been merged with the neighbouring area of Fanling to become Sheung Shui/Fanling New Town (Fanling itself was also a former market town, called Luen Wo Hui, run by a rival clan).

The only constant here now can be seen in the distant background and that is the hill known as Tai Shek Mo. Readers of this blog (and my other one) will probably recognise that name because it is the same hill (albeit from a different angle) that features in the background of the Bruce Lee V Sammo Hung fight in Enter The Dragon.

Incidentally, if you ever make it to the Railway Museum in Tai Po (an interesting post on that coming up next), you'll see that the above diesel engine's counterpart, numbered #51, is still on display there.