The Young Rebel - David Chiang (1975) - Pathway next to the KCR track, Kowloon Tong

This location can also be seen in The Generation Gap. It was a grassy pathway running along the east side of the old KCR rail track. With the subsequent development of Kowloon Tong, this pathway became part of what is now To Fuk Road.

The Generation Gap - David Chiang (1973) - Pathway next to the KCR track, Kowloon Tong

Ling Xi's brother has tricked them both into returning Cindy home and a fight ensues between the two brothers. Surprisingly for a Chang Cheh film they both keep their shirts on, but the fight carries on along a small bridal path running alongside the old KCR track. This was when the track was still single-track and yet to be electrified. The wooded hillock on the left of the top image is where Festival Walk was later constructed. The area behind Ti Lung in the centre image is the former British garrison Ordnance Depot which contained St George's School (and apparently a primary school called St Andrew's). These days there is a cluster of Govt offices and schools on the site including Yew Chung and the Australian International School. Once again, the google marker is playing up and snapping to nearby buildings, but basically this area where the filming was done is between today's To Fuk Road and the railway track just opposite Yew Chung International Secondary School.

Karate from Shaolin Temple - Kazuma Kenji (1976) - KCR Railtrack, Shatin

I can't give a specific location for these following screencaps but will say that the first one was obviously taken at the northern end of Shatin due to the proximity of the slopes of Ma On Shan on the right handside. Train enthusiasts may be more interested in the engine number here - 57. Marcus Wong of Checkerboardhill notes that this was one of 3 engines bought in 1961. Apparently it was damaged in 2009 and eventually scrapped in 2014. As you can see in the images below, this was before the system was double-tracked (circa 1979) and electrified (1983).

In the film, Wu and his sister are following the gang and their boss onboard the train, but at some point the pursuit turns into a car chase.

Bruce Lee fans may recognise Fung Ngai as the gang boss.

My Son A-Chang - Bruce Lee (1950) - Tai Wai Railway Bridge

My Son A-Chang (aka The Kid or 細路祥) was one of Bruce Lee's early childhood films, one of around 20 that he featured in during his childhood in Hong Kong.

It's been more than a decade since I last watched this, but I do remember these stills are from the very end of the film as A-Chang (Bruce) and his family head off into the sunset along the old KCR railtracks. I've got quite good at this stuff in the intervening years so I can now tell you with 100% confidence that I know exactly where the filming spot is/was. This was the rail bridge crossing in Tai Wai where the track crosses, what was, a small river but is now part of the much larger concreted nullah.

Surprisingly, the rail track hasn't moved much since the film was shot (at least not at this location) so the point where the rail bridge now crosses the waterway is basically the same place it crossed over in the images below. What has changed significantly of course is the surrounding area, that is basically unrecognisable. In most of the images below the low wall of the railway bridge can be seen next to the actors.
 

Walking towards the bridge. View looking NE towards Ma On Shan

SW end of the bridge looking back towards the gap between Beacon Hill and Lion Rock

Looking north, the flat area above now contains a small industrial estate

This image clearly shows the old river before redevelopment turned it into a nullah

The flat area behind is now the main area of Tai Wai

The final view looking NE from the bridge as they bid farewell

Once again the Google Maps marker gremlins don't seem to want to let me put a pin on the place where it needs to go, so in case it doesn't get rectified here is a nice view of the current version of the bridge, as viewed from the neighbouring road bridge.

An Orphan's Tragedy - Bruce Lee (1955) - Tai Po KCR Station, Tai Po Kau

Continuing with some local films, here is one I actually posted about many years ago but removed when I decided to concentrate of foreign productions. Anyway, here it is again.

This is one of Bruce Lee's childhood movies (he was 14 when it was made) loosely based on Dickens' Great Expectations. Lee plays the childhood version of the main characters, whose father has been framed and wrongly convicted of a crime but escapes and then helps his son study to become a doctor. Apart from a rather anonymous hilltop where the young Frank (Bruce Lee) runs into his (unbeknownst to him) biological father - an impossible place to find even for me - there are two scenes filmed on location at the old Tai Po KCR station at Tai Po Kau. The first scene is when Frank (Bruce) departs to go to study medicine. The second scene is when Frank returns after his studies and has morphed into the rather drastically much older, Cheung Wood-yau (father of Chor Yuen in case you didn't know).

Yes, prior to electrification in 1983, there used to be two Tai Po KCR stations. One of them, Tai Po Market station, was decommissioned in 1983 and subsequently became the Hong Kong Railway Museum*. The other was originally called Tai Po station and was located next to the ferry pier at Tai Po Kau. This station was also decommisoned in 1983, but was also subsequently demolished and redeveloped into a KCR staff quarters called Trackside Villas.

The name of this latter station appears to have caused some confusion when it operated, and so the name of the station was later changed to Tai Po Kau to reflect the fact that it wasn't really in Tai Po town. The station was really located here because it was a dropping off point for the nearby ferry pier that provided ferry services all over Tolo Harbour - once a very convenient way for outlying villagers to access the market at Tai Po.

Anyway, in 1955, as you can see from the screen caps below, the station was still called just "Tai Po".

Train approaching from Shatin direction

The view towards the north/Tai Po proper

The little girl is a 7 year old Josephine Siao

*It was at the museum that I first discovered this film because a short clip from it - showing the two scenes I have mentioned - is included in a visual display inside the old station building. For those interested, I did actually venture over that way once and took some photos of where the station used to be. Click here.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - KCR railway, Tai Wai

The opening scene of Evidence in Camera is a really nice shot of the northbound KCR train rumbling through what is now Tai Wai in the southern part of Shatin District. Some examples of these old green carriages can still be found at the Hong Kong railway Museum in Tai Po. It's still my favourite HK museum despite being quite small, so if you get the chance to go then I recommend you do.

From the angle of the track and the fact that I can't see the old bridge that used to cross Keng Hau Road, it looks as though the camera was positioned somewhere along Tai Po Road near the Shatin heights section.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - KCR Rail line, Shatin

Some train nostalgia for those who are into that sort of thing as we see the KCR Diesel Locomotive No.53 speeding towards us. Judging by the fact that the track merges from two into one at this point I will make a stab at the location as being just south of Shatin station.  I believe Shatin station was one of several 'passing points' for the north/south bound trains on an otherwise single track system. Note the guy crossing the track as the train approaches...you can't do that anymore.

Anyway, we're led to believe this train is taking Mitchum north towards the Ho Tung Lau drug factory when this is quite obviously a southbound train heading back towards Kowloon. Never mind, remember this is movie land where geography is molded around the whims of the director (in this case Robert Clouse).

Whatever happened to these old diesel trains? Well, No.51 is still in HK at the Hong Kong Railway Museum in Tai Po, but this one (and a few others) - No. 53 - was the H.P Winslow. It was built by Clyde in 1957 and served in HK until retirement in 2004. According to that great rail aficionado, Marcus Wong, they were sold to a company in Australia where they were given a spruce up and re-entered service down under.

Bruce Lee & I - Betty Ting Pei (1976) - Ma Liu Shui, Shatin

Here's one that I suspected I knew where it was but had to play the patient waiting game of either someone confirming for me or finding a picture that provides corroboration for my assumptions.

The scene is when Betty and Bruce (played by Danny Lee) are walking along the KCR track and having a chat about life etc, and there is the distinctive shape of an old KCR railway tunnel. here's a reminder.

Currently there are only two remaining tunnels on the KCR that fit this profile, the first one is the original Beacon Hill tunnel, and the seocnd one is the original single track tunnel at Tai Po Kau. Both tunnels still exist, but only the latter is still in use as a rail tunnel (Beacon Hill Tunnel is now used to carry gas pipes and other conduits from the NT into Kowloon, and to accommodate a second track in Tai Po Kau, the KCR just drilled another tunnel next to the original) but the background we can see doesn't matches anything that can be seen at either tunnels' entrances.

So I pondered that there may have been another tunnel somewhere that fitted the profile. Only today I have had that confirmation courtesy of a photograph from the early 60's shared in FLICKR by our friend Doug. Here is the link: https://flic.kr/p/pjowTd

Look at the background in Doug's photo you can see the tunnel on the right hand side. How long the tunnel was I'm not sure but after a quick look on GoogleEarth it is quite obvious that then hillside in the background behind our two actors is the slope behind the modern day Shatin Hospital and A Kung Kok Shan Road.

Here is another picture of the tunnel courtesy of the CUHK website (it can be seen in the b&w picture at the top of this link: http://www.iso.cuhk.edu.hk/english/publications/newsletter/article.aspx?articleid=54997

The tunnel has been demolished of course, probably due to the lack of space to build a second tunnel for a second track, so they just removed the whole hillside with the tunnel to make the extra space.

Look carefully immediately behind the two actors and you can see what looks to be the start of the reclamation works that filled in the Shatin Sea to make way for Shatin New Town.

Bruce Lee & I - Betty Ting Pei (1976) - Ma on Shan, New Territories

An absolutely ridiculous film on so many levels (but no more ridiculous than Game of Death) but contains some absolute nuggets in terms of film locations. One of the first is this shot of Ma On Shan from the old KCR train line on the opposite side of the Shatin Sea (now the Shing Mun River Channel). Have you ever wondered what Ma On Shan looked like before it became a 'new town'? Well, here it is.

Take a good long look at that pretty awesome view, it's been slightly squished by the lens of the camera, but it is quite easy to see that the mountain (Ma On Shan) which gave the name to the new town at the bottom of its slopes, is a fantastic sight to behold - especially in the 70's when clear days were the norm and not the exception.

Just to compare here is a quick grab from Streetview so you can see how much has changed.

Pretty amazing I would say, but not necessarily for the better, me thinks. I should just add that this Streetview grab was also taken about 100 metres closer as well due to all the reclamation that has also gone on on the west side (where we are looking from) as well. Plus, of course, when this film was made the KCR line - as it was known then and up until 2009 in fact - was still on a single track with diesel engines pulling the carriages.

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - KCR Railway Track, Tai Po

A few shots here taken from earlier in the show when the spies are back in Tai Po, this time walking along the track between Tai Po Market and Tai Po Kau. How can I be so specific? Well, the background here is very familiar to me because I saw it virtually every day for six years.

The above shot has an obvious cameraman's shadow getting caught in frame - however, I am more intrigued by the small huts on the right because these look very similar to the buildings in the CARE Village off Tai Po Road opposite Wong Yi Au. Could they be the same? It's certainly possible because this village was established in the 1960's to rehouse local fisherman who had their livelihoods (and homes) destroyed by a typhoon that blew through the area.

Anyway, moving to the next shot below and we can see, on the left, the Yim Tin Tsai peninsular (just off screen to the left would be Sam Mun Tsai fishing village if that makes it any clearer), behind that bit of land is the island known in English as 'Horse Shit Island' (Ma Shi Tsau). On the right, in the distance, we can just see the lower part of what becomes Ma On Shan.

Finally in our last shot we can see (background right) the distinctive ridgeline of Pat Sin Leng, with its wispy cloud covering - believe it or not these clouds are a common sight, especially during the Spring time (which gives some support to Gweilo888's opinion that this pilot episode was shot during the spring of 1964.

On the left of Robert Culp is the familiar (to me, at least) sight of Yuen Chau Tsai - the small former island (now reclaimed and joined onto the mainland like the many other former 'islands') that houses Island House. If we momentarily put ourselves in Culp's shoes he was most likely staring down the former Tai Po Road (now called Kwong Fuk Road at this section) and the rather large stilted shanty town that was situated on either side of the road's sandy causeway. Note that all of the sea (Tolo Harbour in fact) between Culp and the jetty in the background has been completely reclaimed and now houses a highway.

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.