Talk:One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing

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The Steam Lorry - Prototype?

In this film, the steam lorry is almost as much of a star as the dinosaur – the two being fairly inseparable throughout! However, I have failed to identify the model on which the lorry was based.

It is superficially similar to the products of the Sentinel Waggon Works, as it is clearly an 'undertype' waggon (see steam wagon). However, the vertical boiler (which is very small!) is over to the one side of the cab, which would surely unbalance it? It is unlike any I have seen before, so I have a strong suspicion that it was entirely fictitious, and, like-as-not, built on a diesel truck chassis.

I have no proof of any of this, which is why it's on the talk page rather than the article itself....

Incidentally, the lop-sided boiler leads to a continuity error in this film. During the chase sequence, between the shots of Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards, there is a 2-3 second sequence where the boiler/chimney – usually on the right as we look at the vehicle – suddenly switches to the left!!

And another? I haven't re-studied it closely, but as the Rolls Royce leaves the station (which is Marylebone, by the way) at the start of the film, I'm sure that in the right background you can see the front view of a 'modern' (for 1975) bright red van. It has a large windscreen and looks not unlike a Mercedes...

EdJogg 01:20, 14 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Is it possible that the steam lorry was simply modified for the film? It seems to me that, for the chase sequences, the boiler would have to be moved aside for all three characters to be in a shot, rather than have Joan Sims blocked out of view by the blastpipe, and the enlarged chassis could be to ensure that the dinosaur skeleton would actually fit onto the vehicle. 82.36.28.41 (talk) 19:16, 19 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That is good lateral thinking, although I don't believe that's what happened. By the time the film was made, such vehicles were all effectively antiques, and I suspect that most owners would not have welcomed such a major change as a boiler move, although a temporary lengthening of the chassis could have been achieved quite easily. On a Sentinel, the boiler goes through the floor of the cab, with the ashpan accessed from underneath -- moving this would be an enormous job.

I think it far more likely that a model was used for some, or all, of the scenes, with a full-size mock-up cab for the close-ups. As such it wouldn't really matter to most watchers that no particular prototype was followed and that the boiler was probably not large enough to provide sufficient steam...(for example).

EdJogg (talk) 14:17, 26 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]