A train carriage from a Burnham railway museum landed a starring role in an Oscar-winning film, it has emerged.

The carriage, which is part of the Mangapps Railway and Museum collection, in Southminster Road, was used by director Joe Wright in his $150million grossing war-time epic The Darkest Hour.

It was the setting for the pivotal scene where Winston Churchill rides the London Underground and talks to passengers about whether Britain should surrender to the Nazis.

Gary Oldman's portrayal of Churchill won him the Oscar for Best Actor at the Academy Awards earlier this year.

The railway museum is owned by John and June Jolly.

Talking about The Darkest Hour, Mr Jolly said: "The film company contacted us and asked if they could borrow ours.

"They said they couldn’t find a suitable one when they searched so they came to us.

“We agreed a contract and they took it away for five weeks at their studio in Watford to do the filming over the winter.”

The Mangapps Museum opened in 1987, when they bought their first locomotive from a man who was saving it from being scrapped.

The museum now has one of the largest collections of railway memorabilia in Britain including signs, lamps, posters, carriages, wagons and locomotives.

The Darkest Hour isn't the only film to have used the Mangapps collection for props.

Another carriage – a 1929 LNER restaurant car – featured in a scene in the horror film Woman In Black, starring Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, who spent a day at Mangapps filming.

Mr Jollysaid: “For the Woman in Black, they heard that we had that particular carriage and they came down for a day to do the filming with it.”