HO-Velo York1 1957's "The Black Scorpion John, Thanks for the heads-up. Got a kick out of the movie, especially the train wreck scene, those Lionel passenger cars with silhouetted passengers in the windows brought back some good ol' memories. Glad to see 'Svengoulie' keeping the humorously hosted Saturday night monster movie tradition alive, its Americana. Thanks again and regards, Peter
York1 1957's "The Black Scorpion
John, Thanks for the heads-up. Got a kick out of the movie, especially the train wreck scene, those Lionel passenger cars with silhouetted passengers in the windows brought back some good ol' memories. Glad to see 'Svengoulie' keeping the humorously hosted Saturday night monster movie tradition alive, its Americana.
Thanks again and regards, Peter
Hey, I didn't mind seeing that here! It's funny as hell and in my mind a little touch of humor is welcome now and then.
TheFlyingScotsman Oddly enough I just happened upon this clip from a 1945 movie Leave Her To Heaven. Can anyone name the train the obs car is from?
Oddly enough I just happened upon this clip from a 1945 movie Leave Her To Heaven. Can anyone name the train the obs car is from?
Sorry I'm late on this, I lost track of this topic!
That wasn't filmed in an actual railcar, it was a set. There's no way they could have fit the Technicolor movie equipment (among other things) in an real lounge car. But it's a darn good recreation of one!
I saw this one on RiffTrax's Twitch TV channel; Marriage Is a Partnership (1951)
According to IMDb, CB&Q Zephyr is featured (at the beginning, 03:29, and the end of the movie).
Jones 3D Modeling Club https://www.youtube.com/Jones3DModelingClub
This may be classic-era trains in classic-era films to MR posters, but Classic Trains, according to Kalmbach and its editors, has a 50-year rolling cutoff. Anything later than that (now, 1971) had better go elsewhere.
But it certainly makes "better" sense here than on MR, where it obviously has no business, and there are already too many classic-trains-in-classic-films threads on the Trains Magazine forums. With the alternative being... well, I think it may as well settle in here.
Steven OtteSince this thread has nothing to do with modeling, I'm moving it to the Classic Trains forum.
Dinosaur's eating boats have nothing to do with Classic Trains. Move it back.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Since this thread has nothing to do with modeling, I'm moving it to the Classic Trains forum.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
The Journey Of Natty Gann is a live action Walt Disney movie from the mid 1980s.
It features lots of Canadian steam locomotives and trains. The movie takes place in the 1930s, and from what I can see, the equipment is pretty much period appropriate.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
York11957's "The Black Scorpion
I'm not sure if any of you have access to METV. It's on some cable systems and it's over the air in some cities.
Tonight they are showing 1957's "The Black Scorpion". It's one of those 1950s monster films. It's on the show, "Svengoolie".
The interesting part is that a giant scorpion attacks a train. If you watch closely, when the steam locomotive crashes, the tender clearly shows "Lionel Lines" on it.
York1 John
I'm going a *bit* outside of the "classic" film era here, but this one caught my eye. I have not seen it but this Italian/West German-made film looks perfect for a midnight cult-classic party!
By chance this morning, I was on a site completely unrelated to railroading that happened to have a picture link to this rail movie from the 70s with an unbelievable cast (O.J. Simpson undercover as a priest?!?). This looks like a bizarre one for sure!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cassandra_Crossing
This site (below) has an extensive write-up with screenshots and behind the scenes stuff. I can't believe how many A-list stars are in this!
The picture of the orange passenger car barreling off of the viaduct is what drew me in. Also included in this link are pictures of the director planning shots with HO scale trains, men in full haz-mat suits, and a man impaled by a steel beam. Maybe George Romero was lurking behind the scenes.
http://www.moon-city-garbage.agency/cass-cross/index.htm
The amusing Wikipedia section on reviews of the film reads as follows:
The film holds a score of 30% on Rotten Tomatoes based on ten reviews.[10]
Richard Eder of The New York Times called the film "profoundly, offensively stupid," with Ava Gardner "awful in an awful role" and Sophia Loren "totally miscast."[11] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4 and called it "an unintentional parody of a disaster film. The catastrophes that befall the passengers of a Geneva to Copenhagen train in the picture are positively ridiculous."[12] Variety dismissed the film as, "a tired, hokey and sometimes unintentionally funny disaster film in which a trainload of disease-exposed passengers lurch to their fate."[13] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a disaster picture quite literally disastrous and so awful it's unintentionally hilarious."[14] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "Cosmatos is an absentminded, huffing-puffing director who seems to keep hoping we'll overlook his frazzled continuity, which suggests an old serial slapped together in such a way that the cliffhanging bits are never resolved."[15] Richard Combs of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "The one remotely enjoyable aspect of The Cassandra Crossing is that it knows no proportion in anything—from performances through plotting, shooting style and special effects, it is constantly outdoing itself in monumental silliness."[16]
The film was booed and hissed at preview screenings by critics.[17]
The graphic scenes of the passengers being killed at the end of the film had ensured an "R" rating in theatres and led to two "censored" and "uncensored" versions being released for broadcast and home media.[3]
Andy
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Milwaukee native modeling the Milwaukee Road in 1950's Milwaukee.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196857529@N03/
The Milwaukee Road WarriorHere is the magazine issue:
Thanks for the link. I was also completely unaware of this special issue.
Just circling back to close the loop here.
At the time I started this thread I was not aware of this special edition from Trains covering this topic. I picked this up recently as an early Christmas gift. Many of the films mentioned in the thread are in here, but plenty I haven't ever heard of.
Sidenote: I'm a little surprised that Fritz Lang's Human Desire (1954) isn't in the magazine. The first 5 minutes of the film are nothing BUT train. (I've only seen the first 5 minutes lol..) More, in fact, than you get in Bad Day at Black Rock for example. Kind of a strange omission imo.
Here is the magazine issue:
https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/special-issue/tr7100101
"Outland" was a 1983 film starring the late Sean Connery. No trains, since it took place on one of the moons of Jupiter, but it is actually a remake of High Noon. Spaceships take the place of trains.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Everybody likes the Thin Man, or at least Myrna Loy
They traveled on the Sunset Limited in After the Thin Man
There was also train travel in Return of the Thin Man
https://obscuretrainmovies.wordpress.com/2019/08/01/the-thin-man-goes-home-1944/
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Brief Encounter starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson. Made towards the end of WW2 and filmed mainly in Carnforth Railway Station England.
In 1999, the British Film Institute ranked it as the second greatest British film of all time.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Watched Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) with the kids last week and there are a few scenes of the Cohan family riding in turn-of-the-century passenger trains, and another short scene of the family waiting in a classic-era suburban Chicago commuter station. Very evocative interior sets. And I continue to encounter more trains in Buster Keaton films..
Once again, thank you Ed!
The Milwaukee Road Warrior(I would embed this but dont have the time to figure out how right now.)
MR_clip by Edmund, on Flickr
Paste_video by Edmund, on Flickr
Just leave the other boxes blank. Don't use the embed tab (some videos can be linked here but not YouTube, commonly).
Cheers, Ed
I might be late to the game on this, but I stumbled on this fantastic documentary of photographer/film maker O. Winston Link on YouTube. For those who have not seen this British production covering his work documenting the Norfolk & Western in the 1950's, you are in for a treat. Gorgeous black and white night photography of the end of the steam era. I remember the photo of the train rushing past the drive-in movie theater. Fantastic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfId5bbfC2Y
(I would embed this but dont have the time to figure out how right now.)
Cinerama! I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey in Cinerama when it came out. What a trip!
RRRR - Rat Room Rail Road"How the West was Won" - that final scene with the chase on the train was specatcular and all done full size, no computer effects or models used, all on Cinerama, too!
I saw How the West Was Won on a true W I D E screen in a local theater when it was released.
Cinerama Holiday (1955) saw those huge cameras loaded on to the California Zephyr!
https://ctr.trains.com/~/media/files/pdf/when-cinerama-rode-the-cz.pdf
They even mounted one in the nose of an F unit (Like RR-Mel has done!)
"The Train" 1964. Burt Lancaster takes place at end WWII
"Van Ryan's Express" Frank Sinatra, also WWII
"How the West was Won" - that final scene with the chase on the train was specatcular and all done full size, no computer effects or models used, all on Cinerama, too!
Work Hard! Train Hard!
The trailer for Picnic (1955) starts out with a train filmed in Kansas. Great film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1A1vqmkftw
York1 Starting right now on Turner Classic Movies is the classic noir film, "Double Indemnity". Although there is just a small part about a train, it plays the key role in the movie. Great film.
Starting right now on Turner Classic Movies is the classic noir film, "Double Indemnity".
Although there is just a small part about a train, it plays the key role in the movie.
Great film.
Yes! One of the greatest of classic films. Fred MacMurray like you've never seen him before. If only he hadn't run into that guy from Medford, Oregon. And Edward G. Robinson chews up most of the scenes he's in.
"In all my years there is not one recorded case of suicide by jumping from a moving train!"
csxnscsxns wrote the following post 5 days ago: This Property is Condemned has lots of L&N and The Flim Flam man L&N also.
The steamer in that was Reader RR US Army S-160 #1702. Now at the Great Smokey Mountain RR.
Also Boxcar Bertha filmed on the Reader.
Bronson did Breakheart Pass with some good train footage. Ex-Great western 2-8-0.
Iron Will about the kid that ran the dogsled race also with an ex-GW 2-8-0.
Bite The Bullet was another good train flick filmed on the very early C&TS.
The Train with Burt Lancaster. He also was in Tough Guys with Kirk Douglas.
oldline1
A poster on the mirror thread over at Classic Trains posted this cool film, Pacific 231. I can't read French but the footage is great. It's from 1949 and was edited to fit the piece of classical music featured in the soundtrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKRCJhLU7rs
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