Trains.com

What's your fav movie/TV show with a toy train scene in it?

14930 views
36 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    November 2012
  • From: Kokomo, Indiana
  • 1,463 posts
What's your fav movie/TV show with a toy train scene in it?
Posted by emdmike on Saturday, May 6, 2017 10:09 AM

For me, I love the intro scenes from "A Christmas Story" with the old time window display featuring Lionel trains.  While Ralphie was more interested in the BB gun, the trains have my attention.  And while I would never wreck my Lionel's, Always loved watching Gomez Adams make a mess out of his!   My 3rd fav is the LGB trains in "The Santa Clause".   I also remember the toy trains on the floor in the TV series Chicago Hope.   Mike

Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome

  • Member since
    September 2010
  • From: Parma Heights Ohio
  • 3,442 posts
Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, May 6, 2017 6:35 PM

Superman Returns.  Lex Luthor tests a tiny sliver of Kryptonite crystal out in a pond on the massive Marklin one gauge layout in the basement of the house he conned a widow out of.  The crystal grows and destroys the layout.  The sound department was even kind enough to add "screams" when the little plastic people got crushed by the trains!  Mischief  (maniacal laugh)

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

  • Member since
    August 2010
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 8,955 posts
Posted by Firelock76 on Saturday, May 6, 2017 7:07 PM

Thank God I missed that one, I wouldn't have slept for a week!

Lex Luthor's goin' to Hell for that atrocity!

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 318 posts
Posted by robmcc on Saturday, May 6, 2017 7:53 PM

The Sopranos when Bobby was in the Trainland store on Long Island buying a Blue Comet and then got whacked.

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Austin, TX
  • 10,096 posts
Posted by lionelsoni on Saturday, May 6, 2017 9:12 PM

The toy-train race in 1938's Four's a Crowd.

Bob Nelson

  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: North Texas
  • 5,707 posts
Posted by wrmcclellan on Saturday, May 6, 2017 10:33 PM

You guys already got several of mine. I always enjoyed the scene in Arthur when Dudley Moore wakes up to the trains running above his bed.

Regards, Roy

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • 1,207 posts
Posted by stebbycentral on Sunday, May 7, 2017 6:58 AM

emdmike
And while I would never wreck my Lionel's, Always loved watching Gomez Adams make a mess out of his!

Gomez: "Of course!  Why else would a grown man play with trains?"

 

I have figured out what is wrong with my brain!  On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!

  • Member since
    May 2017
  • 7 posts
Posted by Barry G. Milstead on Tuesday, May 16, 2017 10:20 AM

 Love Higbee's window in a Christmas Story, now I'm gonna test some memories. There is an episode of "Dennis The Menace" in which Dennis (Jay North) enters a contest to win a Lionel train. Through some trickery, his arch enemy, Johnny Brady wins the train. Some of the grown ups find out what happened, and about three of them give Dennis Lionel sets, which results in the Mitchell's living room floor transforming into a huge layout with fantastic Lionel postwar trains. How many of y'all remember that....?

  • Member since
    September 2010
  • From: Parma Heights Ohio
  • 3,442 posts
Posted by Penny Trains on Tuesday, May 16, 2017 6:39 PM

Well, I don't "remember" it as I wasn't around when the show originally aired, but I do know the episode thanks to Antenna TV which airs the show.  Lionel Santa Fe Alco A unit with silver 2400 series streamliners circles Plasticville buildings.  Johnny Brady only got an HO set!  Crying

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

  • Member since
    August 2010
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 8,955 posts
Posted by Firelock76 on Tuesday, May 16, 2017 6:53 PM

I don't remember the episode either, but if that sneaky Johnny Brady got a HO set, well, serves him right!

We Classic Toy Trainiacs know what HO really stands for,  "How Ordinary!"

Hee, hee, hee!

  • Member since
    December 2005
  • From: Hopewell, NY
  • 3,230 posts
Posted by ADCX Rob on Tuesday, May 16, 2017 8:57 PM

ADCX Rob
"Davey & Goliath Episode: How many pieces of toy train equipment can you identify?".

In this episode of Davey & Goliath(trains scenes start at 7 min. mark):

 

Rob

  • Member since
    April 2006
  • 8,049 posts
Posted by fifedog on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 5:50 AM

Richard Dreyfuss used a bit too much scenery on his HO layout in Close Encounters of the Third Kind...

Alien

  • Member since
    September 2010
  • From: Parma Heights Ohio
  • 3,442 posts
Posted by Penny Trains on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 7:03 PM

Davey and Goliath: What's that?  The New Baben railroad?

fifedog
Richard Dreyfuss used a bit too much scenery on his HO layout in Close Encounters of the Third Kind...

Nah!  He's just centering his layout around a focal point!  LaughAlienLaugh

Have you ever seen either of these?  Play Safe has a great layout with Marx trains and Safe Roads has a standard gauge train wreck!

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

  • Member since
    April 2006
  • 8,049 posts
Posted by fifedog on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 7:54 PM

Who didn't watch Mister Rogers, who had Trolley...?

I think MR or CTT did an article on this.

  • Member since
    July 2003
  • 1,786 posts
Posted by cwburfle on Thursday, May 18, 2017 7:10 AM

Add my vote for the original Addams Family TV series.

  • Member since
    April 2006
  • 8,049 posts
Posted by fifedog on Thursday, May 18, 2017 7:27 AM

When the GRINCH was stealing Christmas, he ran a toy train into his sack, along with all of the toot-tootlers and bong-bonglers...

  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: North Texas
  • 5,707 posts
Posted by wrmcclellan on Thursday, May 18, 2017 8:27 AM

Penny, great videos!

 

Regards, Roy

  • Member since
    August 2010
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 8,955 posts
Posted by Firelock76 on Thursday, May 18, 2017 6:51 PM

I second that!  I haven't seen "Play Safe!" in years, and don't you love that artistic rendition of a wheel-slip?  And those cartoon streamliners are a gas!

"Safe Roads" is fun too. I wonder if those Jam Handy film company technicians gave Lionel the idea for smoke units?  Standard gauge trains (and the parents of the kid in the film must have been well-heeled!) never got smoke units but the O gauge line certainly did.

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 226 posts
Posted by thesiding on Friday, May 19, 2017 12:07 PM

No Day The Earth Stood Still?

 

And on the subject of aliens Mork and Mindy with Johnathan Winters

  • Member since
    May 2008
  • 10 posts
Posted by MtrmnMike52 on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 12:46 PM

There's a Cary Grant movie from 1951, "People Will Talk". He plays a professor, and there's a scene where he has an extensive 3-rail layout set up on the floor of a dining (?) room. There are three trains running, each controlled by him and two other professors (Hume Cronyn and Walter Slezak) from seperate rooms. They announce their trains with 1, 2, or 3 'beeps', and the switches are thrown to route each train. Things work well, with some close calls...but inevitably, they all have an unscheduled meet in the center. It is determined that there was a communication malfunction. (Not nesessarily my fave...just worth mentioning.)

  • Member since
    December 2005
  • From: Hopewell, NY
  • 3,230 posts
Posted by ADCX Rob on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 7:16 PM

MtrmnMike52
There's a Cary Grant movie from 1951,

Rob

  • Member since
    July 2009
  • From: lavale, md
  • 4,678 posts
Posted by gregc on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 7:56 PM

the original "Day the Earth Stood Still"

greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading

  • Member since
    May 2008
  • 10 posts
Posted by MtrmnMike52 on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 10:55 PM

Thanks for the video post, Rob. And, I stand corrected: I thought it was Cronyn (as 'beep-beep-beep'), but it was Sidney Blackmer. 

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • 1,986 posts
Posted by 8ntruck on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 6:59 PM

I like the New York apartment layout Harry Belfaonte had in 'The World, the Flesh, and the Devil'.

Was a multi room Super O layout.

  • Member since
    April 2002
  • From: Wisconsin
  • 1,839 posts
Posted by Rene Schweitzer on Monday, June 5, 2017 3:40 PM

No one has mentioned the super hero film, Ant-Man! About 3/4 through, there's a great fight/chase scene in a girl's bedroom on a Thomas the Tank Engine set! I think it's three rail, but I may be wrong. If you haven't seen the film, it was much better than I expected--funny bits yet plenty of super hero action.

Rene Schweitzer

Classic Toy Trains/Garden Railways/Model Railroader

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 226 posts
Posted by thesiding on Monday, June 5, 2017 5:13 PM

It was Bachmann HO as well as G scale

 

What I want to know is what they did with that big Thomas when the fight was over

  • Member since
    April 2002
  • From: Wisconsin
  • 1,839 posts
Posted by Rene Schweitzer on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 9:33 AM

thesiding

It was Bachmann HO as well as G scale

 

What I want to know is what they did with that big Thomas when the fight was over

 

 

LOL, good question!

Rene Schweitzer

Classic Toy Trains/Garden Railways/Model Railroader

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 226 posts
Posted by thesiding on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 5:17 PM
I just assumed it ended up at the theme park in Massachusetts
  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 226 posts
Posted by thesiding on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 6:24 PM

Also what about Gumby Adventure Train Trouble         Lionel 2035 in that

  • Member since
    January 2012
  • From: Wake County, North Carolina
  • 60 posts
Posted by handyandy on Thursday, June 8, 2017 11:00 AM

Back to the Future III

Doc builds an 1885 model train layout to demostrate to Marty how they will get back to the future. He appologizes that it isn't to scale!   lol

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

FREE EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month