binder001 wrote: For action my vote goes to "The Train". The French let the movie crew wreck several steam engines and they appear to tie up a double track line somewhere. Lots of trains, military gear and even the "big hook" in action. I still enjoy the original "Union Pacific" of 1939. A DeMille classic!Not a "feature film" but I have always enjoyed "Last of the Giants", about the best RR-produced documentary movie.Gary
For action my vote goes to "The Train". The French let the movie crew wreck several steam engines and they appear to tie up a double track line somewhere. Lots of trains, military gear and even the "big hook" in action.
I still enjoy the original "Union Pacific" of 1939. A DeMille classic!
Not a "feature film" but I have always enjoyed "Last of the Giants", about the best RR-produced documentary movie.
Gary
Gary--
One interesting feature of THE TRAIN is that spectacular bombing attack on the railyard, early in the film. It seems that the French National Railways was going to take up and relay that particular rail yard right outside of Paris, and when director Frankenheimer found out about it, he approached officials about letting him blow it up. The railway gave him permission, and he hired Lee Zavits, the special-effects wizard who had 'burned' Atlanta for GONE WITH THE WIND, and together, they set enough dynamite charges in the yard to take it out almost completely. Frankenhiemer used about 10 or so Panavision cameras strategically placed (one in a helicopter) the entire area was sealed off, the train was run through with a few explosions, and all that terrific stunt work by Burt Lancaster, and then when the train (and the cast) was clear of the yards, the whole thing was blown to smithereens. The entire sequence took one morning to film, the railway company moved in after and re-laid the yard to their new plans.
Another interesting note--the scene where the yard switcher derails its train almost on top of the camera, actually took the camera out, and smashed several hundred dollars worth of Panavision equipment, but the film was undamaged and the sequence remains in the movie. The first time I saw the film, I literally DUCKED!!
THE TRAIN is one terrific film, IMO!
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
jecorbett wrote: This is a side note to the comments about the movie Union Pacific. A few years earlier, the movie The Plainsman was released starring Gary Cooper. It's probably been about 40 years since I saw either and viewed both at a time when one of our local channels ran old movies rather than air any of the string of late night competitors of Johnny Carson. It seems to me the same scenewas used in both. It is a scene where an Indian is telling the story of the Custer massacre. Are there any old movie buffs who can tell me if both movies did use this same footage or am I just having a senior moment? Movies reusing footage has been done before. Footage of Doolitle's Raiders taking off which initially appeared in Thirty Seconds over Tokyo was later used during the opening of the movie Midway produced during the 1970s and again in the lame movie Pearl Harbor which was made sometime in the late 1990s. Midway also reused some footage from Tora, Tora, Tora to depict the intial Japanese raid on Midway Island.
This is a side note to the comments about the movie Union Pacific. A few years earlier, the movie The Plainsman was released starring Gary Cooper. It's probably been about 40 years since I saw either and viewed both at a time when one of our local channels ran old movies rather than air any of the string of late night competitors of Johnny Carson. It seems to me the same scenewas used in both. It is a scene where an Indian is telling the story of the Custer massacre. Are there any old movie buffs who can tell me if both movies did use this same footage or am I just having a senior moment?
Movies reusing footage has been done before. Footage of Doolitle's Raiders taking off which initially appeared in Thirty Seconds over Tokyo was later used during the opening of the movie Midway produced during the 1970s and again in the lame movie Pearl Harbor which was made sometime in the late 1990s. Midway also reused some footage from Tora, Tora, Tora to depict the intial Japanese raid on Midway Island.
jecorbett--
I have both of the deMille westerns, and no, that scene in THE PLAINSMAN isn't reproduced in UNION PACIFIC. The band of Cheyenne that attack and derail #11 in UNION PACIFIC is a much smaller band than the 600 or so Sioux that deMille used in the two Indian battle sequences in the earlier film. One interesting note, however--the Indian raid in UNION PACIFIC is almost an exact duplicate of a sequence in John Ford's 1925 silent epic THE IRON HORSE, the only difference is that in the earlier film, the indians stop the train instead of wrecking it. But the subsequent looting of the train in the Ford film is duplicated almost exactly by deMille fourteen years later. Actually, both sequences are based upon an actual incident in the building of the original Union Pacific, so deMille didn't actually 'steal' the sequence from Ford, it's actual history.
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
One problem there is that "Union Pacific" ends with the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869. The battle of the Little Big Horn was in 1876. I haven't seen either movie in a while, but I'm guessing it's maybe a similar scene but not the same one used twice.
BTW re an earlier post, "Petticoat Junction" was set in the 1960's (i.e. the time it was being made) not the 1870's. The idea was that a washout had cut off that branchline of the railroad, and they had just continued doing things the way they had been without interference from the outside world. In the 1960's that idea of going back in time or finding a place that was still like the "good old days" was very common...about half of the "Twilight Zone" episodes involved that theme in one way or another it seems.
Also re Little House - one railroading gaffe they had was one where one character goes to Minneapolis c.1880 for some reason. At one point someone offers him a ride in their buggy and he says "no thanks, I'll take the "el" " and proceeds up the stairs to an elevated train station. Problem is there was of course no "el" in Minneapolis, perhaps they found a leftover set from a movie about New York or Chicago and decided to work it into the episode??
Has anybody seen or heard anything about that Kevin Bacon train movie? It was supposed to have come out already but I haven't seen anything about it.Conductor(Bacon) runs over kids dad and then be-friends orphaned kid. I put a link to it up a while back but can't remember it's name.
Stand by Me was great!Google doesn't bring anything up on The Runaway...
twhite wrote: mammay76 wrote:wonder how many eye rolls i will get at this one.....Stand by me..... one of my favorite all time movies, and there on train tracks...doesnt get to much better!!! Mammay76--No 'eye rolls' from me--STAND BY ME is a terrific film, IMO. And that scene on the trestle is pretty darned heart-stopping! Like that film a lot, I do. Tom Oh, and a PS to everyone--the movie with Judy Garland and Angela Lansbury is THE HARVEY GIRLS from MGM in 1946, about the establishment of the Fred Harvey restaurants along the tracks of the Santa Fe. Mainly a musical, but it has a couple of pretty good train scenes featuring a locomotive and cars bought from the Virginia and Truckee, masquerading as a Santa Fe passenger train (not sure, but I think MGM borrowed the train from Paramount Pictures, who owned a lot of former V&T rolling stock). However the 'backdrop' for some of the interior train shots is Monument Valley, Arizona, which has never seen a train in its life and is some light years north of the Santa Fe line, LOL! Talk about Hollywood ingenuity. UNION PACIFIC came out of Paramount in 1939 and stars Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea and Robert Preston, and is about the building of the first transcontinental railroad, using a whole bunch of ex-V&T 1860-vintage locos and cars, plus a plot largely stolen from John Ford's 1925 epic THE IRON HORSE. Neat movie, though. A couple of really SMASHEROO train wrecks. Tom
mammay76 wrote:wonder how many eye rolls i will get at this one.....Stand by me..... one of my favorite all time movies, and there on train tracks...doesnt get to much better!!!
Mammay76--
No 'eye rolls' from me--STAND BY ME is a terrific film, IMO. And that scene on the trestle is pretty darned heart-stopping! Like that film a lot, I do.
Oh, and a PS to everyone--the movie with Judy Garland and Angela Lansbury is THE HARVEY GIRLS from MGM in 1946, about the establishment of the Fred Harvey restaurants along the tracks of the Santa Fe. Mainly a musical, but it has a couple of pretty good train scenes featuring a locomotive and cars bought from the Virginia and Truckee, masquerading as a Santa Fe passenger train (not sure, but I think MGM borrowed the train from Paramount Pictures, who owned a lot of former V&T rolling stock). However the 'backdrop' for some of the interior train shots is Monument Valley, Arizona, which has never seen a train in its life and is some light years north of the Santa Fe line, LOL! Talk about Hollywood ingenuity.
UNION PACIFIC came out of Paramount in 1939 and stars Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea and Robert Preston, and is about the building of the first transcontinental railroad, using a whole bunch of ex-V&T 1860-vintage locos and cars, plus a plot largely stolen from John Ford's 1925 epic THE IRON HORSE. Neat movie, though. A couple of really SMASHEROO train wrecks.
Yes, Stand by Me was an excellent and underrated movie. Extremely well done. If I remember right, it was set in 1960 and apparently the branchline on which much of it occured was still using steam power. Wasn't this set in Oregon. Rob Reiner directed the film based on the Stephen King book The Body so it had a lot going before filming even began.
And for you speeder fans...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KOSbOU8a_p8
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
vsmith wrote: loathar wrote: lvanhen wrote: loathar wrote:Not a movie, but I'm amazed at how many train scenes Little House on the Prairie had in it. My mom watches it a lot and it seems like every time I walk through the room there's a train on the screen! Wonder what their train budget was??Aw come on Loathar - it wasn't near as good as Petticoat Junction!!Guess your right! Little House never had any hot babes skinny dippin in the water tower! Well if they were really in the 1870's, given the hygene standards of the era, I doubt you'd want to see them skinny-dipping!As for Little Outhouse on the Prairie, there train budget likely didnt have to be that high, they used the Sierra RR, which was near the filming site, they even had a pre-made town set left over from the Hollywood glory days, they even used the same loco from Pettycoat Junction!I recall there was one train only episode involving a runaway train with the kids trapped on board, it was fairly realistic if I recall except that I dont ever recall Minnesota (where its supposed to be) having enough hills or grades to sustain a runaway for an entire episode
loathar wrote: lvanhen wrote: loathar wrote:Not a movie, but I'm amazed at how many train scenes Little House on the Prairie had in it. My mom watches it a lot and it seems like every time I walk through the room there's a train on the screen! Wonder what their train budget was??Aw come on Loathar - it wasn't near as good as Petticoat Junction!!Guess your right! Little House never had any hot babes skinny dippin in the water tower!
lvanhen wrote: loathar wrote:Not a movie, but I'm amazed at how many train scenes Little House on the Prairie had in it. My mom watches it a lot and it seems like every time I walk through the room there's a train on the screen! Wonder what their train budget was??Aw come on Loathar - it wasn't near as good as Petticoat Junction!!
loathar wrote:Not a movie, but I'm amazed at how many train scenes Little House on the Prairie had in it. My mom watches it a lot and it seems like every time I walk through the room there's a train on the screen! Wonder what their train budget was??
Aw come on Loathar - it wasn't near as good as Petticoat Junction!!
Guess your right! Little House never had any hot babes skinny dippin in the water tower!
Well if they were really in the 1870's, given the hygene standards of the era, I doubt you'd want to see them skinny-dipping!
As for Little Outhouse on the Prairie, there train budget likely didnt have to be that high, they used the Sierra RR, which was near the filming site, they even had a pre-made town set left over from the Hollywood glory days, they even used the same loco from Pettycoat Junction!
I recall there was one train only episode involving a runaway train with the kids trapped on board, it was fairly realistic if I recall except that I dont ever recall Minnesota (where its supposed to be) having enough hills or grades to sustain a runaway for an entire episode
That's the nice about my neighbor to the west; Kansas... a runaway train would stop in less than a 1/4 mile... ...
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
I recall there was one train only episode involving a runaway train with the kids trapped on board, it was fairly realistic if I recall except that I dont ever recall Minnesota (where its supposed to be) having enough hills or grades to sustain a runaway for an entire episode...
Have fun with your trains
Joe
Modeling:
Providence & Worcester Railroad
"East Providence Secondary"
HO scale
If you want comedy on a train, here it is. Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone.
Click here for details.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
For several years, I've been trying to find some kind of copy of "Webs of Steel," a silent film made about 1925. According to John Signor's excellent book on Union Pacific predecessor LA&SL, a portion of the movie was shot at Crucero, Calif., a very lonely outpost in the desert where the line located a junction (and a few employees) with the now-defunct Tonopah & Tidewater RR.
One of the actors in the movie was Walter Brennan, a fine character actor who probably achieved his greatest fame many years later as Grandpappy Amos in the TV series "The Real McCoys."
twhite wrote: Andre--According to a book I have on the Milwaukee, two of the F-6 Baltics were assigned to the non-electrified portion of the line between Othello and Spokane during WWII for assignment on the "Olympian Hiawatha" between those two points. The book has some photos of them on assignment in Othello and Spokane. Wow--4-6-4's in the Pacific Northwest. Neat. Tom
Andre--
According to a book I have on the Milwaukee, two of the F-6 Baltics were assigned to the non-electrified portion of the line between Othello and Spokane during WWII for assignment on the "Olympian Hiawatha" between those two points. The book has some photos of them on assignment in Othello and Spokane. Wow--4-6-4's in the Pacific Northwest. Neat.
Thanks for the info, Tom.
Andre
lvanhen wrote:I'll second Breakheart Pass, but my favorite is The Emporer of the North, with Lee Marvin & Ernest Borgnine! Union Pacific runs a close second - you won't believe Angela Landsbury, Judy Garland (looking like in their 20's!) and many more in the flic!
Emperor of the North is an excellent choice. I first saw it in 1974 and that may have been the last drive-in movie I went to.
It's been even longer since I saw Union Pacific. Barbara Stanwyck starred in it. Are you sure about Angela Landsbury and Judy Garland? I don't remember them and they aren't list in IMDB.
. Read about it here.
"Danger Lights" was I believe the first Hollywood sound movie to be shot entirely 'on location' c.1930 or 1931. It's actually not a bad story, you just have to remember it was copied in a variety of later movies. Lots of good train stuff in it. "YOU CAN'T PUT THE OLYMPIAN IN THE HOLE!!"
The 1934 "Silver Streak" used the brand new CB&Q Zephyr. In the movie, the Silver Streak / Zephyr was the creation of a young engineering wiz trying to sell the railroads on diesel engines and streamlining. When some early tests fail (due to an engine problem diagnosed by Dagwood Bumstead) the railroad decides it's no good - until the son of the RR president is hurt building Hoover Dam, and has to be rushed to Chicago for emergency surgery. The SS/Z gets him there in time and everyone decides diesels are OK.
Trainnut484 wrote: twhite wrote: Hard to get hold of, but it shows up on TCM occasionally is a 1930 film called DANGER LIGHTS about railroad workers. Filmed on the old Milwaukee 'Pacific Extension' near Deer Lodge, Montana, and featuring a lot of nifty Milwaukee steam (sorry, not an electric motor in sight, though). Silly plot that's been used time and time again, but absolutely GREAT photography both on the line and around the shops and roundhouse. In fact, it has some of the best train scenes I've ever seen in a Hollywood film. And not a 'special effects' model in sight. Tom Danger Lights is, IMHO, one of the best railroad movies in terms of train photography and sound. NO studio recorded train sounds there. The opening shot of the steam engine was done by coupling a flat car with a camera mounted on it to the front. The same camera-mounted-on-flat-car shots were done for the 5 hr hospital run to Chicago. Another great scene is of the "push-of-war" (opposite of tug-of-war) between two steamers with bells and whistles screaming, drivers spinning, and all that was done with the crowd no further than 5 to 6 feet away! Another "close" scene is with Robert Armstrong and Jean Arthur on the trestle as a freight runs by.Oh yes, Dan Thorn (Louis Wolheim). Now, there is a District Super who I would not want to mess around with Take care,Russell
twhite wrote: Hard to get hold of, but it shows up on TCM occasionally is a 1930 film called DANGER LIGHTS about railroad workers. Filmed on the old Milwaukee 'Pacific Extension' near Deer Lodge, Montana, and featuring a lot of nifty Milwaukee steam (sorry, not an electric motor in sight, though). Silly plot that's been used time and time again, but absolutely GREAT photography both on the line and around the shops and roundhouse. In fact, it has some of the best train scenes I've ever seen in a Hollywood film. And not a 'special effects' model in sight. Tom
Hard to get hold of, but it shows up on TCM occasionally is a 1930 film called DANGER LIGHTS about railroad workers. Filmed on the old Milwaukee 'Pacific Extension' near Deer Lodge, Montana, and featuring a lot of nifty Milwaukee steam (sorry, not an electric motor in sight, though). Silly plot that's been used time and time again, but absolutely GREAT photography both on the line and around the shops and roundhouse. In fact, it has some of the best train scenes I've ever seen in a Hollywood film. And not a 'special effects' model in sight.
Danger Lights is, IMHO, one of the best railroad movies in terms of train photography and sound. NO studio recorded train sounds there. The opening shot of the steam engine was done by coupling a flat car with a camera mounted on it to the front. The same camera-mounted-on-flat-car shots were done for the 5 hr hospital run to Chicago. Another great scene is of the "push-of-war" (opposite of tug-of-war) between two steamers with bells and whistles screaming, drivers spinning, and all that was done with the crowd no further than 5 to 6 feet away! Another "close" scene is with Robert Armstrong and Jean Arthur on the trestle as a freight runs by.
Oh yes, Dan Thorn (Louis Wolheim). Now, there is a District Super who I would not want to mess around with
Take care,
Russell
The cinematography of "Danger Lights" is absolutely superb. When I saw it this last Wednesday (April 16) , I was floored by how good it was and I was quite happy I stayed up late to see it (fortunately, I'm on the West Coast). The story is a throw away, but if you want to get some excellent shots of Mikes and Pacifics in the glory years of steam, this one is a must see.
That "push-of-war" was between a MILW F-3 Pacific and an L-3 Mike (USRA Heavy). There was never any doubt as to who would win. Anyone know when the F-6 Baltics were sent west? I sure would have liked to have seen one of them in action.
Although I enjoy them all, The Train with Burt Lancaster seems to me to have been exceptionally well done. Excellent story, great characters and terrific visuals throughout the movie.
TCM recently ran The Narrow Margin and Terror on a Train (released as Time Bomb in the UK) - both "B" movies but pretty good none-the-less. And there's always the short about the post-WWII Freedom Train.
Yea, I'm an old movie buff - old referring to the movies, not me!