TV Show : Numb3rs

[BR60103]

I'm just waiting for the college football game show where they bat the puck into the net.

[Anonymous]

I watched it and do agree that it was stupid, but I suppose that it could have been much worse. The thing that really upset me is that they went on so much about how the railroads try to cover up accidents and are all totally corrupt and evil. I'm surprised that BNSF was willing to let them film in a yard of their's and show an engine of their's when they're talking about the railroad covering up an accident that was due to negligent maitenance and paying off the widow of the dead engineer. This show wasn't exactly good publicity for the railroad industry.

The other thing that I didn't like was how they portrayed the young railfan that they interviewed at the railroad museum about these accidents. I wanted to throw a rock at the TV when he said to the girl, "Accidents are just one small part of railroad history. Perhaps you'd like to find out more over dinner?" We aren't a bunch of geeky losers like that!

Also, did anyone notice...

1. When the guy is looking on the computer to find a train that's close to the one involved in the wreck the saboteur was in, he tries to find simmilarities like number of cars, length of train, engine model, etc. As he's saying these things, we see images of trains with this data being written on the screen. When he says "engine model", we see "Engine Model: SR11-12" come on the screen. What's an SR11-12? I wonder if they make a model of one in HO.

2. Closer to the beginning, they're talking about the above-mentioned train. As they are, they're showing different images trains, simmilar to the above-mentioned sequence. One of the clips that they show is of a steam locomotive puffing lots of black smoke, pulling a freight across a bridge!

[mustanggt]

Trust hollywood to make things realistic[:p]

[Javern]

I think the show is dumb however I watched it to see the trains

[Paul3]

1). I've never seen this show before.
2). After watching this episode, I don't think I ever see this show again.

It was bad. It's like they try to cram a 2 hour movie into a 42 minute show (after ads). It's like they think if they talk fast enough, they ignore things like the holes in the script you could drive a train through. And all these useless cut scenes...it's as if a hyperactive 6-year-old had the TV remote when they were doing the editing.

For example:
A) What the heck was the engineer doing in the first 30 seconds of the show? The sanders didn't work or something, and he was going to open the valve by hand...are they nuts?! Folks, I know a couple guys who were in grade crossing accidents from the cab...they aren't doing anything but hitting the floor and hanging on, trust me. And what sanding valve are they talking about than an engineer can open by hand out of cab? Hellooooo! And sure, it would help them stop, but only by a matter of feet on clean dry rail, certainly not enough to risk your life for.

B) Note that there was no damage to the engine despite hitting a school bus, for pete's sake. Yeah, I know they couldn't afford to wreck a real one, but then you don't actually show the front of the engine if you don't actually wreck the engine. Instead, they had the hero stand in front of it while getting the cell phone call from the bad guy.

C) They kept calling the first event a "derailment" when in fact, it never left the rails.

D) And I'm pretty darn sure the engineer wouldn't take the time to detail everything he's doing as he's doing it. "Putting it into emergency" or whatever he said. Totally unrealistic. I mean, if you're getting into a car accident, you're not about to say to your passengers, "Putting on the brakes." Yu'd be more likely to say an expletive or two. And why wasn't he blowing for the crossing already?

E) And how come nobody noticed that someone had cut into one of the boxcars of the train and made off with a bunch of goods until they saw it on the video?

F) And what the heck was that "trainspotter" (which is a European term, really) doing? Where was he standing to get that kind of shot? BTW, nice stereotype of us railfans...did you notice he was wearing bib overalls? All he was missing was the striped cap...

G) Nobody noticed that the engineer wasn't in the "Cajon" wreckage???!!! Puh-leeze. I think someone would have noticed that there was a distinct lack of a corpse in the wreckage. There's just no way that plot point is feasable. None.

H) How come nobody mentioned that this crazy engineer had killed what was most likely a Union brother, or if nothing else a fellow engineer? There was no mention of it after the first 30 seconds of the show... If the crazy character really wanted to get back at the railroad, why would he go after innocent railroaders just doing their job just like he used to? It would have a heckuva lot more sense if the crazy character had not been an employee (like in the novel "Train Man").

I) Sure, like the railroads really ship nuclear waste in a regular tank car with a big radioactive danger sticker on the side! I knew it, BTW, before they found out it was a nuclear waste car. When they went to commercial, I thought to myself, "All that's missing is a nuclear device to make this show complete." And lo and behold, there it was!

J) Yeah, like the "un-named" railroad would allow the FBI to crawl all over the yard without shutting down operations. Haven't these people ever heard of "Safety First"?

K) Why the heck didn't the two FBI agents realize that the guy with the bad arm was the crazy person they were looking for? I didn't realize that by simply putting on a police uniform that it makes one invisable to other cops...

I'm sure there's more, but that's a good start to why this episode was so bad...

Paul A. Cutler III
*****************
Weather Or No Go New Haven
*****************

[Anonymous]

I enjoyed the episode.... I like that girl ever since she was on The OC (one of my favorite shows because of it's realism) she was Theresa on that show.

I agree that the story behind this episode was rather boring but the trains were nice.... The show usually has better stories to it..

I hope that we may have gotten more people interested in the show even though there may not be any more trains on it for a while.

One Discrepency I found in the show.... There is no yard in San Bernadino.... they were either talking about the West Colton UP yard or the Riverside BNSF yard.... those are both fairly close to San Berdoo.

[grayfox1119]

The great locomotive chase was more interesting.....I think I could have written a better script.

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by brclem

I have seen all the episodes so far.... I really am looking forward to tonight episode... I think they should bring back that grad student that was helping in the first episode).

Are you like psycic or what? [swg]

I have to say that this episode struck me as being only so so. The trains were fun, but the story line seemed goofy. Slap a radioactive sticker on a tank car, yeah right.

[Anonymous]

it was awesome guyz....defintely plan on enjoying the show..make sure to have ur favorite engine with u!

[FThunder11]

I planned on watching it, hope its good.

[Anonymous]

its on fellaz!

[Anonymous]

I have seen all the episodes so far.... I really am looking forward to tonight episode... I think they should bring back that grad student that was helping in the first episode).

[fiatfan]

Thank heaven for VCR's!

Tom

[Anonymous]

im defintely gonna be watchin that sonofagun.

[camarokid]

I watch it every week and I sure won't miss it tonight. I want to see just how much of "training" they really do.

[Bikerdad]

Brunton,

Battlestar Galactica runs twice... first at 9pm EST, then at 9pm PST.

[Pruitt]

Count me out - Battlestar Galactica will be on.

[cheese3]

I have seen the preview and you can bet i'll be tuned in!

[Anonymous]

Yep, We will be watching. It's a pretty good show! It gets you thinking about things and with a show I like and there are going to have trains on it......Sign me up!

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to let everyone know that tonight on CBS's show Numbers, it's dealing with a "terrorist" that is trying to sabotage the country's RailRoads. I think I saw on the preview that he leaves an empty school bus on the tracks to force a derailing.
It's on CBS tonight at 10. It's a pretty good show for anyone that's into these crime solving shows.