Those three young women swimming in the water tower is nothing to joke about, it was one of the best parts of the show! Ah, the imagination ran riot.....
The train was cool too.
Firelock, there is or was a Swordfish at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario. I saw it a few years ago and it is HUGE! There should be a picture of it on their website, warplane.com. Yeah, I kinda remember that about Iron Horse, not a lot of train action so that's probably why I didn't watch it. Had to settle for the exciting action of "Petticoat Junction," with 3 women swimming in the water tower. No jokes about the water treatment!
I remember "Iron Horse", it starred Dale Robertson and aired around 1970 or so. I watched it a few times and found it very disappointing. It was supposed to be a railroad themed western but it was heavy on the western and light on the railroad. Mostly it was "good guys vs. bad guys" or "cowboys and Indians", hardly any train action at all. I think it only lasted one season.
And 54light, as far as the Brits doing things right in one of my aviation books there's a fantastic shot of a Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber (you know, the one that crippled the Bismarck) doing a fly-past with one of the crew rendering the naval salute and holding a Royal Navy white ensign.
Class, pure class.
Over there they have the Battle of Britain memorial flight which is a Lanc, a Hurricane and a Spitfire. Of course they're all going to fly together! It's one of the things the Brits do right. I sure did not know that about using a Lancaster for the A bombs, that is interesting.
Now, I do recall a show called "The Iron Horse" but don't remember watching it. I did read the Mad magazine satire of it and in one scene in that the head man asks, "Do you know how to build a railroad?" and the guy says, "You bet, I have a set up in my attic." "Good, then you're my construction superintendent."
TWO Lancasters flying together? My God, that must be a sight to see! Throw in some Spitfire and Hurricane escorts and it'd be an event remembered for years.
By the way, and I don't remember just where I read this, but if the US Army Air Force and Boeing couldn't get the "bugs" out of the B-29 the Air Force was giving serious consideration to borrowing a Lancaster from the RAF for the atomic bomb missions. A Lancaster could carry the weight of a "Little Boy" or a "Fat Man" but no other American bomber of the time besides a B-29 could.
Aaaand, speaking of Lancasters, you do know that Canada's Lanc is now in Britain doing flying events with the Brits' Lanc? A seat on the trans Atlantic flight was auctioned off for $80,000.00! Yow! They'd better have some fine looking stewardesses on there! I don't recall any German trains in the movie myself but do recall the American ones and yeah, it looks like it could be Pittsburgh.
Firelock76 That's odd, I saw "The Dam Busters" not too long ago, I forget if it was on "The History Channel" or TCM. Anyway, I first saw the film years ago and remember the black lab. He gets run over by a Lancaster, by the way. The last time I saw it the dog wasn't there at all. Some creative editing I suppose. American type boxcars sure sound strange, especially in a British film. You suppose they got a good deal from Lionel for the model department?
That's odd, I saw "The Dam Busters" not too long ago, I forget if it was on "The History Channel" or TCM. Anyway, I first saw the film years ago and remember the black lab. He gets run over by a Lancaster, by the way. The last time I saw it the dog wasn't there at all. Some creative editing I suppose.
American type boxcars sure sound strange, especially in a British film. You suppose they got a good deal from Lionel for the model department?
Quite a lot of editing required I think. The dog's name was the code word for successfully breaching the dams with another word being used for a successful hit by the "bouncing bomb". I think both dams required two successful hits before they failed.
In those sections you might get away with just suppressing the word in the sound track although it might look a bit odd as the dog's name was shouted out by the radio operator in the operations room.
The dog appeared in many scenes, but was killed by a passing car while searching for Wing Commander Gibson who was in a series of secret meetings just before the raid.
There was a model scene where a suitably German train (possibly Maerklin O gauge) was washed off the track by flood waters. There were scenes filmed from an aircraft which I think may have been of a flood in the Pittsburgh area showing flooded steel works. (The Krupp Ruhr steelworks were one of the areas expected to be affected by the dam failure). It was these presumably newsreel outtakes that had distinctive US boxcars visible in the water.
The movie special effects used for the dam failures were very primitive by today's standards.
My favourite scene is when Barnes Wallis asks to borrow a Wellington bomber to drop the sub-scale test bombs. The Air Force officer is appalled and says "Wellingtons are like gold, they won't like that" to which Wallis says "Would it help if I said I designed the Wellington..."
617 squadron was recently disbanded, having been last equipped with Tornado aircraft.
The theme music from the film is regarded as a classic and was offered on a disc of military music advertised on TV tonight.
M636C
Did you ever see the British film, " The Dam Busters?" after the dams are busted, they show flooded railyards and the freight cars are all American, not the round topped, 4 wheel 40/8 type that were used in Europe back then. Even in Europe now, you don't see those too often. They don't show that movie anymore because the main character had a black Labrador named "N-word" if you can believe that. The man who invented the skipping bombs was Barnes Wallis and his house is marked with a plaque in south London.
In a similar vein, I seem to recall a commercial for a large American car several years ago. The car pulls up and stops at a grade crossing where the bells are ringing and the lights are flashing. The gate comes down and the horn is heard. The driver closes the window and all is quiet as the train passes, presumably still blowing the horn.
I guess they were trying to market their cars to people with a death wish. If the bells and horn are warning me to stay off the track, I want to hear the warnings. I guess I'm just funny that way.
Tom
While not actually a blooper, one of the most worrying automobile advertisements I ever saw was (if I recall correctly) the Peugeot 406 Coupe.
The advertisement was set in the Western USA and the car is seen driving alongside a passenger train headed by a silver and grey F7.
They approach a grade crossing and the bells and lights operate and boom gates descend.
However, the boom gates stop the train, allowing the car to cross.
I'd think that that advertisement had the potential to undo much of the work of "Operation Lifesaver".
On the secondary topic, I live in a country that has never had any Marines. It is a bit frustrating to have paratroops on our amphibious ships, and every one being there for the first time every time. We have Royal Marine exchange officers, but they can't do that much to help.
ACY They say there's no such thing as an ex-Marine. A Marine is always a Marine. Some accept this honorable distinction with justifiable pride and dignity; some are just jerks. I've met both kinds, and I'm happy to say that in my experience, the former outnumber the latter. Tom
They say there's no such thing as an ex-Marine. A Marine is always a Marine. Some accept this honorable distinction with justifiable pride and dignity; some are just jerks. I've met both kinds, and I'm happy to say that in my experience, the former outnumber the latter.
It's the "Once a Marine, always a Marine" attitude that makes most ex-Marines so insufferable. Unfortunately, most of the ex-Marines I've met tend to be overbearing and arrogant jerks.
Like that fake searchlight signal (aperently on a hinge) that hangs over the train and swipes Gene Wilder's charchter smooth off the train . Still I watch that movie every time I have the chance.
Firelock76 {Snip} The old "Lone Ranger" shows have the same problem, but that's OK, as far as I'm concerned Clayton Moore is THE Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels is THE Tonto! Everyone else is a cheap imitation. I've ignored the current versions of Sherlock Holmes for the same reasons. If it ain't Basil Rathbone, it ain't Sherlock Holmes!
{Snip}
The old "Lone Ranger" shows have the same problem, but that's OK, as far as I'm concerned Clayton Moore is THE Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels is THE Tonto! Everyone else is a cheap imitation.
I've ignored the current versions of Sherlock Holmes for the same reasons. If it ain't Basil Rathbone, it ain't Sherlock Holmes!
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Have to agree with you ACY, just because some one wore the Eagle Globe and Anchor it doesn't mean he (or she) is automatically a saint. But you're right, the good ones more than outnumber the jerks. Every organization is bound to have some "you-know-what's" who manage to slip through the cracks.
Hey, any more bloopers out there?
Oh and NKP, concerning "Casey Jones" with its "glacial pacing and trite storylines" you have to remember it WAS a show aimed at kids and wasn't like "Gunsmoke" which was aimed at an adult audience. Some shows were better than others, but when I watch it on You Tube I remember just what it is I'm watching so I don't get critical. I just sit back and enjoy the nostalgia.
CSSHEGEWISCH While I have full respect for Marines as sea soldiers while they are still members of the Corps, they have the annoying habit of turning into ex-Marines after they are mustered out. They seem to forget that the rest of the world is not the Corps.
While I have full respect for Marines as sea soldiers while they are still members of the Corps, they have the annoying habit of turning into ex-Marines after they are mustered out. They seem to forget that the rest of the world is not the Corps.
You mean it's NOT? Geez, nobody tells me anything...
NKP, let me tell you something. Back in the '80s I was priviledged to work with a man who was a World War Two Navy vet, and he told me when there were shoreside fights between Army guys and Navy guys the Marines would ALWAYS drop what they were doing and rush to the aid of the sailors, and vice versa. There may have been spats between the swabbies and the gyrenes but like members of any family they always stuck together.
In that same job I also met a lot of World War Two vets, but the Navy and Marine guys were special. Forty years after they fact they were still the high-spirited people they always were and seemed ready to go out and do it all over again. NOT that they wanted to, mind you. What an achievement it was for the Navy and Marine Corps to take these kids and turn them into the war-winners they became.
The Japanese never had a chance.
Ah yes, BB-38, the USS Pennsylvania. One of the "Pearl Harbor Ghosts" that got it's revenge later on.
"Casey Jones" with Alan Hale was my favorite TV series in the 1950's. I loved that theme song! Of course, it had nothing to do with the real, or even legendary Casey Jones, but the program had a locomotive in it! I was hooked. I can't watch the show on YouTube today because it just doesn't hold up well with its glacial pacing and trite storyline. Does anyone recall a TV series from about 1958 entitled, "Union Pacific"? I got to stay up an extra hour on the nights that was broadcast.
Note to Firelock76 and 54light15: When my dad joined the Navy in 1938, his father, a Marine of 1909-1913 vintage, let it be known that he thought my dad was "letting down the side" by not joining the Corps! Like most sailors & Marines they had a deep respect for each other's outfit. Incidentally, when dad's battleship (BB-38) was bombed at Pearl Harbor (with dad present), it was largely the Marines aboard who became the casualties.
I like how you guys kid each other, but I know the real admiration that underlies that kidding.
Back to railroad bloopers. Anyone remember a TV series from 1959 called "Casey Jones", starring Alan Hale Jr., later to become "The Skipper" from "Gilligans Island"? Now this show was loaded with bloopers, too many to go into, but one that sticks out is Casey throwing the "Cannonball Express" into a driver-spinning reverse to stop! The show had nothing to do with the real Casey Jones, being a railroad themed western.
HOWEVER, this was a show aimed at children, and as such had a lot of good life lessons thrown into it. Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, there's no honor among thieves, and so on. As a six year old budding steam freak I just loved it! And, Alan Hale's portrayal was very close to the real Casey, big-hearted, generous, great sense of humor, intensely loyal to his friends, and so on. Hale didn't look like Casey, but he sure acted like him.
Some kind soul has posted the old "Casey Jones" show on You Tube. Just do a search and you'll find it. And if you remember the show as I do you'll enjoy seeing it again, bloopers and all.
54light15 Sailed. Rode. I was in the engine room of a Navy ship that carried Marines. The engineers, the deck apes, the cooks, the navigators were all part of the crew that yeah, sailed the ship. The jarheads didn't sail the ship. They rode it. Apologies to any jarheads.
Sailed. Rode. I was in the engine room of a Navy ship that carried Marines. The engineers, the deck apes, the cooks, the navigators were all part of the crew that yeah, sailed the ship. The jarheads didn't sail the ship. They rode it. Apologies to any jarheads.
No offense taken! Besides, when we Marines figure out a way to walk on water we won't need you squids anymore anyway!
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (set in the 1960s) has George Smiley holed up in a hotel (in the film near Liverpoot St station in London - in the book near Paddington station also in London); a panshot follows to trains has them leaving London Victoria, and with stock not introduced until the 1980s.
Otherwise quite a good film.
I don't recall any passenger cars on ferries in movies, but I do recall a film with David Niven called "The Brain" about robbing a train based on the Ronnie Biggs robbery of 50 years ago. There are scenes of them aboard the S.S. France in New York harbour and they look at an armoured, full of money freight car on a barge (Erie Lackawanna!) and propose robbing it. There was also a war movie, "Heroes of Telemark" about the freight cars full of heavy water being taken to Germany to make an atom bomb. The ferry is sunk, the freight cars roll into the water and along with them is a steam locomotive- that didn't seem to make much sense.
Passenger cars on ferries, while not exactly common in Europe is still done between Germany and Scandinavian countries, crossing the Baltic. Then there was the famous "Night Ferry" between London and Paris that Paul Theroux wrote about in one of his books.
We're getting off topic, and I'm sure some of us are having fun. How does one refer to the act of taking a train onto a car float? There weren't many of them I'm sure, for example I think some interurbans around San Francisco put passenger railcars onto ferries.
I once had thought there were passenger car floats to Cuba, but google's mean to me today. http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r053.html says passengers had to change to ship, although the train did pull alongside the ship.
Do we know of any television or motion picture depictions of passenger railcar floats? The closest I can think of is Murder on the Orient Express movie, my memory ambiguously tells me Poirot talked about the "Calais coach", which makes me think that too was a train to ship transfer, otherwise wouldn't it have been the London coach?
Patrick Boylan
Free yacht rides, 27' sailboat, zip code 19114 Delaware River, get great Delair bridge photos from the river. Send me a private message
Trains had "sailing days?" Hmmm.
The crew sails the ship; passengers sail on the ship.
Back when the original West Coast City trains had sailing dates, did the passengers ride the trains or sail on them?
Johnny
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.