Train movies.....

[Tom Curtin]

Let's not forget The Great Train Robbery.  There may have been, I think, more than one film by this name --- the one I'm thinking of is the 1903 one.  Yes --- 1903, and maybe the first feature film ever.  Although a western, it was shot on the Lackawanna Boonton Line in New Jersey (You can ride it today -- an NJ Transit commuter route!).

RE the disparaging comments about Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase: I always enjoyed that version.  Having read an account or two of the Andrews raid, I would say the Disney film recounted it quite accurately.  Although the real General and Texas still exist neither was used in the film, rather they borrowed engines of the same vintage from the B&O Museum in Baltimore.  The shooting didn't use the real location either --- what had become the Louisville & Nashville (today CSX) main, with its heavy rail and block signals, would hardly have had an 1862-ish look.  The film was shot on the Tallulah Falls RR, an old short line on its last legs at the time, and which was abandoned not many years after its starring role in this film.