Great Train Movies

[laz 57]

Now that the Polar Express is out how will it rank with the all time best train Movies? Lets here it out there what's your favorite train movie?
Mine is Emporer of the North with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine made in 1973, saw it in the drive in along with Hard Times.
Laz 57

[mersenne6]

The Train - Burt Lancaster
The Great Locomotive Chase
and
Toccata for Toy Trains

Would be my three all time favorites

[bogaziddy]

Silver Streak with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. Lots of nice train shots and a riotously funny movie to boot.

It's a shame what has become of Pryor, he's, at best, a vegetable. If ever there were a better advertisement debunking recreational drug use, I sure can't think of one. If you think your children are contemplating drug use, tell them to take note. What's happened to him sure would scare me away from drugs.

[daan]

In Holland we have "rail away". A daily half hour of trains around the globe. Yesterday was Canada, with silver heavyweights and two big sd40's in front.. Today was a bit of denmark but they have boring trains..
They make a trainride and show the trains and the touristic things along the stations they pass. I love this daily item!!

[Anonymous]

I have to go along with laz 57 and say that Emporer of the North is the best. Great action with fabulous railroading and a believable story. Saw a couple of the cars (stock car Lee Marvin set on fire for one) at a resturant and logging camp museum in OR. I just get wrapped up in it whenever I watch it. Second choice would be Breakheart Pass. Filmed on location in my home state. Those two films bring every thing together to make a great movie.

[Bob Keller]

Chartreuse Caboose - 1960 - Edgar Buchanan. Horrible as a "grown up" movie, but I was about 10 when I saw it and it was great from the Jr. Railfan perspective!

[Big_Boy_4005]

Has anyone ever seen It Happened to Jane? Doris Day and Jack Lemon, a little sappy, but the trains were the heart of the story. It looked like it was shot in the Northeast using old New Haven equipment. I only caught the second half on cable. Big Girl and I are on the lookout for it to see the whole thing.

Emporer of The North is one of my all time favorites, good and gritty.

Silver Streak is fun, but I have seen it so many times, I look for the railroading mistakes.

[Anonymous]

bogaziddy,

Richard Pryor suffers from Multiple Sclerosis not the after-effects of drug use.

As for a good train movie - check out "Station Agent", I highly recommend it!

[garyseven]

North by Northwest.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Well it is not exactly a movie, but National Geographics, "LOVE THOSE TRAINS" had been watched by me many times on video. [8D]

[yellowducky]

U.S.2:D.T has one of my votes.
Like I was told before election day, "vote early, vote often".

[laz 57]

I have been trying to find the movie entitled "ya can't win em all", a movie about trains and bandits. Did anybody ever here of this one and where could I get a copy? Vintage 1950-60's
Laz 57

[Anonymous]

First Choice.... is "Danger Lights" This is the very best movie for shots of the railroad scene circa 1930. Contains the only existing film of a dynamometer along with wonderful shots of steam engines and an amazing tug of war between steam locomotives at the Old Timers Picnic.

Exciting 100 MPH race to Chicago.with non-stop action, is perhaps the greatest old footage in existence today of the Milwaukee Road! Almost every scene has tremendous steam action with the mighty 4-6-2's, 4-6-4's and 2-8-2's. It’s a must for railroad fans.

The old-fashioned acting is quite different than that of effete modern Hollywood. This collectible railroad video classic, directed by George B. Seitz, is a great Hollywood feature film starring Louis Wolheim, Jean Arthur, Robert Armstrong and Hugh Herbert.

An in-depth review of this great railroading classic appeared in a past issue of Classic Trains.
BillFromWayne
www.modeltrainjournal.com

[Anonymous]

When it comes to train movies, my favorites (in no particular order) are...

Silver Streak (1976): Certainly one of the most hilarious movies that you'll ever find! Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor and trains-it has it all!

The Train (1964): An excelent WWII movie. Burt Lancaster is great in this and it has some of the most amazing train scenes in any movie.

The Lady Vanishes (1938): This is a very entertaining mystery from Alfred Hitchcock starring Margaret Lockwood and Micheal Redgrave. Most of the movie takes place on a train. In actuality, no real trains were used for the movie, just sets, models and stock footage, but it isn't too obvious and that doesn't detract from this being a great film.

Those are my all-time favorites, but runners up would be Von Ryan's Express, The Great Locomotive Chase and The General.

[Anonymous]

In my opinion: "Emperor of the North" No other railroad-specific (fictional) film I've seen even comes close.

[Big_Boy_4005]

I almost hate to admit it, but until today, I had never seen The Train, with Burt Lancaster. Over the years, it seemed like I kept tuning into it near the end where he was setting the charge to blow the track.

This evening I finally caught it from the beginning, much better!!! Now I understand why so many train buffs like it so much. In spite of it being in black and white, I liked it too.[8D]

[Anonymous]

and he notes -

I think what makes a train movie great isn't just trains running at breakneck speeds or crashing through buildings but the use of the train or terminal as a prop around a good story.

Union Depot is a good example. It was made in 1932 and starred Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Joan Blondell, Alan Hale and Guy Kibbee. It takes place in and around a big city railroad station. The plot is simple but the effects of what goes on in an everyday environment is fascinationg. Throughout the film, a train caller's booming voice announces departures. There are vignettes of people coming and going, buying magazines, a panhandler, a couple of hookers and so on, all weaved into the story.

There is a great chase scene through the freight yard with Fairbanks and Alan Hale with locomotives but the whole effect is what I would say makes this a great movie.

Another no one has mentioned is The Silver Streak, the 1934 version that is. It stars Charles Starrett and Sally Blane (with a young Arthur Lake) but the real star is the Pioneer Zephyr masquerading as the "Silver Streak". The story centers around a young mechanical engineer's (Starrett) idea for a high speed train which is rejected by the railroad's stodgy President and he quits in disgust. But the Preident's daughter (Blane) takes his idea to a locomotive builder and he puts the engineer to work.

The result is the "Silver Streak". We see it being built and than a test run (which fails, of course) and then is involved in a high speed run to Boulder Dam with iron lungs , one of which will save the life of the President's son who has contracted Infantile Paralysis.

There is plenty of footage taken on an actual Zephyr run and some staged shots that are slightly unbelievable, but one must remember that this was a low budget movie.

Like Union Depot, the "Streak" is a film you want to watch more than once to see all the goings on beside the railroad activity. Both are available on DVD and are listed on eBay.

[railfanespee4449]

Not exactly a movie but "A century of Lionel trains"

[jmpmap]

Probably one of the best train movies I have ever seen was a movie called "Fours a Crowd". It was made in the 30's and starred Errol Flynn. In the movie was a gentleman who had a garden railroad with Lionel Trains. The layout featured Hudsons and great pictures. If anyone has access to a copy, I would like to know where you purchased it.
I have not been able to find it anywhere, but saw it probably 20 years ago on one of the movie channels.

[FJ and G]

I just wrote a movie containing two Civil War train scenes and two Lionel scenes. It is a coming of age action adventure film, where a boy of 16 overcomes his demons of fear. I'm polishing it up now.

I'm in the process of novelizing the screenplay. The novelization has enabled me to look at the characters from a more introspective viewpoint and has helped enrich the screenplay.

I copyrighted the screenplay with Library of Congress and hope to have the novel done by next month and both out to agents at beginning of the year.

If any writers or professionals interested, shoot me an email.

[lionelsoni]

Here's a still from your movie, Marc, showing the trains: http://www.reelclassics.com/Teams/Flynn-deHav/efodh4.htm

[pbjwilson]

Not really a train movie but has some nice shots of trains - "Bound for Glory" - David Carridine plays Woody Guthrie. Great depression era scenes and migration west.
I think it won an Oscar for best cinematography. If you need ideas for a depression era layout rent this movie.

[Anonymous]

There is a good ww2 movie with frank sanatra in it but can remember the name. lots of great mountain railway.

[Anonymous]

The Frank Sinatra movie was "Von Ryan's Express."

It suddenly dawned on me of a movie I haven't seen in 10+ years called "The Great Locomotive Chase." As I recalled it was released by Walt Disney in the 1950's and starred Fess Parker and Jeff Chandler(?).

It depicted a Civil War chase between the General(?) and Texas(?) locomotives which depicts Fess as a Northerner out to destroy a southern RR and Jeff out to stop him. The Northerners, as I recall, were among the first to get a Medal of Honor from the U.S.

Has anyone seen this recently on DVD or TV? It appears to have disappeared from view.

[Anonymous]

I thought of the 1990's movie "The Fugitive" with Harrison Ford for some reason. It is not really a train movie but there is a great wreak scene that was filmed with real trains and effect actors on the Great Smokey RR in NC. It is probably the last movie to really do something like this.

Now that I am thinking of Harrison Ford movies the last Indiana Jones movie had a great circus RR chase filmed on the Cumbes and Toltec. The young Indiana Jones was played by River Phoenix. RMC ran an article on it and plans for a model I remember.

The 1960's film of Ray Bradbury's "Farenheit 451" has great scenes with a test prototype monorail in France.

Otherwise I think I have to second the very early vote for Charles and Ray Eames' Toccatta for Toy Trains.

[Anonymous]

A movie never mentioned, but has some great train action is "Flame Over India". It is about a journey of passengers on a tea kettle steamer through rebel territory in Colonial India. It was made about 1960 and starred Sir Kenneth More and Lauren Bacall. As the movie progressed, the train began to have a personality like a lot of steam engines. I doubt that it is on DVD, but it might be at a video store. I saw it first when I was stationed over in Germany and the GI's really liked the action.

[Anonymous]

Hey Elliot, [ big boy 4005 ] I can help you see the entire 'It happened to Jane' Please email me

[e-mail]

I have several favorite train movies, already mentioned above.....Gotta find 'Danger Lights' ...have not seen that one. Jennifer

[Anonymous]

Three words: "The Iron Horse"

Directed by the great John Ford in 1924 - and reputed to be his personal favorite of his movies. (This from the man who directed Stagecoach and The Searchers.) It's about how the west was really won - with railroads - the transcontinental railroad, specifically.

In addition to 10,000 cattle and 1600 buffalo, you can see someting in this movie that you can't see in Promentory, UT - the real Jupiter and 116 locomotives, and some of the men who actually built the TCRR, renacting the construction. It's incredible. Formally dedicated to railroad pioneer George Stephenson, his attention to detail and realism in railroad construction is amazing. Action, romance, comedy, patriotism - it has it all.

Greatest ever railroad movie (as opposed to a "train" movie), IMHO.

[Anonymous]

Speaking of alan hale. Alan hale jr. was casey,the engineer in a weekly t.v show in the 60's. It was called "Casey Jones" and feature the famous "cannonball express" It featured about the same scenes each week,the regurlar run bys and all. nothing spectacular about the plots,but it was fun. there was at least one scene each week of him slaming on the cannonball's breaks with the wheels starting to spin in reverse. anybody know if this is on tape anywhere?

[Anonymous]

Last night I indicated my interest in the movie "The Great Locomotive Chase."

After I logged off, I did a search and came up with: www.amazon.com

Duh! Ordered it and it is on its way. Suggest the same for you if there a specific movie you want without browsing through stores and not finding it.