Great Train Movies

[kpolak]

I saw part of Terror Train the other night...that's all I could stomach, but Jamie Lee Curtis was in it.

Kurt

[Anonymous]

BINGO!!! I got TWO that didn't make the list but are definitely worth

watching as they are very train-oriented and have some great shots

of line-side structures and scenery. Operations are not prototypical

(it IS 'holly-wierd' you know)

 

First is a nice "little" movie produced by (yes) Mary Steenbergen and

starring Wilford Brimley, Kevin Bacon, Holly Hunter and a few others

titled "End of the Line" about a shortline that is saved by their employees

who take the line's loco to Chicago to the "Big Business Headquarters"

to say their piece and save their RR. One nice FUNNY scene is when

Brimley and his partner get discouraged in their trip and SHOOT their loco

out of frustration. Obviously didn't do much damage, but haven't we ALL

had days like this? 1987 ORION Pictures/LORIMAR home video VHS (might now be

on DVD) PG

 

The next movie not on your list, but definitely watchable and having some

great RR footage is a movie starring Richard Farnsworth ( one great actor!)

titled "The Grey Fox" about a train robber that is arrested in the 19th century

and released into the early 20th century. Times have changed, but Farnsworth

hasn't. He goes out into the world to try to commit one last train robbery in

the new age. Great acting, pretty good RR stuff, great plot, wonderful scenery.

Filmed in Canada in the Northwest. 1983 Media Home Entertainment. VHS PG

 

And, yes, put my votes in for...

Emporer of the North

Von Ryan's Express

The Train 

The Great Locomotive Chase 

[Boxcar Bill]

Yes I remember that episode. I dont think I ever missed episode of the UN-Touchables

[Boxcar Bill]

Yes I remember that episode. I dont think I ever missed epsoide

[initagain]

 

Ahhh.... trivia night on CTT forum.. it's "when you hear the tootin' of the whistle, it's Casey at the throttle of the Canonball Express".

 Speaking of trivia, does anyone remember the old TV series "The Untouchables", starring Robert Stack.  There was a two-part episode called "The Big Train", about the transfer of Al Capone from a regular prison to a "new, state of the art" facility.  Lots of train yard, and train sequences (a lot of them model trains cleverly photographed to look real.  Another movie, and this is timely, "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, showed several sequences of the 1950's Super Chief (at least I think that was it), you know the old GM F-units with the stainless steel passenger consist.

[Boxcar Bill]

I have to say The Emporer of the North,Von Ryans Express, The Great Locomotive Chase and The Train. Also The T.V. Show from the fifties, Casey Jones. Someone correct me if Iam wrong, but I thick the lyric's went like this: Casey Jones steaming and a rolling, casey jones you never have to guess, when you hear the rumble of the engine its Casey at the throttle of the Cannon Ball Express.

[mobilman44]

Hi,

  For different reasons, my vote goes for Danger Lights, Silver Streak, Emporer of the North, and even thou I'm 63, I really enjoy Polar Express (I'm the smart aleck knowitall)....  I've seen most of the others mentioned and love the train scenes in all of them......

But, and this is serious, I have read that "Boxcar Bertha" from 197x is supposed to be an excellent train movie.  Anyone seen it or can comment on it????

ENJOY,

Mobilman44

[Anonymous]

To all the HE fans and our british friends how about The great train robbery with sean conelly and Donald sutherland.

[magicman710]

Either Polar Express or The History Channels trains series.

[laz 57]

I just thought of one thatwas just on cable.
Enemy at the gates. About a Russian sniper of world war II, how he was brought to the front in an old steamer great shot of the steamer.
laz57

[Anonymous]

Put me down for the opening and closing sequences of Bad Day at Black Rock Starring: Spencer Tracy.

[Anonymous]

I saw the movie Station Agent on DVD yesturday and heartily recommend it.

The main character is a train buff who was working at a model rr shop specializing in lionel stuff. Who then inheirets and moves to an old train station complete with a passenger car and two cabooses in a rural area. Boy talk about wish fulfilment.

All this and a good realistic story with strong unknown actors. Go rent it, you will not be disappointed.

[Frank53]

AMC is running Battle of the Bulge this morning. My Dad fought there so I always watch it.

There is a train scene where a train is making its way to a tunnel where a tank awaits. The approaching scene is from a camera on the front of a train running high speed. THey then cut to a view from about 45 from teh top looking down on the train. It is definately a Lionel model train - and it's cookin'. [:D]

[jimhaleyscomet]

Hi all,

I pulled all the movie names off this thread so you can see a complete list below

Jim H

Train Movies

A Century of Lionel Trains
Bound for Glory
Breakheart Pass
Casey Jones TV show
Danger Lights
Disaster on the Coastliner TV
Emperor of the North
Exciting 100 mph Race to Chicago
Fahrenheit 451
Flame Over India
Fours a Crowd
Holiday Affair
It Happened to Jane
Love those Trains
Midnight Run Deniro
Narrow Margin
North by Northwest
Pacific 231
Rail Away
Rio Grande 1950's
Runaway Train
Station Agent
Switch Back
The Chartreuse Caboose
The Christmas Story
The Denver and Rio Grande
The General Buster Keaton
The Great Locomotive Chase
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Iron Horse
The Lady Vanishes
The Molly Maguires 1968
The Polar Express
The Silver Streak 1934 Version
The Silver Streak Pryor
The Train
Toccata for Toy Trains
Tough Guys
U.S.2.:D.T.
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
Union Depot
Von Ryan's Express
Ya Can't Win Em All

[seacoast]

Another good one was Rio Grande (early 1950's-color) with Edmund O'brien, good flick about the early days of the building of the Rio Grande (steam action) and some F unit
actions at the end, not entirely historically accurate but good fun.

Great Locomotive Chase (disney is a classic !)..

Other magazine video's on layouts not movies but good action of O pikes and surround sound like music..

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lionelsoni

I saw more than I needed to of "Atomic Train" the other day. It is emphatically not a great train movie.

I've also seen that movie. An inaccurate and stupid movie is one thing, but Atomic Train is unbelievable! It's hard to imagine that such a movie actually got made in the first place. You don't know what a bad movie is (about trains or otherwise) until you've seen it!

Actual scene from Atomic Train:

Dispatching room. Dispatcher is sitting in front of CTC board. General and other officials from the Pentagon have arrived to discuss the runaway train.

DISPATCHER: You know anything about trains, General?

GENERAL: (Trying really hard to do a Jack Nicholson "You can handle the truth" voice.) They run on tracks, don't they?

DISPATCHER: (Pauses. Looks away. Then speaks with fear.) On good days.

On a positive note, I saw a very good train movie on TV last week. Narrow Margin with Gene Hackman from 1990. Hackman plays an LA cop who goes to British Columbia to get a woman who witnessed a mob hit to testify in court. The mob has tracked her down and almost all of the movie involves them trying to get away from the bad guys while riding a Via train to safety. One memorable scene is a fight that takes place on top of a dome car with the passengers inside watching! I've done some searching and found out that this was a remake of a film from 1952. I'll have to see that one.

[lionelsoni]

I saw more than I needed to of "Atomic Train" the other day. It is emphatically not a great train movie.

[Frank53]

here's a great lin about scenes in movies featuring Lionel Train:

http://www.toytrainrevue.com/hollywd.htm

[Frank53]

and then of course, there is:

[1688torpedo]

How about the movie "Arthur" Starring Dudley Moore & Liza Minelli.? He played a rich man who had every thing including a nice Lionel Layout with the Southern Crescent,Blue Comet,and General sets of the late 70's.....Keith

[Frank53]

Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas played in a comedy about two Train Robbers who are paroled and have trouble adjusting to life in a world forty years removed from their experience, so they decide to go back to what they do best - robbing trains.

It was no cinematic masterpiece, but had it's moments. It was called Tough Guys.

The film Runaway Train was tip top.

There is one scene in Dr Zhivago where a fabulous train roars through the scene - a red and black streamed which completely over powers the screen - very powerful. It is a snow scene and all the Russians are outfitted in their heavy coast and whatever those hats are.

The best movie that has a train in it - but not necessarily about Trains is:

Midnight Run with Robert Deniro and Charles Grodin. The exchanges between those two are side splitting. They ride a passanger train early in the movie and jump on a freight train near the end. If you are one of the four people who has never seen it (get the DVD - the raw language makes it even funnier than the edited version you will see on tv) it it gets all the stars I can think of.

[riverrailfan]

Not a favorite but one to think about. Think it was Von Ryans Express with Frank Sinatra.

[Anonymous]

*bump* for colin to see

[Anonymous]

mine has to be Von Ryans Express (1960s) with Frank Sinatra about WWII

[mersenne6]

Actually Old 2037, there's another possibility for verification here. A couple of those sites have a picture of Jupiter in her final form. While I suppose one could re-boiler an engine for a movie, I don't recall Hollywood ever going to that kind of trouble. If one of you has access to the movie, find a scene with a good shot of Ford's Jupiter and see how it compares to those pictures on the web sites...don't focus on the stack or headlight things like that are easily changed, rather, look for major similarities in hard to replace items such as the boiler.

I agree...interesting discussion.

[Anonymous]

Well I found another source that claimed that the original "Jupiter" was used in The Iron Horse. This one was John Ford, a biography by Andrew SInclair. Interestingly, this version also claimed that the original #119 was not used in the movie, but that a "twin," #116, was used instead.

As to Jupiters fate, well, "sold for scrap" is not the same thing as "scrapped," and if Jupiter's engineer made any attempt to prevent it from being scrapped - as mentioned on the same NPS "Everlasting Steam," - he may have communicated the locomotive's historic status to the scrapper - who may very well have saw an opportunity to make more money on it than what it was worth in scrap. (Just 15 years later John Ford spent $280,000 making The Iron Horse, which might have ended his career but the movie made a cool $3 million. That was a lot of money in 1927 dollars.)

Unfortunately, none of these sources are stating their original sources. If anyone knows an original source, please post it here. I really want to know, now. And some of you "rivet counters" (you know who you are), ought to watch the movie to pick up a few clues for us... ;>)

Fun topic, guys!

[mersenne6]

Sorry about that - I hit send before I had finished my last thought. If you want to do further research on what happened to Jupiter and No.119 just type in the word string " globe arizona jupiter locomotive" on Google and you will get the phone book. The first several site say pretty much the same thing - a reboilered Jupiter bearing little resemblance to her 1869 moment was sold to the scrapper in 1909 for $1,000. The site

http://www.nps.gov/gosp/history/everlasting_steam.html

also tells the fate of #119 - scrapped in 1903. She too had a scrappers price of $1,000.

[mersenne6]

I realize the Ambrose book is full of problems, however, the citation concerning Jupiter is from a completely different source and has nothing to do with his book. As to the specifically quoted statement concerning the Chinese, there are other authors, prior to the Ambrose work, who mention members of the CP workforce as still living in the second decade of the 20th century - all I was agreeing with was that it would have been possible for Ford to have had some original people in his movie. As Old 2037 noted "I believe it - one guy looks 80, easy."

[Anonymous]

The Ambrose book you speak of is full of falsehoods and lazy research. Part of it even seems to be based on the "Union Pacific" movie. His books may be entertaining but pop-nonfiction and not an authority to base further research on. A problem with how popular his books became is he let many others do the recerch for them.

Because of the popularity of his earlier books at the time he wrote this one he was writing multiple books at the same time. If you look at the begining of this book he thanks his researchers and lists his extended family. He was employing most of them and as a result the research is sloppy.There were several articles on this right before he died. So he never could really answer to these accusations.