British Transport films "Snow 1973" Opening credits is really good snow removal on the British Railways
If you can read this... thank a teacher. If you are reading this in english... thank a veteran
When in doubt. grab a hammer.
If it moves and isn't supposed to, get a hammer
If it doesn't move and is supposed to, get a hammer
If it's broken, get a hammer
If it can't be fixed with a hammer... DUCK TAPE!
Neat topic.
Yesterday (during the snow day here in Philly) I caught a Three Stooges short called "Women Haters." The whole thing took place on a train, AND in rhyming verse (both dialog and songs). The train interior sets looked suspiciously huge, though.
A pretty good chuck of "The Sting" takes place on a train, no exteriors that I recall.
Sorry I'm not more helpful, but I also recall seeing on TV, a while back, a film noir from around 1950, that took place entirely on a long-distance train. I don't recall the title, and it seemed to be a B-movie, no big stars, but it was a pretty good example of the genre.
A couple of movies that haven't been mentioned:
"Silent Barriers" (1937) about the building of the Canadian Pacific. Several scenes were remade two years later in the classic movie "Union Pacific" (1939).
There have been two versions of the movie "Narrow Margin". The first was filmed in 1950 on the Santa Fe using Steam Power.
A little-known Buster Keaton movie named "The Railrodder", in which he crosses Canada coast-to-coast on a CN gasoline speeder.
"North West Frontier", starring Lauren Bacall.
"Wild Wild West", starring Will Smith and the locomotive Wm. Mason from the B&O Museum.
"The Harvey Girls" (1940) starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger (both better known from "Wizard of Oz") and Angela Landsbury. Won an Oscar for the song "On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe".
I watched"Wild Wild West"(The Movie)when it came out on video in 1999.,
They shoulda called it"Vile Vile Mess"!!
Now 2003's"Gods and Generals"had some real good scenes with preserved B&O Equipment.
Ref "The Hurricane Express" I remember reading in Trains magazine back in the 70's that it was filmed largely in Cajon Pass with allot of film of Santa Fe and Southern Pacific freights. Like most movies from that period it was filmed to fast but looks swell in slow motion.
Hi again!
Years ago I saw most of the Buster Keaton movie (The Railroader?) mentioned earlier, where he crosses Canada coast to coast on a gasoline speeder. It was in "fast motion", and was absolutely fascinating. I had totally forgotten about it until now.
I wonder if its on DVD...........
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
To amend my "just posted" posting....
Buster Keaton's movie is The RailRODDER, not The Railroader (as I wrote). It is on DVD, and usually with another feature. It takes place in 1965, and is 25 minutes long.
Did anyone mention, "The Fugitive" with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. The scene of the train wreck on the lines of the Great Smoky Mountain Railway in western North Carolina is a great movie scene.
However, knowing where that trackage is personally, it is very usual in the wreck scene of the movie to see the head locomotive bearing the name of the Illinois Southern when this trackage was old Southern Railway trackage. I fully realize that the prison with the convicts were located was in Illinois, but the scene and trackage was below Fontana Dam in western North Carolina.
The amazing compromises movie directors make and in turn they make millions with poor imitiations. It is like watching the scene on the Andy Griffith show when they are suppose to be in the piedmont section of North Carolina for Mayberry which should be typical Southern Railway trackage. And they are filming a scene at a passenger section and here comes a Union Pacific diesel with a string of passenger cars in Union Pacific decorum. Hollywood screws up again.
Buster Keaton did a great job, in "The General". His last film was "The Railrodder" where he crosses Canada, on a railroad "Speeder"
Westshorefan (nearing the end of the line)
Yes, it is on DVD. Go on E-bay. I just got a copy from a Dealer in Canada, where it was made by the National Film Board of Canada. $7.95 + 2.99 shipping.
Westshorefan
One of my favorites is Runaway Train with Jon Voight released in 1985.
Silver Streak (1976) with Gene Wilder
A couple of older ones that featured the Broadway Limited and The Century although I do not recall their titles
"La bete humaine", by Jean Renoir. It contains a long (IIRC, about 8 minutes) scene of a Pacific entering Le Havre, including the uptake of water from a trough between the rails.
Oh Yeah!!!Certainly can't forget about"The Fugitive"!!!
One of Harrison Ford's best Non'Indiana Jones'Movies!!!
You do have a point about UP Trains on The Andy Griffith Show,however,seeing as it was a lot easier back in the 60's to simply go to the nearest freight yard;siding or LAUPT and film Andy;Barney;Aunt Bea;Gomer;Goober;etal* boarding the(Take your pick)City of LA/St.Louis;Super ChiefSan Diegan;Sunset Limited or Daylight than it would be to send a camera crew back east to the Carolinas and film an ACL;SAL or Southern Passenger Train!!1
(*Notable Exception:Ernest T.Bass!!He'd just as soon chunk rocks at a train than board it!!).
Speaking of Harrison Ford Movies,1985's"Witness"has scenes of Kelly McGillis and her son riding an Amtrak train from Philly to Lancaster.
Just thought of a few more:"Battle of the Bulge".Hank Fonda;Robert Ryan;Charles Bronson;Telly Savalas and Pre"Book Em'Dan-o!!Murder One!!"James Mac Arthur hold back the last great Nazi Offensive in WWII.
Scene of a supply train hauling tanks and equipment to the front being ambushed by a Tiger Tank at the mouth of a tunnel!!
At least four John Ford Westerns*(*Well,technically,'The Horse Soldiers'is set in the Civil War.But we'll consider it a western on here.)featured trains:"Three Godfathers".Scenes of SP Narrow Gauge in the California Desert.
"The Horse Soldiers".Besides scenes of the Yankees tearing up the tracks,there's a scene of a Confederate Supply Train arriving straight into an ambush by Northern Troops.
"Sergeant Rutledge".Slightly ahead of it's time(for 1960)western with Woody Strode as a Sergeant in the 9th Cavalry*(*Buffalo Soldiers)being Court Martialed forrape and murder.
Scene of Constance Towers getting of a train at a depot in Arizona Territory.
"Cheyenne Autumn".Ford's last western about the Cheyenne Indians jumping the reservation and returning north from their Reservation in Indian Territory*(*Modern Oklahoma)to their homeland in Wyoming.
Scene of a troop train leaving Dodge City despite protests by the Mayor;the Indians hiding under a bridge in a dry wash as a train goes overhead and Richard Widmark and Mike Mazurski riding in a caboose.
"Night At The Museum".Scene of Ben Stiller being tied to the tracks as a Large Guage Train comes towards him only to hit his head and derail!!
Another Goof in a movie:1992's"School Ties".Although set in the Anthracite Coal Region around Scranton,Pa. in the 50's,look at one of the gondolas in a freight passing by:It has Conrail markings!!
"Geronimo:An American Legend".The Final Scene shows Geronimo and his Apaches in Cattle Cars being transported to prison in Florida.
The same film clip is used in 2007's"Broken Trail".Minus Wes Studi as Geronimo of course.
Although not really a train movie in the broad sense,the other night I was channel surfing and I stopped on IFC and started watching"Nothing But a Man"with Ivan Dixon for a few minutes.It's about a black railroad worker in Alabama in the early 60's.
For the most part,they were all working in the sawmill cutting ties and stuff although there was one scene where theyr'e all inside an old heavyweight car that apparently was used as a bunk car or something.
"Ghost".1990's Weepie with Demi Moore and the Late Patrick Swayze has some scenes inside the NY Subway.\
"Spiderman 3".Scene with Spidey and The Sandman fighting on the subway.
"Runaway Jury".Scene of a KCS SD40-2 going by while John Cusack is on a payphone.
Just watched "Night Passage" with James Stewart and Audy Murphy. Lot of DRG&W trains.
Fred
Jimmy Stewart's 1959 Courtroom Drama"Anatomy of a Murder"has scenes of Ben Gazarra departing and arriving on a C&NW Pasenger Train as well as a scene where Jimmy Stewart and Arthur O'Connell are having lunch at a Hot Dog Stand while an LS&I RS1 powered freight rumbles by.
Preston Sturges classic 1941 comedy THE LADY EVE has an hilarious 'wedding night' sequence aboard a speeding train between Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. In one shot, the train passes a sign that says "TUNNEL APPROACH, PULL IN YOUR HEAD." Fracturingly funny film, but the train shots keep changing between Southern Pacific and Santa Fe in that sequence.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Flame Over India - 1959
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
"Bhowani Junction" - 1956
In 1947, the British are about to withdraw from India and peace must be maintained on the railway.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049007/
Andre
I like "The Train", "Von Ryans Express", Emperor of The North", "The Runaway Train" to mention a few and as mentioned previously several others that include some great clips with trains. Since the discussion is including movies with even the shortest clip of a train, "Total Recal", with Arnold Schwarzenegger, has a clip of a passenger train on Mars. There was also a good scene at the end of either "Support Your Local Gunfighter" or "Support Your Local Sheriff" with James Garner.
Anybody mention "The Greatest Show On Earth" with Charleton Heston and Jimmy Stewart? Loading circus on flats, and don't forget the wreck. Gary (A bit hokey nowadays, but I still watch it when it shows up on TCM)
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, has been mentioned, but it gets my vote as the most unintentionally (?) hilarious train movie ever. I laughed so long and hard at the operating practices gaffes that my sides ached for hours.
Von Ryan's Express always seems to get overlooked when this subject comes up. Maybe I'm the only one who thought it was a great movie. It mixed my two favorite historical interests, WWII and trains.
The Train with Burt Lancaster. Ditto.
Silver Streak, Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor version.
The Great Locomotive Chase starring Fess Parker. I saw this when I was very young and always thought of it as a Disney kids movie but I watched it recently and was pleasantly surprised at how well it held up as adult entertainment.
I consider all of the above to be train movies as railroading is central to the plot as opposed to others that have been mentioned, such as North by Northwest and The Sting which have train scenes in them but the trains play a supporting role rather than the stars of the movie.
Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Repo Chick (2010)
Two similar films-one unintentionally funny,one very good-about railroading in the British Empire:"Bwana Devil(In 3d)"and"The Ghost and The Darkness".
The Ghost and The Darkness has scenes of what appears to be a 2-6-2 Tank Engine and a couple of cars in the African Veldt.
Also,1962's"The Longest Day"has a scene of British Paratroopers and French Maquis blowing up a section of track derailing a Nazi Supply Train.
"The Fast and The Furious"scene near the end with a freight powered by an ex D&RGW GP.
"White Lightning".Scene with a SSW Switcher pulling a couple of center flow hoppers on a stretch of street trackage.
My favorite is "Emperor of the North" Ernest Borgenine, Lee Marvin, and Keith Caradine.
my vote is for "von ryans express" as one of my favorites
and also "bridge on the river kwai" pretty impressive bridge they built for the railroad
bob
Another "Duke" movie "Tycoon" made in 1947 about building a railroad in the Andies of Peru.
Berlin-Vet Another "Duke" movie "Tycoon" made in 1947 about building a railroad in the Andies of Peru.
I'm still trying to figure out how a Southern Pacific T-class 4-6-0 ended up in 'Peru' (actually, the White Mountains of south-eastern California) for the final sequences in that movie, LOL! But that scene with Wayne trying to weight down the flooded trestle with the train is kind of a zinger, even if the model locomotive falling into the river looked suspiciously like an HO scale Varney "Casey Jones".
Kind of a fun movie, though.
Speaking of unintentionally funny models used in movies: Check out a 'fifties sci-fi film called THE BLACK SCORPION--in the film, one of the giant monsters wrecks a passenger train. As the tender flashes by on the screen, you clearly see LIONEL LINES on the side. Great chuckles.
Have you ever seen the'So Bad It's Good' low budget potboiler"The Giant Gila Monster"from 1959??There's a scene with a film clip of a speeding steam engine and what appears to be a Katy AS616 with a clip of the aforementioned gila monster spliced in the middle causing a train wreck!!!
And who can forget how Gomez Addams(John Astin)always had that nice Lionel layout that he inevetibaly demolished on The Addams Family!!
It always kinda perturbed me when he destroyed those Lionel trains!!They might be worth some big bucks today!!!
Hopefully they used Marx instead of Lionel in those scenes.
Of course,Lionel was probably fairly reasonable 45 years ago.
Another goof involving trains:The original"The Fugitive"TV Series from 1963-67.
At the beginning,there's a scene of a passenger train being pulled by some kind of EMD E or F Unit.Then there's a scene of the train starting to derail.
Look closely and you'll see they look a lot like tinplate cars and couplers.
Then the next scene shows the overturned passenger cars and firefighters helping the passengers out.Again,look closely at the overturned car.It has European Wagon-Lits markings.