Let's make and share our list of: TRAINS IN MOVIES.

[leighant]

I'm glad jhhtrainsplanes gave the link to the excellent page right here on Trains.com with the exhaustive list of train movies. Ilkk repeat the link again.

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=6375

Someone said there was no "Pole" in the title of the film with Ernest Borgnine as a sadistic conductor, "Emperor of the North." Well it is more complicated than that. The film was originally released with the title Emperor of the North Pole. I was working for a TV station and got a short promotional clip or two when it came out. The movie is about the railroad version of the "irrestible force" and the "immoveable object". In this case, a bragging hobo who claims he can ride any train anywhere, no matter how hard anybody tries to stop him, and a conductor who says he has never allowed ANYBODY to hop his train, ride for free and get away with it. The hobo Lee Marvin character brags to other hoboes about how great and legendary he is with a lot of exaggerated braggadocious expressions. One such expression is "Emperor of the North Pole," and that expression gave the movie its original title.

But prospective audiences reading the movie page in the newspaper or the title on the theater marquee may have thought Emperor of the North Pole was about the frozen north, Eskimoes, white bears, snow and ice, etc. and not about exciting train action. At least the producers thought audiences MIGHT have thought that and used that as an excuse for the not-so-great box office showing. So AFTER the picture was released, the title was changed to Emperor of the North so it wouldn't sound so much like a Chilly Willy feature.

Got it? I thought that movie was great because it featured train OPERATIONS. Great shot looking down length of train as freight makes it into siding a split second before the passenger express comes charging through on the main---so close it knocks off one of the marker lights as I remember. That shot probably done with models but I remember it clearly showing the MEET visually as an operating event. Movie also showed the effect of traction and lack thereof when the hoboes greased the rails on an upgrade to stop a train long enough for them to jump on.

(Should I say "do not attempt to do this at home" or on your local railroad. The movies fake stuff and use stunt-hoboes.)

[Anonymous]

Lawrence of Arabia - Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guiness

Lt. Lawrence blows up several Turkish rails, just in front of the locos. 10 wheelers, I think, and wood-side passenger cars.

One of the Die Hard movies has a subway train derail into a gold bank vault, does it not?

I caught Fatal Instinct this weekend while channel surfing - hilarious, and what a war-bonnet F40!

[Anonymous]

In August 2003, I started a topic such as this one in the Train.magazine forum. You might want to go there for a long list of "train movies". There are also ideas of railroad vidoes included from time to time. Here is a link to that thread.

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=6375

[M636C]

I should also comment on "Flame over India". In Australia, and in the UK, as far as I am aware, this movie was called "North West Frontier" (which may have meant more in the UK). The trains in this movie are particularly interesting. The "Last Train" from the fort was a genuine metre gauge Indian 4-4-0 and matching train. The 0-6-0 tank "Victoria", was a Spanish RENFE broad gauge locomotive, a 1900 Kerr Stuart formerly with the Andaluces railway. It was fitted with a dummy "ABC" ("meat-chopper") coupler on the front (a feature of the Indian metre gauge), but the screw couplers and buffers on the rest of the train show up in the movie. The best scene is where the Spanish Broad gauge train rolls slowly through the Indian metre gauge station past the metre gauge train on which all the passengers had been killed. There is a lot of careful cutting in that sequence given the thousands of miles between the trains! When Kenneth More gets down from the train to inspect the scene of death, the wide shots don't show the train he got off (not surprisingly).

I'm also reminded of the train sequences in "Dr Zhivago", a lot of which was also filmed in Spain. "Strelnikov"'s train is hauled by one of the North British design 2-8-2s, notched up to a millimetre off mid gear and running at full speed and full throttle across a plain with dead straight track from horizon to horizon (past Zhivago's train in a siding). The sound of this alone is one of the most memorable steam sequences in movies. Since the movie was made during the cold war, the Russians weren't going to help (I believe the movie was banned, but the movie music was a hit in the USSR) some rail scenes (those around "Moscow") were filmed in Finland while those in "the Caucasus" were filmed in Spain. Fortunately, these two operators had (and the movie used) very similar Alco 2-8-0s, which were generally similar to the Russian "Shch" class 2-8-0s of the time. Given the poor attention to detail on railway matters in movies generally, "Dr Zhivago" indicates how to get things right even when it is difficult!

Peter

[M636C]

I thought it might be of interest to further describe the train used in the major (1970s?) movie "Murder on the Orient Express". The locomotive used was the former Paris-Orleans Railway 4-6-0 with the SNCF number 230G353. This was a relatively small "mixed traffic" locomotive, but it had the same general appearance features as the 4-6-2 locomotives used on major passenger trains, particularly from the front view, partly due to the very similar smokebox and smoke deflectors. I think the train was made up of preserved 1930s era vehicles from the Wagon Lits company that were then held at the CIWL works at St. Denis. There was a blue steel sleeping car, possibly an Lx type, a dining car, a blue and cream "Pullman" (in Europe, this is a parlour car with movable armchairs) used as a lounge in the movie. There was a matching "Fourgon" (baggage car with guard's compartment). All these cars were appropriate for the train, but a couple more sleeping cars would have been more usual in such a train.

Peter

[aussiesteve]

During the 80's there was an Australian movie "The Light Horsemen" which had a steam hauled train depicted at a place called Al Arish (on the Egyptian coast.) the film was about the cavalry charge at Berrsheeba conducted by the Australian Light Horse in 1917 that broke the back of the Turkish defences in WW1 and has been described as the last great cavalry charge.

[2c][2c][2c][2c][2c][2c][2c][2c][2c][2c]

[swg][swg][swg][swg]

[krump]

Rainman - gets on Amtrac at end of show

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles - John Candy, Steve Martin

[AntonioFP45]

Anyone with the info on the Jerry Lewis movies from the 50s in which there are train scenes?

[johncolley]

Hey, guys, Michael Caine , the opening scenes of "The Cider House Rules" shows a Bangor and Arroostook steamer with a combine and two coaches letting off a couple of passengers at a big red barnlike station. Keep 'em coming!

[jeffhergert]

Denver & Rio Grande
Rock Island Trail
Once upon a Time in the West
Joe Kidd, Clint Eastwood runs a 4-4-0 thru a building. Actually just about any Western seems to have some scene involving trains.

[AntonioFP45]

Drephpe,

I've got the 1950s "Zilla" on tape. You can definetly make out the truck screws![8D]

It's been about 25 years since I've seen it, but I remember that hilarious I Love Lucy episode! From what I remember each time the train slammed on the brakes, the Mertzes walked quietly out of the dining car, giving Lucy the "Iceberg Stare" with cake and food all over them![:p][:p]

Another Lucy twist: I remember "The Lucy Show" from the 1960s. Lucy, Vivian and a group of Boy Scouts are going by train to see President Kennedy. (I want to say New York Central, but I'm unsure). She doesn't reboard the train on time at a station stop and next thing you see; she's riding next to the train on a horse yelling at Vivian through an open window ( yeah: an open window on a streamliner! )! Cheesy, but no political correctness junk or issues! This was just plain old, great comedy! [C):-)][tup]

Lucy was top of the line! [:D][8D][:p]

[Anonymous]

For 100% guaranteed pure, UNCUT! UNCENSORED! unadulterated schlock. The following preview is rated Z--for zeebs only:

1. The ORIGINAL 'Zilla w/ Raymond Burr edited in for US audiences (accept no substitutes or cheap imitations!). Not only do we get to see the rubber suit eat the train, but you can almost make out "Lionel" on the car, and you CAN see the screws holding the trucks on! SPECTACULAR! DON'T MISS IT! In a theatre near you. The rest are just (how shall I say it??--oh, well, I give up) cheap Japanese copies.

2. The PULLMAN scene in Some Like it Hot, with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon & Marilyn Monroe. Classic!

3. The Elvis/Beach/Spy/War/Love/Commando movie TOP SECRET! with Val Kilmer and Omar Sharif. A great send-up of the Railroads(?) and other things of East Germany. Kilmer's German lesson in the compartment is hilarious, and the scene where the train pulls out of the station (or vice-versa) at the border is worth the rental price. As is the East German Women's Olympic Team. Vintage Zucker/Zucker/Abrahams. Watch it several times, so you get MOST of the nuances!

4. Any Mack Sennett silent flick. Almost every one has either a crossing near-miss between a flivver and an ATSF or SP pax train or a car (usually full of cops) going at high speed in-between two passing LATL or PE streetcars, or both, on double track, IN THE STREET IN TRAFFIC!, and coming out nearly two-dimensional. And remember, they did their own stunts on the streets and roads of LA! A simpler time. Take that, OSHA!

5. And not a movie, but well worth it--the episode of I Love Lucy where the Ricardos and the Mertzes take the City of LA out to LaLa land and Lucy keeps pulling the air. Who needs Vitameatavegemin???

[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][tup][tup]

[fec153]

Lee Marvin John Wayne Jimmy Stewart- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

[Allen Jenkins]

"Whatever Dosen't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger!" Oscer "Manny" Manhiem. http://www.alaskarails.org/sf/film/runaway-train/ They made a sport out of it! Check it out! acj.

[randybc2003]

"The Shootist" - w/ John Wayne & Jimmy Stewart - (J.W's last - I think) Comes into town behind EUREAKA - a little Wood Burning American Standard. [C):-)]

"Breakheart Pass" - filmed nearby on the Camas Prarie RR - Charles Bronson & Ben Johnson - among others. A trainload of hijacked guns being traded to renagades for "all the gold and silver comming out of California & Nevada". Cut telegraph wires, sabatoge, Pinkerton men, U.S. Army, and all sorts. of action. Attacked the train but didn't blow it (completely)up. European spy master Allister Maclean's visiion of a western.[C):-)][C):-)][C):-)]

"Murder of on the Orient Express" - Agatha C's murder mystery. Not much action.[|)]

"North by Northwest" - A. Hitchcock had a comment about the closing scenes in the sleeper compartment and the streamliner diving into the tunnel.[;)]

"Flame Over India" - Kipling-ish saga of British officials sprinting a young prince to saftey durning a sectarian uprising. Lauren Bacall plays his American Governess. (You'll have to pardon me for speaking my mind gentlemen - I happen to believe thats what it's for.) Also Wilfred Hyde White and a host of others.
The real star is an old, cantankerous, noisy engine "Empress of India" - aka "Old Vicki"
("Where does your girl like her drink, Gupta?
"She like her drink up on the top, Sahib"
"Right")[:D][:D][:D]

"How the West was Won" - Richard Widmark helps build the Union Pacific[C):-)]

And speaking of Union Pacific, - UNION PACIFIC. W/. Barbra Stanwick, Robert Preston, and others. This "Hell on Wheels" from C.B.d'M has a lot of the stuff from the old Virginia & Truckee. 'Nuff said![C):-)][C):-)]

"Dynamite & Gold" - Wille Nelson, Jack Elam, Delta Burk, Gerald McRamey, & a bunch of others. Wille & Jack are to be shot at dawn until they agree to run a train load of ammunition through revolutionary Mexico. They pick up a car full of women (of marketable virtue) on the way. Revolutionaries, Federalaies, Banditos, Wells Fargo men, Comencharios, everyone wants a piece of them. They finaly make it across the Rio Grande.[C):-)][C):-)]

"From Russia With Love" - James Bond (S. Connery) - begins his journey out of Instanboul w/ his prizes ( code machine & girl) on the Orient Express - Westbound.[8D]

"Instabul Express" - British Agent travels east on the train. Contacts that make themselves known to him give him the numbers to a bank account that ......... well, you get the idea. 2/3 of the action takes place on the train.[:)][:)]

And I almost forgot - "Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade" - his adventures on the Circus train near the start contain a lot of the trademark action - and introduce him to his bullwhip!![:D]

[philnrunt]

APOLOGIES TO LIGHTBENDER!!! You got me thinking about the Miss Marples movie, so I dug out Murder Most Foul, and sure enough, it is NOT about the murder on the train. It is about murder in a play-a play named Murder She Said, which was also the American title of the "4:50 to Paddington" The more sure I am about something, the wronger (I know, but it sure fits this time) I am.
Tahnks for keeping me on my toes, and thanks to the IMDb site(Internet Movie Database, great source of movie info) for the real facts!

[BRAKIE]

Union Pacific
Kansas Pacific
Danger Lights
3:10 to Yuma
Wild,Wild West

[M636C]

The Australian government filmmaker "Film Australia" made a semi-documentary called "A Steam Train Passes". It was made in the late 1960s, using NSW 1942 Pacific 3801 and a late 1930s set of sitting cars. There was no plot as such, but actors were used as passengers and passers-by to create the atmosphere of the WW II/ mid -1940s era. The train was run through many country areas where the infrastructure and general appearance were still as they were in the period intended. This film is available as a VHS video, but not yet on DVD.

I chased 3801 on special trains last weekend (thankfully it is still running) but the passenger cars, the signalling and many other things have changed. It is really good that a really professional team recorded the scene accurately.(But it's still good to see and hear the real train!)

Peter

[pbjwilson]

NORTH BY NORTHWEST - The Twentieth Century Ltd. - the final shot of the movie is a shot of a train entering a tunnel used as symbolism of intercourse.
RISKY BUSINESS - As Tom Cruise is conducting "business" in his parents house, he goes down to his basement and plays conductor with his Lionel trains.

[Anonymous]

The movie Duel by Stevin Spealburge. his first film about a truck driver gone mad[}:)] chasing Dennis Weaver down the Highway after he cut him off. talk bout road rage. featured some great California SP [8D]action in some shots but i liked it when the ol' 288 model Peterbilt with tag axle tried to pu***he car into the train at the crossing gate. Great movie for the truck lovers.

[Anonymous]

october sky has a 4-4-0 (at least thats how many wheels i counted)

[Anonymous]

Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd-has an old 4-4-0 lettered for the Denver, Raton & Southern (Maybe an AT&SF predecessor?) at the end.

Silver Streak-both the one made in the 1930's showcasing the Pioneer Zephyr and the 1970's or '80's one which I belive had a METRA train.

[AntonioFP45]

BTW:

Good friend of mine reminded me of Jerry Lewis! I remember seeing at least 2 movies from the 1950s in which he was onboard passenger trains getting in trouble as usual. I remember that in one movie, he played an army private.

Anyone have any info?

[AntonioFP45]

Great!

This movie list is getting long! Super! Goes to show that there are more trains in movies that realized.

Thanks guys, if you have more--------"keep-a-posting!"

[espeefoamer]

Garfield. Garfield dispatches trains out of LAUPT. Many Amtrak trains head for collisions,stop just in time.

[joseph2]

"Billion Dollar Hobo" with Tin Conway.He had to hop a SP freight to get his inheiritence. "Blazing Saddles" with Cleavon Little.There were no trains in it,but there was a handcar stuck in quicksand. Joe G.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Student of Big Sky Blue

The Greatest Train Movie Never Made!

Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine in "McHale's Navy on the B&O"

James

[?][?][?][?][?][?]

Must have missed that one,

Hmm, Tim Conway as an engineer? Joe Flynn as the Conductor?

Could be a Hit [;)]!

[Anonymous]

The Greatest Train Movie Never Made!

Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine in "McHale's Navy on the B&O"

James

[DSchmitt]

Bad Day at Black Rock: A Southurn Pacific steramliner pulled by Black Widow painted F's (ABBA?)

Around the World in 80 Days: the one with David Niven and Shirley McLain I especially liked the Indian Railway sequence. Cantinflas was great as the traveling companion.

[tatans]

Try "the Greatest Show On Earth" with Charlton Heston Great scenes of steam and the "greatest" train wreck ever in films, most of the scenes were shot using large models, I wonder where they are now?