Medina1128The Great Train Chase, Fess Parker
Just a slight correction to the title.....It was ''The Great Locomotive Chase'' by Walt Disney 1956.....two Loco's General & Texas, during the civil war. Saw it downtown Chgo in the same year. Nothing like seeing it on a gigantic screen.
Take Care!
Frank
On topic: Emperor of the North
Off topic: I have been wondering about this for years. This thread brings up an opportunity maybe to get an answer. Since we are talking film and shows.
Back in the 70's there was a movie (on commercialvision, not the big screen) that had an HO layout of Southern Pacific flavour. The story was that the layout (by some unknown evil force) would by itself create an accident, then it would happen in real life.
I guess by voodoo or black magic. I dunno. Cant remember the details. I do remember one particular scene where a switcher was toting a string of cars coming to a grade crossing. The model train hit a model car. Ofcourse, in real life you can imagine what this translated too.
The characters in the story were trying to figure out the correlation from layout to real life and stop it. Heres my question....
Does anyone know what the title of this was? Id like to see it again.
Some specifics i remember:
Ho scale layout, rather large in size.
3 main players - guy, young boy, and young girl.
Southern Pacific layout, real world trains were varied.
1970's era show.
PM Railfan
Here's mine
Emperor of the North
End of the Line
Danger Lights
Under Siege 2
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Are there no Hitchcock fans here?
Nobody has mentioned Strangers on a Train.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
I'm a little partial to Platform 9 3/4 from a number of movies!
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
"Stand By Me", "The Journey of Natty Gann", and "In the Heat of the Night",all have good train scenes, mh
No ones mentioned Johhny Cash and his trains specials so i will, just did.
jjdamnit Emperor of the North
I was trying to rack my brain to come up with movies in which railroading was a central theme and this one escaped me until you mentioned it. Emperor of the North is my #1. #2 is the Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor version of Silver Streak. #3 is The Great Locomotive Chase starring Fess Parker. I remember this came out when I was very young and I bought the DVD for the nostalgia but I was surprised at how well it held up as adult entertainment.
Oh Brother Where Art Thou...no one said the train had to be the central theme.
Robert H. Shilling II
A movie that just came to mind is another Burt Lancaster flick 'The Professionals'.
There were some decent railroad scenes in it. I don't recall who the actual steam locomotive owner was but the railroad scenes were filmed on the now defunct Kaiser Steel...Eagle Mountain Railroad in southern California. I also found out that some of the railroad scenes in 'Tough Guys' were also filmed there.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
A Mighty Wind. It is how my layout got the name Crabville from my wife.
Karl 425:
Actually, "Strangers on a Train" is my all-time favorite Hitchcock movie, but I seldom consider it a "train" Hitchcock film, unlike "North by Northwest" or "The Lady Vanishes", as the relatively brief train sequence at the beginning is only the set-up for the clever suspense of the rest of the film. I also get kind of a kick out of the fact that the train they are on heading into Washington D.C. is the Southern Pacific "Coast Daylight", lol. But it's a great movie!
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!
I limited my choices to ones in which railroading was central to the plot. Thus North by Northwest while being a great movie wasn't on my list. A couple others I hadn't thought of in my first reply, The Train and Von Ryan's Express.
Silver Streak.
Is he with the Feds?
Who?
This guy Rembrandt.
Rembrandt is dead!
Dead?! That makes four.
One I haven't seen is "It Happened To Jane", from the mid 1950's. I don't think trains are the central focus, but the film includes footage of the last New Haven steam loco, a Mikado that was scrapped shortly after her movie role.
Bad Day at Black Rock
Tough Guys
Bound For Glory
Chartroose Caboose
Chatanogga Choo Choo
Von Rayn's Express
Beetlejuse
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
ACY One I haven't seen is "It Happened To Jane", from the mid 1950's. I don't think trains are the central focus, but the film includes footage of the last New Haven steam loco, a Mikado that was scrapped shortly after her movie role. Tom
It's been a long time since I've seen it but actually the train is the central focus of the movie. Doris Day runs a lobster business and the local railroad causes her to lose a shipment and the railroad run by Ernie Kovacs doesn't compensate her. She sues and Kovacs refuses to pay and she seizes the train, I don't remember if the sheriff seized it for her or the court awarded it, and Doris and her lawyer/boyfriend Tony Randall end up running the train to ship her lobsters. The New Haven Mike is one of the uncreditied co-stars.
How about Timberjack?
Co-starring is a three-truck Shay. The film includes some interesting footage on logging operation.
I didn't know the Mike had such a central role in It Happened to Jane. Doris Day --- 'nuff said! I didn't know about Ernie Kovacs in the movie. He was a natural to play a curmudgeon businessman. He had a rare talent that modern folks can't possibly know. This is probably one we should seek out.
Sir Madog How about Timberjack? Co-starring is a three-truck Shay. The film includes some interesting footage on logging operation.
Thank you Madog A classic that by the way can now be watched on Amazon.
Emperor of the North is #2 for me
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
The film "Timberjack" is also available on Youtube - for free!
ACY I didn't know the Mike had such a central role in It Happened to Jane. Doris Day --- 'nuff said! I didn't know about Ernie Kovacs in the movie. He was a natural to play a curmudgeon businessman. He had a rare talent that modern folks can't possibly know. This is probably one we should seek out.
I've seen parts of this movie but never the whole thing. It runs occasionally on the cable movie channels. I'll have to keep an eye out for it and DVR it next time.
So no one has heard or seen of the movie i mentioned in my first post? I figured since of all the movies and shows listed here, that a movie with BOTH models and 1:1 scale would be well known. Especially since the movie is all about trains, not actors.
Come on folks, scratch them noggins one more time. Someone has to know about this movie. Saw it as a kid, but would like to see it now as an adult.
JWhite ACY One I haven't seen is "It Happened To Jane", from the mid 1950's. I don't think trains are the central focus, but the film includes footage of the last New Haven steam loco, a Mikado that was scrapped shortly after her movie role. Tom It's been a long time since I've seen it but actually the train is the central focus of the movie. Doris Day runs a lobster business and the local railroad causes her to lose a shipment and the railroad run by Ernie Kovacs doesn't compensate her. She sues and Kovacs refuses to pay and she seizes the train, I don't remember if the sheriff seized it for her or the court awarded it, and Doris and her lawyer/boyfriend Tony Randall end up running the train to ship her lobsters. The New Haven Mike is one of the uncreditied co-stars.
Boyfriend is Jack Lemmon. Movie used to show on AMC every now and then. In one of the info sessions after the movie, Robert Osborn stated that Lemmon actually learned to fire the locomotive; and insisted on firing for the movie, as he enjoyed it.
Richard Dryfuss's character has a model railroad in "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind," until he becomes obsessed with making scenery. "The Station Agent" begins with the protagonist working in a hobby shop; which closes after the owner's demise. He inherits an old train station, but not much train action. "Polar Express" has a train as part of its story arc. James Garner played a conductor/brakeman on a TV movie with a railroad theme; movie was shot on the Texas State Railroad, but I can't remember the name of it.
tin can James Garner played a conductor/brakeman on a TV movie with a railroad theme; movie was shot on the Texas State Railroad
The Long Summer of George Adams 1982 From New York Times:
"James Garner's longtime Rockford Files colleague directed this Saroyanesque 1982 TV movie. George Adams (Garner) is a railroad steam-engine handyman in Cushing, Oklahoma, circa 1952. Increasing reliance upon the diesel engine has rendered George's job obsolete; the only employment he can find is as a night watchman, which subjects him to ridicule from the community. George struggles to hold his home and family together, despite such roadblocks as a tattered relationship with his wife (JOAN HACKETT), a brief affair with the town temptress (Anjanette Comer), a fistic bout with the local business bigwig, and a nocturnal tussle with a gang of bank robbers. The Long Summer of George Adams was based on a novel by Weldon Hill. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi "
The railroad also appeared in Streets of Larado Mini-series where Garner played Captain Woodrow Call in 3 episodes, 1999
Texas State Railroad film site:
https://www.texasstaterr.com/film.php
Duplicate post
zstripe Medina1128 The Great Train Chase, Fess Parker Just a slight correction to the title.....It was ''The Great Locomotive Chase'' by Walt Disney 1956.....two Loco's General & Texas, during the civil war. Saw it downtown Chgo in the same year. Nothing like seeing it on a gigantic screen. Take Care! Frank
Medina1128 The Great Train Chase, Fess Parker
Thanks for the correction, Frank. I guess I should have Googled it before adding it. I was just using that cobweb ridden memory of mine.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Jerry Britton
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad's Middle Division in the early 1950s
http://pennsyrr.com
OK, so not exactly my favorite train movie of all time, not even remotely close. But I like the old SciFi movies and there was a train crash in it (a model) and nobody has mentioned it (no surprise).
Cheers! Rob