secondhandmodeler wrote:Bobby Bacala's trains in the Sopranos. It is shown in a somewhat negative light though. Everybody makes fun of him for playing with trains. I guess it is the contrast of a mafia captain having a softer side. Which is what the Sopranos is generally about.
Yea, and it was too bad that he had to get cut down in the New Jersey train shop, especially when he fell on the display layout too! OUCH!
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
CSI had a multi-episode arc around tracking down a bizarre killer that made exact replica models of crime scenes (down to every subtitle detail). One of the suspects was an avid model railroader, and his layout filled his house. Unfortunately, the character turned out to be yet another bad stereotype: Strange old man living alone and surrounded by nothing but trains (and eventually killing himself).
The mainstream media seems to have a very bad impression of this hobby.
MAbruce wrote:CSI had a multi-episode arc around tracking down a bizarre killer that made exact replica models of crime scenes (down to every subtitle detail). One of the suspects was an avid model railroader, and his layout filled his house. Unfortunately, the character turned out to be yet another bad stereotype: Strange old man living alone and surrounded by nothing but trains (and eventually killing himself).The mainstream media seems to have a very bad impression of this hobby.
True to an extent about the stereotype, but it turned out the real killer was one of the numerous foster kids he and his wife had taken in over the years, IIRC he was living alone because he was a widower not a wacko. He did a videotape confession and then killed himself hoping the cops would stop the investigation and find out his foster daughter was the killer.
BTW I believe the Soprano's "Blue Comet" episode was filmed at Train World in Brooklyn.
The short lived Ellery Queen show had a large model railroad, 3 rail Lionel IIRC, in one episode.
Enjoy
Paul
Uhmmm....Addams Family?
Someone said Ted Danson in Becker has an F unit on the shelf in his office.
In an episode of "A Touch of Frost" a British detective series, a middle aged man has a nice OO layout in a seperate building. Sadly he is shot while " playing" with trains....also not good.
There is another British Mystery series where the murderer has a layout, can't remember the name. You are right... We do'nt look very good. Jerry
Myth Busters ran a test to see if you would get sucked into a speeding train. They hit a hobby shop in LA, brought home some large scale locomotives and tested them in a wind tunnel before heading trackside. Myth was busted, the air pushed ahead of the loco would blow the dummy over but no suction effect.
Desperate Housewives also had a show where the new next door guy had a basement full of trains. He was some kind of sicko so it made the whole hobby look bad.......
Robby Modeling the L&N CV Subdivision in 1978 http://s226.photobucket.com/albums/dd247/robby-ky/CV%20Subdivision%20Layout/
Some of you may have a hard time believing this but:
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azcaban had a small HO or N scale train set blacked out in the foreground. It appears to be a Thomas the Tank Engine set running in a clockwise direction. It is visible for 5 seconds before being cut of by the camera. I think its at the part where Harry learns the spell to repell Dementors.
any info to back this up would be nice.
For you postwar Lionel fans, remember a comedy show in the early 60's (I think), called The Addams Family: Gomez (played by John Astin) was always crashing Lionel trains into one another on what I vaguely remember as a pretty sizeable layout. I remember him using a ZW to control the trains. Also, remember a movie called Risky Business, an early Tom Cruse flick. He had a great Lionel postwar layout in the family room of his house. Lionel trains were very pervasive in the fifties, on shows like Jackie Gleason, another movie called A Holiday Affair, with Robert Mitchum, etc. etc. Geez, you'd think I hung around Hollywood movie sets and tv studios, wouldn't you. I guess I just used to watch too much TV.
Actually,
The train from Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban was a Hornby Clockwork train.
Lets not forget Cecil B Demille's Union Pacific used models of wreck and action sceanes. As well as his movie "Greatest Show in the World", where the first section of a circus train (animals and freight) is stopped by a falre and robbed, with the brakeman killed, so when the engine whistled for him to flag the second section (the performers) he could not, which is why the second section rearended the first.
The Greatest Show in the World wreck has been posted on youtube. Its pretty spectacular.
A local tv talk show interviewed the owner of my LHS and he had an MTH General from his store running around the chairs (the camera focused on the train more than the people), pulling an assortment of Lionel 0-27 and MTH Railking cars.
Cheese
Nick! :)
In the movie The Day The Earth Stood Still, Bobby (the kid in the movie) has a train layout on a sheet of plywood under his bed, and when Klattu (the alien) knocks on Bobby's bed room door and asks to barrow a flashlight and sees it, he tells him to remind him tomorrow to tell him about the trains where he comes from that don't need tracks...
I sure hope they do a modern remake of that movie and don't screw it up!.
Tracklayer
I forgot to mention that there was an O scale layout in Stuart Little. It looked well detailed too.
BTW the Hornby model makes more sense because i think its a British model.
I can't recall the name of the movie, but it might have been made in the 50's or 60's but I think Cary Grant was in it but not sure, and they had these "O" scale trains (I think they were Lionel) running all over the one floor level of this big house, and they had made "tunnel cutouts" in the baseboard and walls for the trains to go from one room to the other.
I remember seeing the movie, but it's been years ago.
Anyone recall this movie?????
TheK4Kid
I do know that the late actor-singer Frank Sinatra was big model railroad fan, and had quite a layout in his home, and I think they also had one in his TV show years ago, it was a Lionel setup.
The lead character in the TV show "Silver Spoons" had a live steamer in his living room.
The movie "The Station Agent" is about a hobby shop employee who inherits a train station when his boss dies.
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
There is the Christmas movie where an apparent vagrant purchases a train set (a very expensive Lionel Passenger set), for the little boy of a widow. The little boy tries to take it back to the store but it gets broken in the elevator, so he gets to meet Mr. Macy. They show the Macy's train layout a couple times and the set on the floor of the widow's appartment.
Then there is the "A Christmas Story" opening scene with the trains in the store window along with the Red Rider BB gun.
"Different Strokes" never had a layout, but they always had LGB trains on the shelves of the boy's room.
"Family Ties" had an episode where the father was trying to get Alex interested in trains. In the story he had Lionel trains as a child and thought Alex should have the same experience. However he purchased N-scale so when he introduced the "mighty locomotive" holding it between his thumb and fore finger it got a lot of laughs.
nickl02 wrote:he proclaimed "i'm model railroading"
Tracklayer wrote: In the movie The Day The Earth Stood Still, Bobby (the kid in the movie) has a train layout on a sheet of plywood under his bed, and when Klattu (the alien) knocks on Bobby's bed room door and asks to barrow a flashlight and sees it, he tells him to remind him tomorrow to tell him about the trains where he comes from that don't need tracks... I sure hope they do a modern remake of that movie and don't screw it up!.Tracklayer
I sure hope they DON'T do a modern remake. Every remake I've ever seen has been a dismal failure, and this would be one also. This movie is one of the best Si-Fi movies ever filmed. They also show a great still shot of the Santa Fe Chief.
Dick
Texas Chief
Gandy Dancer wrote: There is the Christmas movie where an apparent vagrant purchases a train set (a very expensive Lionel Passenger set), for the little boy of a widow. The little boy tries to take it back to the store but it gets broken in the elevator, so he gets to meet Mr. Macy. They show the Macy's train layout a couple times and the set on the floor of the widow's appartment.Then there is the "A Christmas Story" opening scene with the trains in the store window along with the Red Rider BB gun. "Different Strokes" never had a layout, but they always had LGB trains on the shelves of the boy's room."Family Ties" had an episode where the father was trying to get Alex interested in trains. In the story he had Lionel trains as a child and thought Alex should have the same experience. However he purchased N-scale so when he introduced the "mighty locomotive" holding it between his thumb and fore finger it got a lot of laughs.
The Christmas movie is called "A Holliday Affair". It starred Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum and Wendell Corey and the train was a Lionel Santa Fe F3 A-A set with 4 Madison heavyweight passenger cars with the name "Red Rocket Express" on them. Great movie!!
CPRail modeler wrote: I forgot to mention that there was an O scale layout in Stuart Little. It looked well detailed too.BTW the Hornby model makes more sense because i think its a British model.
The layout in Stuart Little was a large scale layout with LGB equipment. I saw a Santa Fe F7 A and B pulling a few, maybe 2 or 3, cars, and maybe a caboose.
A still shot overlooking the layout in a Stuart Little book I had (Called "Stuarts Photo Album" or something like that) show some more cars sitting on the layout and if I recall, and LGB Mogul, or maybe it was just the tender.