worst or best potrayals of railroads in movies/tv shows

[Anonymous]

In some old B movie from the 40's, I think, there's this fist fight going on in a depot between the depot agent and the bad guy.  Someone gets thrown against the order board levers, moving them, and the result is that a switch gets thrown outside the depot.  (??)  Of course there's a train coming too.  High drama.

[UPTRAIN]

My favorites are Silver Streek and Von Ryan's Express. I agree that Atomic Train was an Atomic Bomb. As for Runaway Train, what's with the GP-7s on AAR Trucks instead of Blomberg Trucks?

ARR ordered them riding on Alco trucks.

I think the best one was The Fugitive with Harrison Ford, filmed on the Great Smokey Mountains Railroad where as I understand it, actually ran over a bus and actually ran the train off a spur.  The rolling stock was too old, but the motive power was in the neighborhood of correct, a U25B (?) and a high nose GP30 on the fictional "Illinois Southern".  I can deal with old units secondhand on a railroad such as that, I would railfan it, lol.  I also liked Runaway Train, the NUMB3RS Episode, and anything made by Pentrex! 

Bombs were Atomic Train, End of the Line, Tough Guys...the other mentioned awful ones.

[gardendance]

I liked Silver Streak.  Realistic? Nope... not in the least.  Jill Clayburgh was enough to make any man jump between passenger cars!

Erik

I reckon  the movie: "Murder on the Orient Express" based on the Agatha Christie murder mystery novel of the same name was excellent.  I'm not an Orient Express expert but it sure looked authentic!  Great "atmosphere" - a train trapped deep in snow drifts in central Europe with high drama inside!  Albert Finney did a great job as the detective Hercule Poirot!

Dave

Loved that one, too! Some of the best shots of a moving train that I've ever seen on the silver screen. I'll agree with you about Albert Finney but the star of that all star cast, to me, had to have been Lauren Bacall-I'd pay to watch a film of her crossing the street. Always thought she was a class act.

Why are you guys paying attention to Jill Clayburgh and Lauren Bacall? We're railfans. Need I remind you that being nuts about railroads means you'd rather see a moving string of G's than a moving G-string? I'll explain that Pennsylvania Railroad electric locomotive reference upon request.

A couple of folks mentioned Petticoat Junction. That show often sets my mind down an interesting train of thought. I remember hearing a stand-up comic trying to make a joke about Petticoat Junction, he complained that the ladies were bathing in the water tower and contaminating the town's drinking water. I'd suspect that it was the railroad's water, intended for the locomotives. Once upon a time our railroads supplied better quality water for their locomotives than most people drank, and in the movie Back to the Future part 3 our heroes multi-great grandmother offers him some water. When she pours it into his glass the water's brown. And the movie winds up turning a steam locomotive into a time machine.

Nobody's mentioned trolleys in movies. Who's seen Malcolm? It's set in Melbourne Australia, with a few minutes at the end somewhere in Portugal, with plenty of trolley action, including some nice models in the title characters home.

[WP 3020]

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Big mistake:  In "Groundhog Day", there are modern stack carriers rolling by on a train even though it is set in the 1960s.

The movie JFK had a stack train too, in Dalas.

[WP 3020]

My favorites are Silver Streek and Von Ryan's Express. I agree that Atomic Train was an Atomic Bomb. As for Runaway Train, what's with the GP-7s on AAR Trucks instead of Blomberg Trucks?

They were X Alaska RR GP7s 1804 $ 1810. ARR GP7s originally had AAR type A switcher trucks then were upgraded to AAR  type B road trucks. I don't recall if the trucks were changed before, during or after they got chopped short hoods by Paducah.
http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails/LocoImages/Loco-1804.html
One other thing. Maybe it's just me, but if I were riding in a train, I think I'd notice a pickup truck flying over the train and the sound of a body landing on top. But maybe that happens all the time where that train goes.