this morning's paper had a brief item about a new tv series on AMC. It is called (with due regard to the naughty word filter on this forum) "Heck on Wheels." Supposedly it involves the Transcontinental Railroad, or as some highly placed person would call it, the intercontinental railroad.
This being cable TV I suspect that the trains will play a relatively minor role and that for a variety of reasons the characters will feel sudden needs to take their clothes off, but I have to think there will be some rail scenes that have already been filmed. Anyone know inside info? The Golden Spike locomotives as well as the newly built Leviathan would seem good candidates for key scenes if the series is to be in any way authentic.
Dave Nelson
"Hell On Wheels" was either a book title or magzine article title in the mid-20th Century about the Transcontental Railroad. (It also occurs to me that it was a quote from someone who witnessed the actual building of the Transcontental railroad in 1869 and used often to describe the situation.) But not about trains. Rather it described how the makeshift towns which erupted at end of track duirng construction evolved and prospered, some even remaining as permanent towns after contstruction moved further west. But the title reffered to the fact that these towns consisted of saloons and brothels, and were noted for the birth of the term "red light district". When crew callers, either construction or railroad, went out to find crews they looked for their red lanterns hung outside the tent or wagon of the purveyor of companionship. When the railhead moved further west, so did the town...all bundled up in its wagons moving to the new end of track...thus the Hell on Wheels designation.
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Period railroad equipment on a friendly short line for scene shooting is not readily available. Will computer animation be involved?
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