I just saw a movie that does not have trains at all. "The House on 92nd Street," a thriller about the Eff Bee Eye fighting sinister Nazis before and during WW2. What you do see are streetcars in Washington, D.C. Lisbon and New York City, at Columbus Circle and on 59th Street. Some very clear shots of them, too. Maybe Dave Klepper could identify them? Also, there are scenes of the Hamburg elevated railway and a shot of J. Edgar himself.
You could do that with a film like Ratatouille. Aside from a rat being a chef, restaurant staff have told me that the kitchen culture is dead on. Also totally accurate French cars such as the bad guy's Facel Vega. The thing is, the film has credibility in it's own way.
rrnut282 You hear the same howling about movies over on the airplane sites.
You hear the same howling about movies over on the airplane sites.
Everything, really. Lawyers point out the problems in lawyer shows, doctors in medical dramas, whatever. Take a movie like The Martian. Very well made and very accurate. But there's dozens of things someone could nitpick. TV and movie writers are experts at telling a story, not making documentaries.
I had the impressionn that the game was played in a drawing room that was occupied by at least one of the card players.
Johnny
54light15I recently watched "The Sting." Did trains back then really have "card rooms?"
Cards and railroading are not mutually exclusive.
A Pullman Conductor hosting a regular card game in a unused Pullman accomidation would not be beyond the realm of possibility. Pullman Conductors stayed with the train from origin to destination. Railroad Conductors changed out at crew change locations.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I recently watched "The Sting." Did trains back then really have "card rooms?"
I've seen stuff too, but just tune it out and watch the train. I know a friend who saw Unstoppable said physics would never allow that train to go around a curve like that with wheels up. I agree, but it was exciting to watch anyway. I guess I am easy to please. ha ha And I did not know any sleepers ever had keys, used to wonder about leaving our stuff in the bedroom, but never had a problem. But the Pullman porter was always watching who came in the car. And now on Amtrak, the attendant keeps watch too. But something could be stolen by another passenger, so I always keep my suitcase locked just in case.
longhorn1969Ever since I was a kid and saw this movie (help me become an Amtrak fan) I never understood what exactly were the track gang trying to do? Support the track?
Human gauge bars. Or the moral equivalent.
When I enlisted in the Air Force in 1961 we were transported to San Antonio on the Sunset Limited in our own sleeper. NO KEYs for the room doors
lidgerwoodplow In one of the Spaghetti Westerns, Lee Van Cleef disembarks from a European train (4-wheel cars)—in Tucumcari, New Mexico.
In one of the Spaghetti Westerns, Lee Van Cleef disembarks from a European train (4-wheel cars)—in Tucumcari, New Mexico.
longhorn1969 Talking about Hollywood who can forget this gem? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGNMbFCUKec Go 1:16:30sec . Ever since I was a kid and saw this movie (help me become an Amtrak fan) I never understood what exactly were the track gang trying to do? Support the track? Thats what the nails in the ties were for. I have been in a F40 cab, I really don't think engineers sat that far back from the control stand that the engineer can slam brakes close with his foot.
Talking about Hollywood who can forget this gem?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGNMbFCUKec
Go 1:16:30sec . Ever since I was a kid and saw this movie (help me become an Amtrak fan) I never understood what exactly were the track gang trying to do? Support the track? Thats what the nails in the ties were for.
I have been in a F40 cab, I really don't think engineers sat that far back from the control stand that the engineer can slam brakes close with his foot.
The camera angle isn't the best, but it looks to me like he's using his foot to close the throttle. That's after he appears to release the independent and then release the automatic, which looked like it was already in either handle off or the emergency position.
I read once that when the RI got new diesels, I think the U25B order of the early 60s, that the control stand layout had engineers using their foot to close the throttle when hanging out the window looking back for signals and manipulating the brake valve(s) when making shoving moves. They called it "tap dancing the throttle".
Jeff
Convicted OneWell,.....you know how "trendy" real estate can be. Once demand for a location is established, then "everybody" wants to go there.
Thanks for that! Funny as hell!
But aside, Narrow Margin is well worth seeing with the incomparable Marie Windsor, the best Femme Fatale of all time!
All I know about Jane Fonda, is that the Orgasmatron scene in Barberella, still works as good for me at 65, as it did when I was 15.
longhorn1969Talking about Hollywood who can forget this gem? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGNMbFCUKec Go 1:16:30sec . Ever since I was a kid and saw this movie (help me become an Amtrak fan) I never understood what exactly were the track gang trying to do? Support the track? Thats what the nails in the ties were for. I have been in a F40 cab, I really don't think engineers sat that far back from the control stand that the engineer can slam brakes close with his foot.
Talk about a hoot!
54light15. The real thing is, was a train attempting to reach Bastogne in 1944?
Well,.....you know how "trendy" real estate can be. Once demand for a location is established, then "everybody" wants to go there.
I actually encounter a lot of movies with pretty good train sequences in them. Movies you hardly if ever see mentioned here on this forum. The 1952 movie "Narrow Margin" for example. Or the 1954 Frank Sinatra classic "Suddenly".
At times I consider posting reference to such movies here, just to see how others might enjoy them also, rather than just continuing to drag out the same handful of movies over and over again just to complain about the same inconsistencies as was mentioned last time. But then I remember that these perennial critics actually derive their pleasure from raining on someone elses parade, so I don't bother out of concern that their responses might just sour the movie for me as well. "Better not to know" sometimes?
It's been at least 50 years since I saw the film, but I sure don't recall seeing a steam locomotive in it. Some flatcars with artillery on them but that's all. I could be wrong, however. The real thing is, was a train attempting to reach Bastogne in 1944?
The Battle of the Bulge when it started the Germans had enough fuel to do a nonstop attack against us for 100 hours. They needed to reach Antwerp in that timeframe. If they failed the entire attack failed.
54light15came through a tunnel and the tank blasted its boiler and it blew up with a cloud of steam. I was nine years old and I knew that was nonsense.
Just watched "Battle of the Bulge" twice this weekend. What is it exactly about that sequence you find hard to believe?
Yes, there is caternary above the track, but the locomotive is definitely a reciprocating piston steam engine....chugging smokestack, steam whistle, the whole 9 yards.
I doubt seriously that the tank would have survived the ordeal, but the movie never shows anything beyond the smoke and steam billowing out of the tunnel, so either way they leave that to the imagination.
I had a harder time with the movie's claim of a 50 hour "game clock" marshalling the action. The real battle spanned over weeks.
I had two uncles that fought it that battle. One was serving under Patton, the other was part of the American detachment serving under Montgomery. The two "found" each other in the same foxhole, after months apart. That seems harder to believe to me, but it happened.
Well, I was fooling around on the You Tube last night, and found a REAL anachronism.
It was a premiere episode of the 1964 TV series "Peyton Place." It starts with one of the characters coming home on a train to the aforementioned town, and there's a great run-by shot of the passenger train, pulled by a steam engine.
In 1964. Don't we wish?
The 1937 Super Chief was all Pullman.
That was the way to travel! To have a brand-new Cord 812 to run around California in would have made it even better!
54light15Back to Hollywood. I just watched "Something to Sing About" with the always-superb Jimmy Cagney. It's filmed in 1937 and he takes what I assume is the Super Chief to Los Angeles. It has early EMD power in the Santa Fe Warbonnet scheme and stainless-steel coaches too. A great film, like all of Cagney's.
The film "Union Station" with William Holden was filmed at Los Angeles and also in the Chicago underground freight railway in later scenes.
Just saw a rerun of "Criminal Minds", the second episode with Frank and Jane. The train station is supposed to be Washington but the scenes were actually shot in LA Union Station and it's pretty obvious. My wife and I went through LA Union Station last year on our circle trip and she recognized LA without any trouble, either.
Back to Hollywood. I just watched "Something to Sing About" with the always-superb Jimmy Cagney. It's filmed in 1937 and he takes what I assume is the Super Chief to Los Angeles. It has early EMD power in the Santa Fe Warbonnet scheme and stainless-steel coaches too. A great film, like all of Cagney's.
Recall how he dances down the stairs in "Yankee Doodle Dandy?" He does that in this film and then dances UP the stairs. There's also a scene of him dancing on a floor keyboard just like Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia in "Big." Must have been the inspiration for that.
OvermodWhat ALCO locomotive is that? I only remember MLW units being used (and a pathetic waste of perfectly good locomotives, too!) and there ARE important differences.
Gotta give you that one. Although about the only place you'll see MLW is on the builder's plates - everything else says "ALCO." Same with the RS18u's on the Adirondack.
MWHA 642, nee MWHA 2042, nee BCR 642. Probably the only repainted DL locomotive not in DL's grey and white. There are still several other MLWs on the line still in BCR green and green.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
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