Atomic Train Movie

[Anonymous]

I remember watching Atomic Train on TV. Undeniably, the single worst train movie of all time. Period. When I was watching it, there was some guy who was "hosting" the movie and made brief appearances before and after commercial breaks. In one of these appearances, he said that in the past, Rob Lowe had written a screenplay about railroads and that as a result, knew more about trains than anyone else working on the movie. Considering how it turned out, that knowledge must have been extremely limited. A six-year-old that's into Thomas The Tank Engine probably knows more about trains than whoever wrote the script for this stinker.

There is one scene from that movie that sticks in my mind. In it, some big general and other guys grom the Pentagon are going to see the dispatcher to discuss the situation. The dispatcher is sitting at the CTC board when the general and guys come in. The dialogue goes like this:

Dispatcher: Know anything about trains, general?

General: (Trying really hard to do a Jack Nicholson "You can't handle the truth" voice.) They run on tracks, don't they?

Dispatcher: (Pauses. Then looks away, speaking slowly with fear.) On good days...

QUOTE: Originally posted by gabe


I think there was also a Hogans Heroes episode to that effect, but I am barely old enough to remember it.

Bottom line, it is no more cool to blow up a bridge with a train with a crew on it than it is to blow up a bridge with cars and drivers on it.

As a big fan of Hogan's Heroes, I'd like to just set the record straight about some things. There are numerous episodes of the show that involve the heroes blowing up trains (they also blew up many factories, etc.). The messge here is not that it's really cool to blow stuff up for fun. They're fighting a war and there are reasons for doing this. In war, there are many casualties. It's not pretty, but it's a fact of life. Sure, it is very sad that the train crew was probably killed. But, you also have to think of the fact that the train was carrying vital supplies and ammunition for the German war effort that, if delivered, certainly wouldn't have been very good for the Allies and would have probably led to many thousands of deaths. The importance of railroads on both sides during WWII cannot be overestimated. On bombing missions, railway yards were always high-priority targets. People involved in the Resitance Movement performed many tasks simmilar to those on Hogan's Heroes and certainly blew up many trains. These people risked their own lives doing this and in doing so helped win the war.

But, I also have to say that Hogan's Heroes was definitely not very accurate when it came to showing trains. I can think of only one episode where a German train is actually shown. A couple of times, a Lima Berkshire was shown (at night). The most common train footage used was of a train (also at night) that I think might be Australian (hard to tell), but certainly wasn't German, anyway. The worst was one episode where they used footage of an SP GS-4 in broad daylight! Whenever a train was blown up, they used the same footge of what is definetly a North American train getting blown to bits.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheAntiGates
[br
Hey, did any of you guys see "War of the Worlds"? I got news for ya,...flying saucers don't fly like that, ....

Sorry I lost my tickets to the annual Area 51Airshow last weekend so I missed the flying saucer flyby..can you tell me just how does a flying saucer fly [?]

Ah ha! I already know the answer, they fly just like Santa Claus....[;)]

Are you referring to the 1950's version of WotW or the new one where Tom Cruise cruise tries to defeat the aliens by converting them to Scientology...[;)]

I thought the 50's version was outstanding given its time and place, and the explaination of what supports the Martian war machines (there NOT flying saucers as they dont "fly") was scientificly plausable, at least far more plausable than the stuff of contemporary or even later sci fi storylines.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith



Are you referring to the 1950's version of WotW or the new one where Tom Cruise cruise tries to defeat the aliens by converting them to Scientology...[;)]

heh, now THAT would be a novel twist to the plot [8)]


I dunno man, I've seen hollywood murder the truth so often, it almost seems comical to see folks "calling out" hollywood for the inaccuracies of a movie.

"IT" is "WHAT" hollywood does for a living, yanno? they are in the fantasy business.

Just like Dorothy said to toto: "those munchkins in west hollywood seemed kinda masculine to be women, something tells me we're not in kansas anymore"..

[csxengineer98]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheAntiGates

**Atomic Train was the most embarrasing movie with a railroad theme that I have had the displeasure of witnessing, **

Hey, did any of you guys see "War of the Worlds"? I got news for ya,...flying saucers don't fly like that, If you saw 'Beverly Hills Cop" - cops really aren't that clever (or dedicated) and if you saw "Bad Santa" well I hate to tell you this,.. but there ain't no such thing as santy claus...

IT's HOLLYWOOD we are talking about here...they've been known to stretch the truth for a storyline a few thousand times before... lighten up..

war of the worlds where not flying saucers..they where ground attact mechines...and if thier is life out thier in the deep cold darkness of space..thier is nothing saying that some other alien race dosnt have war mechines that look like that....lol
csx engineer

[Murphy Siding]

If there's life out there in the deep dark cold darkness of space....there nothing saying that some other alien race doesn't have trains that operate like the ones in Atomic Train.[;)]

[csxengineer98]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding

If there's life out there in the deep dark cold darkness of space....there nothing saying that some other alien race doesn't have trains that operate like the ones in Atomic Train.[;)]

true..but i think the universal laws of physics wouldnt alow it...lol... since they tossed out all the physical laws regarding train dynmaics when makeing atomic train...the only way an "intelligent" race of ETs would be able to pull it off would be if it was bizzaro world...lol
csx engineer

[mustanggt]

Almost all train movies may suck, but video/PC games featuring them are at least slghtly better. Grand theft auto san andreas comes to mind, the only exception is that doors on engines in the game open on the sides like car doors- not front and back like on a real SD40/40-2/ whatever. still cool that they put drivable trains in the game[8D]

just my [2c]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheAntiGates

**Atomic Train was the most embarrasing movie with a railroad theme that I have had the displeasure of witnessing, **

Hey, did any of you guys see "War of the Worlds"? I got news for ya,...flying saucers don't fly like that, If you saw 'Beverly Hills Cop" - cops really aren't that clever (or dedicated) and if you saw "Bad Santa" well I hate to tell you this,.. but there ain't no such thing as santy claus...

IT's HOLLYWOOD we are talking about here...they've been known to stretch the truth for a storyline a few thousand times before... lighten up..

war of the worlds where not flying saucers..they where ground attact mechines...and if thier is life out thier in the deep cold darkness of space..thier is nothing saying that some other alien race dosnt have war mechines that look like that....lol
csx engineer

Well man, I worked for a property management firm whose specialty was hi-rise office buildings,...and the movie "Towering inferno" was just as crammed full of inaccuracies...I've known airline pilots personally, and they assure me that "auto-pilots" are not inflatable manform balloons as in the movie "Airplane", and does ANYBODY think christopher reeves could patch himself in with his leg, backbone and shoulder as a missing section of rail in the movie "Superman"? (gee, if he's so tough I wonder how they got the spikes hammered into the ties without bending them?) etc.

What you've got here is a group of fairly knowledgeable railroad folks complaining because they are more knowledgable than the skript writers even cared to be, because they were making a movie for mass consumption, and needed a STORY more than they needed accuracy..

If Accuracy was important to Hollywood they sure as heck could have afforded a consultant infinitely more knowledgeable than all the naysayers thusfar in this thread, combined.

[Union Pacific 3985]

adrianspeeder you're not alone.  since I watched with my dad 12 years ago when I was six years old, I loved Atomic Train.

[tree68]

Holy resurrected from the sub-sub-basement!

For the Record - BCR 642, which was used in the subject movie, is currently working in Utica, NY on MWHA, numbered 2042.  Saw it last week...

[MikeF90]

Just had to look this one up. Yup, definitely a "it's so bad, it's good" feature. An NBC Studios made-for-TV movie starring an all-star cast and some script writers who should be very, very ashamed. 

The IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144039/

PLENTY of clips on YouTube, for starters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBm6ZdBkHGc (trailer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuyUoELEBeo (great scenery)

Looks like NBC sold it to outlets in Sweden, Germany, etc.

Uh, oh, available on Amazon for $58, four copies left today:

http://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Train-Rob-Lowe/dp/1573626732/ref=sr_1_1

[M636C]

Was Stephen Seagal in "Atomic Train?"

He WAS in "Under Siege II" which used a set of cars modified by Colorado Railcar from SP gallery cars to look a bit like Superliners, and had "stunt hatches" to allow people to climb over the outside of the train.

That wasn't really accurate either, and obviously used models for the final scene.

M636C

[vsmith]

ATOMIC TRAIN

[cv_acr]

I enjoyed Atomic Train when it first came out because, well, it had trains in it and I was young and didn't know any better about the details then, although I still knew there was a bunch wrong, there always is. I just enjoyed watching the trains.

We taped it on VHS when it was aired on TV, although it aired in two parts and the second part didn't record properly. Oh well, that was after the derailment, so the train watching parts were over then...

I haven't seen it since.

[cacole]

Atomic Train is available on You Tube.

 

[Convicted One]

Anonymous

What you've got here is a group of fairly knowledgeable railroad folks complaining because they are more knowledgable than the skript writers even cared to be, because they were making a movie for mass consumption, and needed a STORY more than they needed accuracy..

 

How in the name of all that is good, did you get 285,000 posts here?

[Firelock76]

Someone mentioned "Emperor of the North" with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine?

I've seen it, it's a great train movie, but I've only watched it once.  Borgnines portrayal of "Shack" the conductor is so terrifying I just don't WANT to watch it again.

Ironic, because those who knew him said Ernest Borgnine was one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet, a real prince.  Shows what a good actor he was!

[Wizlish]

Convicted One

How in the name of all that is good, did you get 285,000 posts here?

surely you can figure that out!

For those who don't get the Convicted One's sarcasm, it's another incompetence of the IT "programmers" who wrote (or improperly maintained) some of the site code.  If users leave, or are banned, the software still needs to 'identify' the post with some sort of monicker or whatever.  When it can't find a valid identifier to a registered member, it defaults to 'anonymous', even though the site is registration-only to post and 'anonymous' shouldn't even be in the default options list.  Then the code that updates post count is too stupid to recognize that 'anonymous' is a catchall for a Very Large Number of orphan posts... and just tots and tots and tots it up.  This is not exactly GIGO, it's more like the old parable about the barrels of wine and sewage.

[BaltACD]

Convicted One

Anonymous

What you've got here is a group of fairly knowledgeable railroad folks complaining because they are more knowledgable than the skript writers even cared to be, because they were making a movie for mass consumption, and needed a STORY more than they needed accuracy..

How in the name of all that is good, did you get 285,000 posts here?

Anonymous gets assigned to all that have been banned and I guess all their posts get added together.

[thomas81z]

And on evilbay 

cacole

Atomic Train is available on You Tube.

 

 

cacole

Atomic Train is available on You Tube.

 

 

http://m.ebay.com/itm/190972583339?nav=SEARCH

[thomas81z]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000EXDSCU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1432409989&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=emperor+of+the+north&dpPl=1&dpID=51GFXW35DNL&ref=plSrch
DVD

[MikeF90]

Wizlish

For those who don't get the Convicted One's sarcasm, it's another incompetence of the IT "programmers" who wrote (or improperly maintained) some of the site code.

Actually, Anonymous logins were allowed in the past when the Kalmback forum software did not require a login account.

As for 'programmer incompetence', you must look a little further up the food chain. Kalmbach has a very small IT staff and no doubt has to purchase what software will be least expensive to maintain for its modest needs. Non-IT saavy management will often hire some overpriced consultant with a pretty sloppy 'statement of work', hence this current forum.

[Firelock76]

One of the Kalmbach people explained it a while back, I forget if it was on this Forum or the Classic Toys Trains one, but it was explained that there's a time limit on posters. If there's no activity from a poster for a certain length of time (I forget how long) the posters "nom de plume" is changed from whatever it was to "Anonymous."

No deep mystery here.

Oh, and "Anonymous" mentioned "Hogan's Heroes."  When I was a kid I loved that show, all the kids did.  However, one of my uncles, a World War Two Army Air Force vet absolutely HATED it.  Why?  Because it made the Germans look stupid.  NOT that he was a fan of the Germans, far from it.  He said the Germans weren't stupid, they were smart as whips and damn dangerous and the only reason we beat them was because they "ran out of fuel."  A bit of an over-simplification, but I could see what he was getting at. 

[tree68]

Firelock76

Because it made the Germans look stupid. 

A long-ago friend of the family was a POW in Germany.  While he didn't regard his captors as stupid, I believe he did say that the personnel staffing the POW camps weren't the sharpest tacks in the box (which is why they were at the camps and not on the front line).  I don't know that he lived long enough to see "Hogan's Heros", but I heard that he had said that Stalag 17 (the movie) was fairly accurate.

[Firelock76]

"Stalag 17" is a great film.  It should have been accurate, the two playwrights ( I forget their names) who wrote the play that became the movie were POW's in a German Stalag. 

I love "Stalag 17!"  "Animal" and Harry Shapiro are my heroes!  Steal every scene they're in!

As an aside, the crowd I ran with in school were all World War Two history buffs, and were fascinated by the various POW escape stories that came out of the war.  So much so we called the junior high school we attended (they call 'em middle schools now) "Stalag 17."  The high school was down the road a bit and on top of a hill.  We called it "Colditz Castle" when we got there.

[vsmith]

Anyone who watched Hogans Heroes and expected historical accuracy needs to smacked hard upside the head and told to "snap out of it". HH was a SITCOM, a silly 60's sitcom at that, the entire point was to make people laugh, anyone crying inaccuracies is like someone watching I Dream of Jennie and be-hitching that Nasa wasn't portrayed correctly or whining about inaccurate Railroad operations on Petticoat Junction, there TV shows, there not documentaries. I will say one thing HH did do right was to play up the Nutzies often hilariously uptight, officious and by-the-rules nature, and that many Nutzies were right off the farm and not the sharpest tools in the shed. It was the first media to portray the Nutzies in a manner to take the horror of the third retch and instead play up the aspects that made them laughable buffoons, which in some respects they were. Remember HH was two years *before* Mel Brooks put the goosestepping boot right into Hitlers groin with The Producers. HH helped demistify the Nutzies for millions of Americans and showed they were not all supermen but could be as stupid and major screwups like anyone. As Brooks says (paraphrasing) How do you deal with a monster like Hitler (nutzies), by mocking them incescently until they loose their teeth and your left with a short angry paperhanger with a silly moustache.

And Atomic Train was SO bad I wish I could neuralize it!

[ouibejamn]

Firelock76

"Stalag 17" is a great film.

Don't forget "The great Escape", another good POW movie.  Based on real events.  Several years ago on PBS some archeologists unearthed the escape tunnel at the old camp. All very interesting. Not the most talked about part of WWII, but still...

[ouibejamn]

Firelock76

"Stalag 17" is a great film.  It should have been accurate, the two playwrights ( I forget their names) who wrote the play that became the movie were POW's in a German Stalag. 

I love "Stalag 17!"  "Animal" and Harry Shapiro are my heroes!  Steal every scene they're in!

As an aside, the crowd I ran with in school were all World War Two history buffs, and were fascinated by the various POW escape stories that came out of the war.  So much so we called the junior high school we attended (they call 'em middle schools now) "Stalag 17."  The high school was down the road a bit and on top of a hill.  We called it "Colditz Castle" when we got there.

 

Firelock76

"Stalag 17" is a great film.

Don't forget "The great Escape", another good POW movie.  Based on real events.  Several years ago on PBS some archeologists unearthed the escape tunnel at the old camp. All very interesting. Not the most talked about part of WWII, but still...

[erikem]

ouibejamn

 

Firelock76

"Stalag 17" is a great film.

 

 

Don't forget "The great Escape", another good POW movie.  Based on real events.  Several years ago on PBS some archeologists unearthed the escape tunnel at the old camp. All very interesting. Not the most talked about part of WWII, but still...

 

 The story behind the "Great Escape" was talked about quite a bit in the years immediately following WW2. The December 1945 issue of Reader's Digest had a version of the story.

It's weird talking to my kids about WW2 as thay don't have anywhere near the same knowledge that my classmates and I had at their age. The big difference is that WW2 was their grandparents generation, where my dad and a good number of my friends' dads were WW2 vets.

- Erik

 

[ouibejamn]

erikem

The big difference is that WW2 was their grandparents generation, where my dad and a good number of my friends' dads were WW2 vets.

Yes. A quote from James Michener's book "Tales of the South Pacific", "Longer and longer shadows will obscure them, until their Guadalcanal sounds distant on the ear like Shiloh and Valley Forge".