That out of wack movie was NBC's ATOMIC TRAIN. It made no sense. The locomotive and freight cars were strange and confusing due to Hollywood style invading British Columbia.
The best TV Series depiction was on the CBS Series "Early Edition". It was shot in Chicago and the trains were real and accurate. They were shown as dangerous if people were careless.
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Where do I begin
Lots of good documentarys turn up on local PBS from time to time. Great Railway Journeys Of The World, being one.
I can run off a laundry list of crap. Supertrain-pure 70s TV CRA*P! Supposed to be Loveboat on rail, more like garbagescow on skids.
Atomic Train has to be the single worst though, complete drivel.
Have fun with your trains
All movies
Has anyone ever seen a movie or tv show where a train slams into a car or truck (or person) and then
stops? or at least goes into 'emergency'? They all just keep going..
--Best portrayal in a movie: Bound for Glory
Rich
"Broken Arrow"
Wonder what Christan Slater is hanging onto under the QTTX flat car when the Travolta's bad guys are looking for him.
I looked, and still cant find one with a platform under there...and still wonder why, when they cut the cars away, nothing goes into emergency.
And the cattle car is great...see those all the time, right?
Great for all your nuclear war head transportation needs.
23 17 46 11
Emergency was good for little gaffs like that - the fire apparatus sometimes changed sirens mid-response!
Petticoat Junction - The real Sierra RR, portrayed as - a railroad. No gimmicks or anything else. Some comic bits, of course, but nothing outlandish.
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...
At least in the TV show NUMB3RS, they explain why you can't stop a train instantly. It also portrays MOST engineers as responsible, caring people.
edblysard wrote: "Broken Arrow" Wonder what Christan Slater is hanging onto under the QTTX flat car when the Travolta's bad guys are looking for him. I looked, and still cant find one with a platform under there...and still wonder why, when they cut the cars away, nothing goes into emergency. And the cattle car is great...see those all the time, right? Great for all your nuclear war head transportation needs.
silicon212 wrote:How about the 1986 movie "Tough Enough" with the SP 4449?
I think you mean Tough Guys. That's a definate classic, but steam in the 80s.....
Ready for some noob input? How about the 1994 movie "The War" with Kevin Costner? It's set in 1970 Mississippi mind you. About 20 min. into the movie in one scene, I could have sworn the locomotive that went by was an "NS" gp38 high-hood. Have to agree also.."Emporer of the North" was a great movie.
One of the worst, Money Train, a stupid movie. There is one more that I can't remember the name of it, it had Steven Sagal (sp?) as a cook in the train, at the end he outran the explosion from a head on collison.
Bert
An "expensive model collector"
chad thomas wrote: silicon212 wrote:How about the 1986 movie "Tough Enough" with the SP 4449? I think you mean Tough Guys. That's a definate classic, but steam in the 80s.....
n012944 wrote: One of the worst, Money Train, a stupid movie. There is one more that I can't remember the name of it, it had Steven Sagal (sp?) as a cook in the train, at the end he outran the explosion from a head on collison. Bert
That Segal turd was Under Seige 2 Dark Territory, Which was incredibly stupid and now that I think of it, likely the WORST thing trainwise ever purported to be cinema ...
vsmith wrote: n012944 wrote: One of the worst, Money Train, a stupid movie. There is one more that I can't remember the name of it, it had Steven Sagal (sp?) as a cook in the train, at the end he outran the explosion from a head on collison. Bert That Segal turd was Under Seige 2 Dark Territory, Which was incredibly stupid and now that I think of it, likely the WORST thing trainwise ever purported to be cinema ...
Thats the one I was thinking of.
I think in "Tough Guys" they said it was the final run of the train...I don't remember if it was supposed to have been steam-powered all along, or if they brought the steam engine out just for that final run??
In "Bound for Glory" there's a scene of Woody Guthrie (played by David Carradine, who was maybe 10" too tall) coming out of a 1930's hobo camp and hopping a train of 60' high cube boxcars from the 1960's-70's.
There was a Charles Bronson movie...don't remember the name, but it was about fighters in New Orleans in the 1930's - yet in the opening scene, he arrives on a train pulled by I think an SW-1500 diesel switcher.
In one of Hitchcock's early c.1933 UK films, someone reaches down and by pulling a lever disconnects several passenger cars from the train. The railway it was filmed on went to some lengths to inform people that it really wasn't that easy to uncouple a train on their line!! BTW the British film "The Titfield Thunderbolt" is good.
"Emperor of the North" is generally very very good. OK a couple of wood freight cars are in paint schemes 10-15 too new for the era, and a 2-8-0 is a little unlikely to be running a passenger train, but still it's got some great realistic scenes in it. Plus everyone goes by their 'moniker' or job name (hoghead, shack) and not actual names.
Unfortunately "Danger Lights" is hard to find on video or DVD in it's complete length - somebody bought the rights to it a while back and made a "railfan edition" version that only included the scenes with trains, thereby destroying the story. It was actually a pretty good movie and was filmed on location on the Milwaukee Road's electric and steam lines in 1930, one of the very first sound movies shot on location. The bit about the young engineer getting his foot caught in the switch points is a little goofy though, as is the race to Chicago to save his life. Couldn't they have stopped at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN on the way from Montana??
I kind of remember in a $6,000,000 Man show there was a forest fire and and he couldn't outrun the fire. ( strange for a man who could pull a hellicopter down and not have his feet come off the ground ) He and some woman found an old logging loco ( I think it was a Shay? ) and managed to fire it and get enough steam to run it through the fire.The Emperor of the North allso had an strange rout from Cottage Grove to Portland, Oregon through Corvallis? If you ever watch it, take note of how slow they are going vs. how fast the sound of the crossing bell sound goes by, for crossing that are not there, and how many times the wistle is blown for them. We were wondering too, just when it was that crossing bells were commonly installed vs. the era the movie is set in? But it is fun to watch and see the things in the movie that I can remember being in Cottage Grove in the '70s and '80s that aren't there now, like the whole OP&E RR.
wjstix wrote: BTW the British film "The Titfield Thunderbolt" is good.
BTW the British film "The Titfield Thunderbolt" is good.
I had forgotten all about that-caught it on the late show a zillion years ago (now 99 cable stations are on 24 hours but do you think anyone will play any movies anymore-NOOOOOO just those dratted infomercials... Ugh! Thus ends today's sermon) and it was great.
One I didn't see mentioned so far-another Charles Bronson movie, I believe it was Breakheart Pass which I've only seen in bits and pieces, never all at once. Great movie on the D&RGW narrow gauge (if I recall aright) but every change of scene was accompanied by an almost constantly blowing whistle. You'd think there were more grade crossings in the middle of the Colorado Rockies than the middle of Appleton, Wisconsin (inside joke).
I liked Silver Streak. Realistic? Nope... not in the least. Jill Clayburgh was enough to make any man jump between passenger cars!
Erik
erikthered wrote:I liked Silver Streak. Realistic? Nope... not in the least. Jill Clayburgh was enough to make any man jump between passenger cars! Erik
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
tree68 wrote: Emergency was good for little gaffs like that - the fire apparatus sometimes changed sirens mid-response!
It was also the birthplace of smokeless interior fire, so the cameras could show the actors.
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