Nice finds Becky, especially the Christmas card!
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Ah look Natasha! Moos and Sqvirrel!!!
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
There's another veteran character actor in "Suddenly" named Paul Frees. You may not recognize the name but listen to him closely when he speaks and you might just recognize the voice.
Frees was one of Hollywood's favorite "go-to" guys when it came to voice-overs and characterizations, especially for animated features. His most famous voice?
Boris Badenov!
Nashes seemed to be the most used police cars in old films like Suddenly. Most any film noir set in L.A. in the late 40s and early 50s, the cops drove Nashes.
I think it was "Suddenly" where I first really tuned into Willis Bouchey as an actor. Prior to that I always just saw him as some bit actor I had seen play gruff authority figures dozens of times, but never really paid attention to because usually he was just tangential to the actual script.
But after I saw him in Suddenly, I started taking more notice when I would see him elsewhere.
Whole movie right here, free of charge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MBLJcr-dt0
Those old Nash squadcars are kina spiffy too.
Good movie, "Suddenly!"
The "Black Widows" are cool, but what really surprised me was the rifle the assassin played so well by Sinatra was going to use, a German G-43 semi-automatic rifle. It's been called "Hitler's Garand." *
It's very unusual to see those rifles in any films, including war films.
* After the American M-1 rifle of WW2 fame, also called the "Garand," after it's inventor John C. Garand.
I always enjoyed seeing those SP Black Widows in the old Frank Sinatra movie "Suddenly".
And the CGI T-1 in the movie "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" was a pleasant yet unfortunately brief surprise.
It's possible Casey Jr.'s based on "Emma Nevada," but if that's the case it's very loosely based. "Emma's" a 2-6-0, Casey's a 2-4-0.
Just how much of "Emma" Walt Disney might have seen is questionable. Ward Kimball purchased "Emma" in 1938 for scrap value and began restoration that year, the engline wasn't fully operational again until 1942. "Dumbo" came out a year earlier.
All speculation on my part. Where there's NO speculation is the fact Walt was a railfan from way back, hence his insistance of live steam railroads at Disneyland and later at Disney World.
Anyway, here's the whole "Emma Nevada" story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_Flats_Railroad
Having seen the "Emma Nevada" up close several times, the resemblance may be fair at best. The coach behind Casey Jr strongly resembles Ward's C&C (SP ng) coach.
Ward Kimball's engine "Emma Nevada" was the model for Casey Jr. Walt Disney is suposed to have said "Make it like your engine, Ward".
SD70DudeThe water tank is closer to the firebox so the water can be preheated before being added to the boiler!
And the coal is more accessible to be used in the stove that no doubt goes with the short-wheelbase archbar truck on that passenger car...
Must be a wishful attempt at design improvement.
The water tank is closer to the firebox so the water can be preheated before being added to the boiler!
Penny Trains Why, and better yet HOW, do people keep putting tenders on backwards!?!?
Why, and better yet HOW, do people keep putting tenders on backwards!?!?
Yeah, that's a head scratcher, ain't it?
I guess Lionel didn't mind as long as the name was recognizable!
"Ahhhh-- you're a native Space-Time-rrr..."
Could work.
Of course the original song was NOT very flattering to native New Yorkers... or, in fact, male New Yorkers...
Another Buster Keaton classic is "Seven Chances" where you see vintage Los Angeles streetcars, trains, even a steam-powered railroad crane. Buster is being chased by thousands of women in wedding gowns through the dusty streets of 1920s L.A. Great stuff!
54light15 Buster Keaton's One Week- oh yeah! As classic as they get. Regarding Maigret, I am only familiar with the series with Michael Gambon. There's trains in several episodes and lots of old Citroens, my favourite car.
Buster Keaton's One Week- oh yeah! As classic as they get. Regarding Maigret, I am only familiar with the series with Michael Gambon. There's trains in several episodes and lots of old Citroens, my favourite car.
The Michael Gambon series was excellent. This Maigret was the original French-Belgian production with subtitles that ran many years, 1991-2005, with Bruno Cremer in the title role. Citroens, Peugeots. Renaults etc. + trains.
Anyone notice the firebox flash in Casey Jr.'s cab when he's working hard?
Nice little attention to detail there!
And just to show you how much trouble Lionel was in during the 60's even Gomez Addams couldn't get the public interested in Lionel products!
But there was still some true believers out there, thank goodness!
The late, great, cartoonist Walt Kelly of Pogo fame was an animator on Dumbo. He was a train buff too like Disney and Kimball. I wonder if the giraffe car was the inspiration for the Lionel giraffe car. Must have been.
I also like the attention to detail on the outside-braced wooden elephant car.
And the squared journal boxes, even if they don't have lids!
With respect to Dumbo, do note that the car behind "Casey Jr" is modeled on the Carson & Colorado car that Ward Kimball bought in the late 1930's. Ward and several other folks were very familiar with railroading.
Ok so it's TV, not a movie, but this has to be the absolute best use of model trains on screen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kS-vk9mPR8
And here's an interesting take, the engine is sentient and a character in the film, and some significant scenes take place onboard. Note how the Engineer carefully takes slack to start the obviously overtonnage train:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBTLH1rud5k
And at the end he forgets to bail off when setting the brakes, causing the slack to run in.
This is a little off the topic, and I know it's been mentioned before, but in the 1957 movie, "The Black Scorpion", a train is attacked and wrecked by the monster.
If you watch in slow motion, you can see the tender has "Lionel Lines" on it:
Here is the short clip from the movie. The train wreck starts about 5:40.
York1 John
Yeah I know, couldn't resist. Would perhaps wreck the tune but maybe make it ok for Physics class, or bring it into a whole new perspective.
My apologies regardless.
MiningmanOut there... somewhere in Space-Time
Vince, it's a song reference.
In the French TV series "Maigret" one episode entitled 'First Class Murder' takes place entirely on a halted train and station (a restored 1940s steam-powered train).
"Sandy Becker? Sonny Fox?"I grew up in the NY Tri-state area starting from the mid-1960s (having not existed before then) and I had no idea who those people were till I looked it up. If anything I was a Sesame Street kind of kid till the widespread adaption of 'syndication' on the 'independants' like WOR, WPIX and "Metromedia NY, 5". Yay Gumby, Scooby-Doo, Mr. Ed, and so on. OK, I also watched Mr. Rogers from time to time, and you can guess why...Someone mentioned there are lots of movies wherein a train plays an important plot point, which is very true. What immediately comes to my mind is a century old film of Buster Keaton's, "One Week", wherein a newlywed couple attempt to build a self-assemble 'kit' home with sabotaged instructions. While the first train that passes by doesn't really play a major part...
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