I dunno if I should include this one as it goes against this threads guidelines. It's a train movie for sure and it's called "Denver and Rio Grande." It's about the building of a railroad and no fair guessing which one. There are some early shots of 1952 vintage D & RG freight and passenger trains and I sure did not know that the D & RG ran Alco PAs, my favourite diesel of all time.
With Edmond O'Brien and Sterling Hayden, It's a decent story and well worth a look and the scenery is spectacular!
Sunnylandone of my favs, just like The Train and Von Ryan's Express
I LOVE "The Train," one of the best train/war movies ever!
"Von Ryan's Express?" Eh, not so much. The book was a LOT better than the film, but the train action's good.
I have been watching that PBS "around the world in 80 days" blue streak and it was nice to see a train in a movie for a change. I doubt that would have worked to get the engine across the gap in rails on bridge. Just like a friend who saw Unstoppable train going around that hard turn on bridge and not tumbling off. He took physics in college so he knows about forces. I did not care, just a great flick to watch, one of my favs, just like The Train and Von Ryan's Express were my Dad's but Mom & I loved them too.
M636CThere is very little of interest on TV at this time of the year.
Man, there's very little of interest ANY time of year anymore!
I've spent more time on YouTube, quality time I might add, lately than I have infront of the other tube.
54light15 I've seen the original Hitchcock movie many times and have read the book. There are other books by John Buchan involving the character Richard Hannay but I've never been able to find them. John Buchan was later Lord Tweedsmuir and was the governor general of Canada in the late 1930s.
I've seen the original Hitchcock movie many times and have read the book. There are other books by John Buchan involving the character Richard Hannay but I've never been able to find them. John Buchan was later Lord Tweedsmuir and was the governor general of Canada in the late 1930s.
I have a book called The best of John Buchan, published by Allen and Unwin in Australia in 2010. ISBN 978 174237 310 2. It contains three Hannay novels, The 39 Steps, Greenmantle and Mr Steadfast. The book Introduction indicates that there are two other Hannay novels, The Three Hostages and The Island of Sheep.
Greenmantle was published in 1917, Mr Steadfast soon after, and the other two in 1924 and 1936.
I hope that helps you find the other books...
To return to North West Frontier, a small scale model of the locomotive was used in the bridge scene, in conjunction with a full scale model of the locomotive cab with careful cutting between the two.
Peter
There is very little of interest on TV at this time of the year. I have found that many old movies are available on Youtube, and decided to watch Alfred Hitchcock's 1930s The 39 Steps based on the novel by John Buchan.The hero gets mixed up in the activities of a spy ring and goes to Scotland to try to solve the mystery.
He travels north by the "Flying Scotsman" and there are very good departure shots of the train leaving Kings Cross and later in Edinburgh, along with scenes in the train itself. The train continues north and the hero avoids police by stopping the train on the Forth Bridge and climbing down the bridge structure.
The train departing King's Cross had a Gresley Pacific, possibly 2596 Manna complete with Flying Scotsman headboard. A poster with the wording "to Scotland" is seen near the train. Another unidentified Gresley Pacific is seen restarting the train on the Forth Bridge.
The rail scenes are about 1/3 of the way into the movie.
A remake of the movie in the 1950s in colour duplicated many of the scenes from Hitchcock's version, but the train was hauled by streamlined A4 60027 Merlin from Edinburgh, although 60013 Dominion of New Zealand appears in another shot. Again, the words "to Scotland" appear in a view of King Cross station just before the train departs.
The plot is virtually the same in both versions, with quite a lot of humour as seen in many Hitchcock movies, along with the expected suspense.
I just watched "Cat Ballou" and I haven't seen it since I saw it at the drive-in when I was ten. A very entertaining Western satire. Dwane Hickman is mentioned in another thread and he has a major role in this one. Quite a few railroad scenes and Lee Marvin without a doubt, deserved his Oscar. His scene where he describes killing his brother is remarkable.
blue streak 1 PBS has a remake of "around the world in 80 days". 2nd episode has fogg taking an Italian loco over a damaged bridge on rails hanging loose for about 30 feet. No cross ties for that length. Cannot believe rail would not have spread when loco went over it.
PBS has a remake of "around the world in 80 days". 2nd episode has fogg taking an Italian loco over a damaged bridge on rails hanging loose for about 30 feet. No cross ties for that length. Cannot believe rail would not have spread when loco went over it.
I think we have discussed North West Frontier in the thread previously. This was set in what is now Pakistan in the early years of the 20th Century. The filming was carried out in Spain using broad gauge trains representing metre gauge trains in then India, although a few train shots were taken in India or Pakistan.
There was a similar scene to that described above on a very tall girder bridge. The plot was that terrorists had tried to blow up the bridge but had only succeeded in damaging the deck for about twenty feet with the rails continuing across the gap.
When the small 0-6-0 tank locomotive tried to cross, the rail on one side deflected downward causing the locomotive to lean dangerously but it made it across the gap.
It appears that this scene was filmed in a studio with a full size mock up of the locomotive with operating wheels, which slipped as the rail subsided.
A well done piece of movie but hardly following the laws of physics.
To my amazement, the whole film is available free on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6KL5s-79w4
The scene starts at about 1.09.00
Here's a good one, a film noir filmed on location in Boston in 1950, "Danger Street" with Ricardo Montalbon. Late in the film there is a lot of train stuff filmed at Trinity Station in a passenger train service yard. You can see cars lettered for the Boston and Albany. Anyone from Boston ought to be able to recognize locations.
I was a little kid at the time but I loved the Dobie Gillis show. And speaking of Bob Cummings, he was an avid pilot and owned one of these. I've seen it at a classic car show in Michigan.
http://www.aerocarforsale.com/history.htm
From Mike:
You might recall the late actor Dwayne Hickman on The Bob Cummings Show before he played Dobie Gillis. Anyway he rode the subway at least once.
I know the film has been mentioned earlier -- "Leave Her To Heaven".
It begins in the lounge car of a train. It's on TCM Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m. Central time.
If you haven't seen it, it's worth the time just to see the magnificent houses, and especially the cabin at the Maine lake.
York1 John
The Fallen Sparrow from 1943 features one of my favourites, John Garfield and the exqusite Maureen O'Hara. Also with Hugh (Ward Cleaver) Beaumont and John (Sergeant Schultz) Banner. It's a spy film set in 1940 New York and in the beginning is a NYC Commodore Vanderbilt type of locomotive but at the end is a Boeing 314 flying boat! Exterior, interior and take-off shots and worth seeing for that alone.
Buster Keaton's "Go West" from 1925 is hilarious! it features a lot of train scenes involving stock cars and shows a freight station in Los Angeles. Also a cattle stampede through the streets and stores of L.A. Great stuff!
I just read this thread. Dad's favorites were The Train and Von Ryan's Express, I have both of them on VHS and also on DVR. Another one I liked was Silver Streak, lots of train running and at the end when train crashes into station. Probably based on the DC crash when I believe it was Pennsy crashed and dropped to the lower level. Somebody sent me a copy of old news story when Wabash crashed into our St. Louis Union in 1943. Never heard about that one, trains always backed in keeping smoke out of depot and less walking for Pullman passengers. Never knew why until I read this. Wabash backed thru the bump post and into the station concourse. Parents and I always left on our trips from there, busy place in 50's but started to decline in 60's so glad we did it when more trains were running. I got in on the tail end of glory days of passenger trains. When friends and I took Pullman on UP/SP City of St. Louis, we were in the last car, so when train backed into station, the N&W conductor came back to beep us in and the Pullman conductor stood on the side. Dad said host RR was in charge of train and not Pullman, only their cars. I saw what he meant when that happened.
Overmod Just came across 'Oh! Mr Porter' from 1937, containing the delightful scene of the A4 'Silver Link' of the Southern Railway* being christened with a bottle of champagne and an "1854" steam locomotive named Gladstone being treated in an increasingly astounding fashion. *Yes, I am aware of the situation.
Just came across 'Oh! Mr Porter' from 1937, containing the delightful scene of the A4 'Silver Link' of the Southern Railway* being christened with a bottle of champagne and an "1854" steam locomotive named Gladstone being treated in an increasingly astounding fashion.
*Yes, I am aware of the situation.
Presumably the filming of "Oh Mr Porter" was carried out in 1936 for a 1937 movie. "Silver Link" had its name added to the front of the streamline casing, since the painted name (in the same font) on the side of the boiler above the middle coupled axle was invisible. The four Silver locomotives had been repainted "Garter Blue" by 1939 and were fitted with brass nameplates on the side of the smokebox which were much more visible from the front of the locomotive.
The origin of Gladstone is less obvious, to me at least. It is a 2-4-0 tank so must have been a branch line locomotive of some type. I don't think it belonged to the Southern Railway. It looks as though an extended stack was added to make it look "older" and the enclosed cab was removed, possibly to improve filming on the footplate.
The locomotive collapsing at the end of the movie was repeated by the former police car in "Blues Brothers", for example...
This was one of a series of movies by Will Hay that had the same basic cast.
"Oh Mr Porter" was a song, much older (100 years?) than the movie that was a criticism of the route of the London And North Western Railway ("I wanted to go to Birmingham and you took me on to Crewe") but was still a known song in 1937. The wording in the opening sequence was altered to suit the movie.
'Sweet Tooth'. Netflix series Has a part where people are on a train.
The book was written 2009. Although the storyline is a little strange it has Covid 19 down to a T.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
What is interesting about Von Ryan's Express is the use of a Franco-Crosti locomotive. I've never seen one otherwise.
It's probably been mentioned, but here's a plug for Holiday Affair (1949), starring Robert Mitchum in an uncharacteristic role. The plot in part centers on a Lionel train set called the Red Rocket, essentially Santa Fe Super Chief F units with Pullman cars.
blue streak 1Watched " Von Ryans express" the other night. Very few faux pas .
Aside from the train action the movie's a bit of a dud, at least to me. I read the novel before seeing the film. It's a cliche' to say so but the book's a LOT better than the movie.
Watched " Von Ryans express" the other night. Very few faux pas . Train Did not coal and water often enough. The borrowed rail was a curve rail that was to go on a straight section. If borrowed rail was in the tunnel would never have been seen by following German train.
When the German office car was connected to the train I cringed when the car knocker jumped in between the train and car to connect the link and pin while car was still moving.
I watched Schindler's List last night.
In the earlier part of the movie, one of the trains was headed by a WWI era Austrian 2-8-0, I think a kk St B type 170. Later in the movie when one of Schindler's trains was redirected to Auschwiz, the train was hauled by a DRG Class 52 2-10-0. These are both very likely locomotives to have been used at the times concerned. The scenes at Auschwiz appear to have been filmed at the still standing entry gate. But the rail scenes seemes as accurate as could be expected.
That is a Tom Cruise movie I've never seen and no this isn't for steam only. There are train movies like "The Train" or "The Lady Vanishes" where trains are central to the plot, which isn't really the point of this thread. Movies where trains play a part but are not the centre of the plot, is the point. But, there are no hard-set rules- if it's a movie with trains in any form, fine. We're all on the same page here.
New to this forum and didn't read this entire thread, so sorry if this one has been mentioned before.
There is a spooky railroad crossing scene in the Tom Cruise version of War of the Worlds. Anyone remember that?
Oops, was this thread for steam only?
www.bostontype.com
"Crashout" from 1955 is a spiffy prison break movie with William Bendix and Arthur Kennedy. There are a lot of train scenes featuring a "Hern Pacific" locomotive with a Vanderbilt tender and the other rolling stock is all lettered the same. Hey, that's the way they were painted. Well worth seeing.
I just watched Harold Lloyd's last silent film called "Speedy" from 1928. He plays his usual ner do well who can't hold a job. No trains, really but a lot of conduit driven New York streetcars plus a horse car. Many, many scenes of Manhattan and Coney Island and there's a bit featuring Babe Ruth himself and the original Yankee Stadium. Funny as hell!
Regarding the video about Cleethorpes- I've been there. There is a very narrow gauge steam railway along the waterfront that runs about two miles. At the main station, there are two pubs, Pub One and Pub Two, one on each platform. Some very friendly people there and I got on well with them. One told me how back in the big show, there were a lot of Canadians stationed at the nearby airbase. I said how I've heard that they were awarded a fair amount of DSOs. One asked what that meant. I said, D*** Shot Off. They all cracked up.
At the station for the narrow gauge, there was the tiniest pub I've ever seen that would fit about 3 people in it. The whole structure would fit in the back of a pickup truck but they had 3 kinds of real ale. Do you recall the scene in the movie, "Tommy" where Roger Daltry is running along the water and there were a lot of elderly people in their cars looking at the water? In Cleethorpes, that's exactly what I saw. An English thing, I suppose.
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