Restarting a conversation begun elsewhere about trains in movie production. Terry, you have the book about Hollywood's Railroads. Surely there is a lot of info about 2 of the best railroad movies ever made - Danger Lights in 1930 and Emperor of The North in the early 70s. Fill us in.
Speaking of locomotives being pushed in movies, who can forget the crash scene from "The Fugitive" filmed on the Great Smokey Mountains Railway. The wrecks are still rusting away alongside the river:
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2157/2387597564_04ea4d8e99_b.jpg)
ex-CSX U18B #1901 and ex-N&W GP-30 #536 were actually being pushed by GSMR GP-7 #777 at the back of the train. Even though it never actually appears in the movie, #777 got the same 'Illinois Southern' paint scheme treatment as the crash locos did.
Len
I'll look those up. The newest Lone Ranger movie isn't mentioned in any of them.
I rem seeing something about emperor Of The North. Danger Lights I'm not sure.
I'll check them later.
There are actually four books.
The first one he did in 1981. I bought that one off EBay some years ago. That was a big hard cover book.
The others are from 2014, 2015, and 2018. Those are smaller soft cover ones. I just got the last three a few days ago.
https://www.cochetopapress.biz/ (https://www.cochetopapress.biz/)
See if he talks about the great train up hold scene that opens 1949's "White Heat ", one of the last gangster movies made and a great one. Great SP steam scenes. Hint: watch very closely the very last couple of frames where Jimmy Cagney's stuntman jumps down from a tunnel portal on to the top of the Vanderbilt tender, and tell us what you see that the film editors tried to cut out, but didn't quite get it all.
There is nothing about White Heat or Danger Lights. Emperor Of The North used Oregon Pacific & Eastern's #19 as the main one and used #5 (which was purchased from Magma Arizona RR) as three different ones in the movie.
Danger Lights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlgOpYXmTJg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlgOpYXmTJg)
White Heat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNJQldHBntE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNJQldHBntE)
The first 5 minutes of White Heat is loaded with action scenes of SP 4-6-2 2440 pulling a train of Harriman heavyweights, beautiful. It appears that the SP crew was used as extras with bit parts, two lines at most. The engineer is for real, the other guys look it too.
Danger Lights is a pretty corny early talkie, 1930, but the first 10 minutes is priceless golden steam age filmed on the long abandoned Milwaukee Road Pacific Coast Extension, both out on the line and in a working roundhouse, with a Pacific being turned on the turntable, the fireman putting out the extra flags, and all kind of other great detail. The division superintendent is a classic bulldog suit kicking everyone around like I'm certain it was and probably still is.
If you can make it through the rest of the movie there are some other great scenes. There is a tug of war between two mikados at a railroad festival, and a speed run with a Pacific pulling one business car rushing one of the heros to a hospital in the city. Unfortunately that run is sped up like stagecoach chases in old westerns but it is still great. Sit through this and the reward will come.
I don't know if Larry plans any more books. I hope so. The books he's done so far have been about the more often used places and equipment or the "A list stars". Maybe he can do one with the "B list stars" like some RR's that weren't used much like in Danger Lights and White Heat.
I book marked those two movies for when I have time to watch them. I don't really like watching movies on the small computer screen so I use an HDMI cable to connect it to the TV.
He has a Facebook page that goes along with the books. He has articles and pics that didn't make it into the books that he puts on there.
https://www.facebook.com/hollywoodsrailroads/ (https://www.facebook.com/hollywoodsrailroads/)
Quote from: Len on April 11, 2018, 10:21:34 AM
Speaking of locomotives being pushed in movies, who can forget the crash scene from "The Fugitive" filmed on the Great Smokey Mountains Railway. The wrecks are still rusting away alongside the river:
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2157/2387597564_04ea4d8e99_b.jpg)
ex-CSX U18B #1901 and ex-N&W GP-30 #536 were actually being pushed by GSMR GP-7 #777 at the back of the train. Even though it never actually appears in the movie, #777 got the same 'Illinois Southern' paint scheme treatment as the crash locos did.
Len
It's been left there as a tourist attraction.
Roger T.
That is also a way to get rid of unwanted junk.
Abandon in place is something that would never happen in Holland.
The country is to small ;D
Ton
The GP30 might be considered by some to be a historic piece by some. I wouldn't be surprised if it is retrieved and restored.
The Illinois Southern paint scheme is actually quite attractive. I wonder if anyone has ever modeled it.
How could we have missed Runaway Train from the 80s? On apparently the Alaska Railroad. As I recall, it was a pretty feasible incident.
Is that the one with an A bomb onboard?
What about this one, Unstoppable.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7LvM8G3kGs
Ton
Maybe he'll do a diesel book.
No bomb. A 4 unit consist escapes a yard unmanned, out on to the main, against an opposing train. However two stowaways are trapped in the 2nd unit, an old F unit, and can't get into the lead unit to shut it down. No absurd shoot em up, blow em up stuff, no ridiculous computer generated stuff. But a great and plausible story. Sub zero winter railroading at its coldest! ❄️⛄️🌨
dutchbuilder, your link is broken.
Unstoppable 2010
VERY loosely based on CSX #8888 Incident (Crazy Eights), happened in Ohio.
The engine is still in service, but rebuilt and renumbered into a Dash-3, #4389.
The link work fine here in the Netherlands.
Maybe it's blocked in the States.
I can remember a movie on tv in which a runaway carrying A-bombs is derailed and causes a nuclear incident.
Ton
Another great movie centered around the railroad is Breakheart Pass. The train wreck scene is real, no computer generated BS there . However, some beautiful vintage rolling stock destroyed. 😱😭😥
Pretty much anything with Bronson is good.
Some interesting trivia about it - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072735/trivia (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072735/trivia)
Deride me if you may, but my favorite "train" movie is Back to the Future III.
Fun fact #1: They filmed the scenes with the car and the train in reverse so the train wouldn't push the car off the tracks.
Fun fact #2: The train seen going over the edge of the ravine is actually a 1/4 scale model.
Here's some stuff about Hell On Wheels and the fake trains on Hollywood's Railroads.
https://www.facebook.com/hollywoodsrailroads/posts/1116427115163942 (https://www.facebook.com/hollywoodsrailroads/posts/1116427115163942)
I didn't know about Fillmore and Western Railway and their movie stuff.
http://www.fwry.com/ (http://www.fwry.com/)
Quote from: Terry Toenges on April 13, 2018, 05:11:59 PM
Here's some stuff about Hell On Wheels and the fake trains on Hollywood's Railroads.
https://www.facebook.com/hollywoodsrailroads/posts/1116427115163942 (https://www.facebook.com/hollywoodsrailroads/posts/1116427115163942)
Everyone, in the area where they filmed that, was quite happy to see the whole production crew finally leave.
Sid
"Hollywood" is down here all the time "filming". We are also happy with their departure.
I would imagine film crews would be pretty disruptive.
Quote from: dutchbuilder on April 12, 2018, 08:34:46 AM
What about this one, Unstoppable.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7LvM8G3kGs
Ton
Locomotives were borrowed from several sources. The runaway used two AC4400CWs from Canadian Pacific. There were two sets of these, painted identically down to the road numbers. The blue SD40-2 Denzell Washington ran was one of three borrowed from Wheeling and Lake Erie. The two grey locomotives that rolled over and caught fire are the last SD40-2s built, in 1986, for Mexico. At the time of the filming, they were owned by W&LE but not yet repainted from the grey paint they wore in Mexico. Last, the locomotive that pulled the excursion train full of school children was a GP11 borrowed from Allegheny Valley that they bought from Illinois Central. Most of the scenes in the movie are locations within 150 miles of Pittsburgh, including the bridge at Stanton (Bellaire, OH) the site of the rollover accident (Emporium, PA) the main yard at Brewster (Rook, PA though W&LE has a yard in Brewster, OH) and the location where they finally stopped the runaway (Martins Ferry, OH)
I'm surprised nobody here has yet mentioned Disney's "The Great Locomotive Chase:"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epp9r-JjYvs
Location work was on the now long-abandoned Tallulah Falls Railway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akc_bq8BIm4
Bachmann's 19th century 4-4-0s are actually based on Virginia & Truckee prototypes. Several of those engines have been used in movie work over the years, including, if I remember right, No. 22, which portrayed the Texas in "The Great Locomotive Chase."
And one of Bachmann's offerings for this American is as lettered for Western & Atlantic!
(http://shop.bachmanntrains.com/images/HO_Scale/51004.jpg)
V & T are about the only locos I could find with the trim on the roof which is how I figured that Bachmann's were based on them.
What was the intrigue movie where , at the end, the villain girl and George Segal are on the top of the train. He is down and she is standing facing to the rear and is pointing a gun at him about to plug him. He says " you know what I like about you? You're real tall", then the train goes into a tunnel and knocks her block off. I cannot remember the name of this movie.
Under siege #2 ?
Ton
I don't think it was a Steven Segal film
That's Steven Seagal.
The only train thing with George Segal that came up when I Googled was Bridge At Remagen.
Narrow Margin. But it's Gene Hackman.
"Kathryn Weller: I don't want you. Just her. You understand. It's strictly business. You should have taken the money.
Caulfield: You know what I like about you? You're tall. "
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100224/?ref_=ttqt_qt_tt (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100224/?ref_=ttqt_qt_tt)
Sorry, it's been a very long time since I saw that movie. But I'll never forget that scene. 😱😂
This was a remake. Trailer for the original, with steam run bys.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OZtFTnm8GnY
For some diesel fans around here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0fR49-u6fo
I ran across the original Narrow Margin trailer in my searches.
I checked out "runaway " with Ben Johnson, and the synopsis is much like Unstoppable, with winter thrown in like the later "Runaway Train."
Watching "Runaway " now, about half through. Intolerably corny, stilted, and predictable, but the railroad component isn't too bad. The GP30s are cool , looks like an old covered wagon B unit trails them, and at least some of the cars are nice old heavyweights.
They blow the horn way too much, it is a cheezy dub-in, and at one point the engineer says something to the effect that he is going to put air into the train line to apply the brakes, exactly the opposite as to how air brakes really work.
The passengers are a predictable mix of heros, cowards, and scoundrels, an unhappily married couple, etc etc.
Will report at the end.
James Garner was in a made for TV movie around 1979 or so about a steam roundhouse employee about to lose his job because of dieselization. Magma Arizona 2-8-2 no. 7 was in it. I can't find it anywhere. Anyone know anything about it?
You really should buy Larry Jensen's books. :)
I don't know off hand. When I make my next sit down visit to the bathroom library, I'll check in them and see if I can find it. I seem to remember a pic of James Garner from some video.
It was The Long Summer of George Adams, originally a book. No clip of the entire show on YouTube.
Not much else to say about Runaway. Railroady: accurate grade crossing horn signals . Unrailroady: they aren't blown at grade crossings. Railroady: basic radio chatter. Unrailroady: they never mention train identity numbers; ie "dispatcher calling the work train " or " engineer on the ski train."
One plus to mention..... They didn't dress up the engineer in striped overalls and cap and red bandanna. He looked like post steam engineers really look, except that today most are a lot younger than this guy was.
Larry's book "The Movie Railroads" from 1981 has 7 pages on Magma. I didn't see anything in any of the books about James Garner. Magma was used in How The West was Won and a few others - Cheyenne Autumn, 26 Men, Powder Keg, Young Billy Young, Blood On The Arrow and The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean movie with Ava Gardner.
Magma Arizona RR was built by Magma Copper Co.
San Manuel Arizona RR connected San Manuel Div. of Magma Copper Co. with So. Pac. and it was used for pilot for Young Maverick. Garner had a brief part in the first episode.
The Long Summer Of George Adams (1982) was done on Texas State RR. according to Wikipedia. Texas State RR bought Magma's #7 in '74 and rehabbed it in '78.
https://www.amazon.com/Summer-George-Adams-James-Garner/dp/B00LO1T5BY (https://www.amazon.com/Summer-George-Adams-James-Garner/dp/B00LO1T5BY)
There are a few pay sites where it can be viewed but i couldn't find any free ones.
I visited the Magma Arizona in 1965 in the last couple of years it was in steam. Saw 2-8-0 no. 5 on the run to the SP interchange and switching the interchange . Watched from on top of the water tower. Lonesome vast western desert vintage railroading at its finest!
Watching from atop the water tower sounds really cool. I Googled a number of different things and visited a few sites to come up with that info.
Oh yes Terry it was beyond the height of cool, especially as the train slowly pulled out. From the top of the tank we watched it slowly disappear into the desert distance. When it was just about out of sight a tall white steam plume silently rose up from the engine, now only a speck near the horizon. After a long moment that faint lonesome whistle scream floated in on the wind, now discernable, now fading away like steam itself. An unforgettable gut wrenching tableau emblemental of the last twilight glimmer of revenue service steam railroading.
I think the Jim Garner movie probably post-dated 1981. I remember watching it, and I think some of it was filmed on the Texas State RR, which is where I believe the Magma engine is now located. i'm going to guess this was some time in the early '90's.
The movie was done in '82 and was done on Texas State RR. In '74, Texas State RR bought Magma's #7. They rehabbed it in '78.
Here's a trailer from a new movie. The loco looks too new to me to be around Civil War time. Am I correct?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5960386/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_2 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5960386/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_2)
It's definitely too modern. Can't get a good fix from the little snips but could that be one of the WP&Y 2-8-2's from Dollywood? Definitely a fake stack on an engine that never burned wood. And the pilot is a modern steel strap one, surprised they didn't put a big silly red "cowcatcher" on it. Is that 3' gauge track? The rail is way too heavy for the times and the track is too straight and too ballasted. And in one scene the corner of the vestibule of a riveted steel passenger car is seen, which didn't come till after 1900 more or less.
Man. Doesn't anyone pay attention anymore to, or care about, detail accuracy when it come to railroads?
I'm pretty sure that the loco is Little River RR No. 110. It is the smallest 4-6-2 ever built for a standard gauge U.S. railroad. I believe it still resides at a museum in Indiana. It's definitely too modern for the post-Civil War time frame. There are at least two period-appropriate locos out there - the "Leviathan" and the "York". Both were built by Kloke as copies of mid-19th Century 4-4-0's and both are operable. You can take a look at the "York" on the net. Search for "Steam Into History".
Good call. I looked at pictures of that engine and I agree that is probably her in those scenes.
What a cool little engine. I knew of her before but had no idea she had been preserved , much less in operating condition , what a find, thanks.
She also has a fake square oil lantern headlight in the clips.
Again and again you see the same thing all the time- balloon or diamond stack, big goofy cowcatcher, and square headlight make any engine instantly 1800's in the public's eye.
Remember the engine in Breakheart Pass? I talked to the now deceased owner over 30 years ago, a retired UP old steam head. He bought that engine from the Great Western in Colorado when he retired, along with enough vintage freight and passenger cars to make a creditable vintage train, with the purpose of servicing Hollywood's vintage railroad needs, and he did. He said he picked that engine because with a variety of stacks and cowcatchers he could make that engine reasonably be anything from 1880 to 1950.
Where are guys like this when you need them. The old heads are all gone now. I miss talking to them.
In looking at pics of 110, having the domes so close together and the whistle on a short dome looks kind of odd to me compared to others. That makes it more identifiable in the movie. though.
That's an auxiliary dome dedicated to pop valves and whistle, a more modern way to install those appliances.
That engine might be a 4-6-2 but with those low, low drivers she was never meant for mainline passenger runs. The only reason there is a trailing truck is to keep her on the track when running in reverse for long distances pullling a train which was very common on short lines and logging lines. It's in effect a "logging" Pacific, although "logging" prairies were a lot more common.
I watched that clip three times. Where's the diamond/balloon stack? All I see is a coal-burn stack with a styled lip.
Yes, correct, I missed the stack. The clips are very, very short, attuned to an attention deficit disorder age. Easy to miss details. The engine has a late 1800's capped stack, very cool, not many of those left. But if this is supposed to be the mid to late 1860's, the stack and the entire engine are 40 years too modern.
Plus, I have to wonder, what is a tiger doing in the movie.
I wondered about the tiger, too.
If it's set in Louisiana, maybe it's SEC "LSU Tigers" 😂😂😂
Maybe it's just a hook. It certainly made you pay attention, didn't it?
Could be. Just like the way the too modern engine did .