Best Railroad Movies (topic rehashed)

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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Here are some movies I caught a glimpse of on AMC and TCM that had trains in them but arn’t neccessarily “train movies” (except Silver Streak).

I have TV on my computer and therefore am able to take screen shots. I was going through some old files the other day and made a list of all the movies I saved pictures from.

*=already mentioned in this thread by someone else

Silver Streak*: do I need to do an explanation on this one?

It Happened to Jane*: steam train and passenger car at depot in opening credits.

Cincinnati Kid: Steve McQueen, 1965, chase scene through a Santa Fe yard and roundhouse. Good chance to see some vintage diesels.

The Misfits: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Cliff, 1961, scene at a depot.

Badlands: Martin Sheen, 1973: scene at the end of movie while driving down the highway they show a very brief shot of a train that parallels the highway.

Picnic: William Holden, 1955, William Holden jumps a freight at the end of the movie. More vintage diesels.

Planes, Trains, And Automobiles: Steve Martin, John Candy, 1987, Neil and Del ride Trans-Missouri railroad which breaks down.

Sullivan’s Travels: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, 1941, Hollywood director goes incognito as hobo to research his documentary “O Brother Where Art Thou.”

The Defiant Ones: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, 1958, two convicts try to hop a freight, use a train to cut their chains (I think, correct me

62

There’s been mention of Buster Keaton movies here. Buster Keaton himself was very interested in trains. There was an article in Classic Toy Trains about the model trains he had. He used toy trains in a couple of movies of his. He also had some very eleborate model railroads when he was most successful in the 20’s and 30’s. They had to go when hard times hit him, but he got back into trains again in the 50’s with an outdoor American Flyer S gauge layout that even had flatcars and gondolas that served hotdogs to guests and contained condiments.

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WHAT ! No Prime Rib? [:0]

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I know I’m going to get fried for this one,
but the best one I’ve seen is Runaway Train[:D]

locomutt[8D]

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locomutt,
Don’t worry I got your back door. I liked all the snow in it. Wouldn’t want to be working on the railroad in all that mess though.

Larry

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locomutt,consider yourself fried&smothered in barbecae sauce.I just saw The Station Agent last week.It is a really great movie about a railfan who inherits a station in New Jersey.[8D]

67

Here’s one I haven’t seen mentioned…

“Billion Dollar Hobo” starring Will Geer, Tim Conway, and others. I think it was filmed in the early 1970s/late 1960s. Will Geer (The Waltons) plays a billionare who collects model trains. Tim Conway plays his last known relative that can inherit the family fortune IF he can finish a contest by riding as a hobo on freight trains. Great shots of a SP GP20.

I didn’t watch the whole movie last Sunday. It couldn’t compete with Football [:D].

Take care

Russell

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Does anyone remember "Hobo’s Christmas with Gerald McRaney [?]I can’t remember who played his father now. Also, “On the Right Track” with Gary Coleman, and “Coal
Miner’s Daughter”. “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was actually filmed in Ky., but I don’t think it
was on the Van Lear spur of the C&O[:)] Also, “Back to the Future 111”[:p]
Thanks for not frying me to badly for “Runaway Train”[:p][:D][8D]
locomutt[}:)][8D]

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Emperor of the North

Ernest Borgnine - a Conductor for all seasons.

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I don’t know if this is still a live topic. But along with The Train is the Czech movie Closely Watched Trains directed by Milos Forman – about a small-town operation during WWII that ends with a sabotage of a Nazi ammo train. A great movie and really captures the railroad as way of life. A second great classic is The Beast (Le Bete), an adaptation of the Emile Zola story about a French rr engineman who also preys on women. Directed by Jean Renoir, it is superbly acted (stars Jean Gabin) and photographed.

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jeremyplant [:)]

Welcome to the forums. [8D]

Yes, this topic is alive and doing well. [;)]

Thanks for your post. I wish you many more. [:)]

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OK, I don’t remember which one, but there was a Roger More Jame Bond movie with a circus train that was used to smuggle a nuclear bomb. I don’t remember which one but I think it was called “The Spy Who Got The Bomb Off The Train And Disarmed In The Nick Of Time.” Or maybe it was the spy who loved me. www.imdb.com wasn’t any help.

73

The 1973 made-for-TV movie about the runaway ski train was called “Runaway!” A little net research yielded the following…D&RGW GP30 #3011, along with D&RGW GP35 #3032, were painted as “Sierra Pacific” (black with orange lettering) for use in the film. D&RGW GP40 3081 was also painted as “Sierra Pacific” (silver with red lettering). If I recall, it was the new silver GP40 that caught up to, and braked, the runaway right before it plowed into the terminal. I spent many hours trying to recreate this scenario as a kid on my crude HO layout…tremendous fun.

“Avalanche Express,” which I have not seen, was Robert Shaw’s last film. In it, he played a Soviet defector. Lee Marvin played an American agent determined to get him safely delivered across the Milan to Rotterdam railway. But the Soviets will do anything to stop him–including start an avalanche. …sounds exciting.

I remember the made-for-TV movie, “Disaster on the Coastliner.” The two things that stand out in my memory are how calm and cool the track crew was, working right up to the last second and holding the rails in place with crowbars as the passenger train flew by, and the realsim of the F40PH models used in the crash sequence (I recall TV Guide did a little piece of these models with some photos).

The George Clooney/Nicole Kidman flich “Peacemaker” has some pretty cool Russian rail footage at the beginning.

All in all, very few decent movies really centered on trains. Maybe one of these days.

74

Has anyone else seen this movie, I saw it last week, and I have ask,

Are Railfan meetings like the one depicted in the movie???

A railfan is showing a movie of a steamer excursion taken from one of the cars that enters a tunnel, he keeps filming while its in the tunnel, all while he’s droning on and on… “this was a long tunnel, it was dark and very cold,”

Interesting movie, it stays in your head.

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Just a helpful hint for all the Santas out there . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . Railroad Movies make great Christmas Presents

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Yes,I have seen some railfan shows almost like that one![|)]

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I am embarrased to say that I have only seen Disney’s “The Great locomotive chase”. Of course I had gotten that one for christmas one year, and that is why Ive seen it. I have to say, it has some good shots of the B&O Museum’s William Mason (oldest original operating steam loco in the US) and laffayete (1927 operating replica), and a few other locomotives. I will be watching Cecil B. DeMille’s Union Pacific soon though, found a copy at the museum I work at, and set it out for use in the Museum’s Video Room (anybody want to see it, come to the museum on a saturday, thats of course if you are willing to come to the middle of Maryland)[C=:-)][dinner][xx(][alien]

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Blazing Saddles!!! No railroad scenes but Alex Karros (Mongo) said it best–“Don’t know–Has to do where Choo-Choo go!!!”.

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Blazing Saddles- classic[8D]

“You knock Mongo out- Mongo impressed”[8D]

Oh, back on topic- “Emperor of the North”, with “Runaway Train” a close second.[:D]

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[swg]I recently saw A good movie called Silver Streak With Richard pryor And
Gene wilder Its got an old set ofCP F-9 diesels And is filmed in Chicago
Along CPRAIL lines also Emperor of the north is good
Wilford Brimley And kevin bacon Did one called End of the line
about a small southern RR going bankrupt but they save the day
[8D][(-D]