Last night I was watching A movie called Boxcar Bertha Its A good movie
Barbara Hershey Is A very good actor In this plus theres A scene with her NAKED!!! Which I thought was cool Its based on the deppression
I give it 3 thumbs up [tup][tup][tup]
[8D]Theres A movie called tough guys about the last two men to ever rob A train they spend 30 years in prison then steal the Gold Coast Flyer
which was actually the SP Daylight Special they try to take it to Mexico but run out of track Its back from the 80’s but has some good footage Of the
SP Daylight # 4449
That movie is a VERY GOOD MOVIE if you like war movies. However, I really didn’t care for the fate of the little boy. [:(] [V] Soft-hearted Jim here.
I talked about that movie when we were discussing the Russian locos that are down in Houston. This discussion was in the stupid question thread. We had it sometime around August/September is you want to find it.
I just looked at this thread for the first time, and I don’t think I saw “Murder on the Orient Express” on the list. Out in the 70’s, Albert Finney played Inspector Poirot; Sean Connery and Tony Perkins were among the all star cast. If you’re not familiar with Agatha Christie stories or her Poirot character-do not assume from the title that this is a “slasher”. On the contrary, this story is in the genre of the classic murder mystery where the victim is only there so that there is a crime to be solved. I digress. The shots of the steam engine and the train really enhance the mood of excitment and drama.
There was also a 50’s circus movie, I don’t recall the title, with Burt Lancaster and Jimmy Stewart, among others. The circus trains (two sections) are powered by steam, and when the first section is stopped by robbers, the flagman is stopped from protecting the train which is running in dark territory. Guess what? I’m sure that the special effects guys did it with models, but as an 8 or 9 year old I was impressed.
jeaton-
That 50’s movie was “The Greatest Show on Earth” with Jimmy Stewart and Charlton Heston(not Burt Lancaster). Great movie, even though the wreck scene was done with models.[8D]
Jim, Thanks for the correction. I saw that movie relatively recently on TV (maybe AMC) and I then realized the wreck scene was probably done with models. However, for a kid, the movie achieved the goal of suspension of disbelief.
Jay
Runaway Train by the far the best .
It has the rawest footage,nuts and bolts feel of any train movie add to the fact it was filmed in the winter [I think it was Alaska ] and a really gritty performance by Jon Voight.
The scene where Voight gets his hand mangled between couplers makes you wince in pain.
Loved it.
Hello!
If I may chime in with: The Train. Excellent plot and acting. Burt Lancaster is top of the line![4:-)]
Did anyone mention the 70s classic version of: The Silver Streak with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder? The star of the movie was the streamliner itself! Great shots of it. [8D] I wonder if those CP F units used in the movie are still around.
[tdn]Worst train movie: The Cassandra Crossing. BAARRRF! Ironically with Burt Lancaster! This time Burt is the “hidden enemy”. I found the whole movie depressing, though Burt’s character reminds one of things that go on “behind the scenes in government” when decisions have to be made that wind up killing people whose faces you can’t see. [V]
I’m 40 and I’ve never seen North by Northwest. Since I can never catch it when it comes on tv, I’m going to buy it next time I see it at Target or Wal-Mart. Heard it has some very good shots of streamliner action.[:D]
Steven King has a good movie called somtimes they come back
about two boys walkin down the track and a group of teens hasslin them
theres a part where an old steamtrain kills the punks the 20 years later the ghost train kills them again after they came back from the dead[8D]
Also If you get RFD.TV they usualy have a program called Trains & locomotives shows a lot of steam locos Like The NKP bershire # 765 The N&W 611
the RDG 2101 AT&SF 2925 UP 3985 challenger C&NW 4005
CB&Q 5632 SLSF 1522 & A WP F-7 ABBA & GN 844 [8D]
If he hadn’t killed the kid they way he did, you wouldn’t have hated Ed Harris’ Nazi Coloniel character as much and rooted when he gets his comeupance. Not quite as pure evil as Ralph Fiens in “Schindler’s List”, but pretty dam close.
not a movie, but just a strange oddity I saw on TV, on the Andy griffith show there is an episode where someone comes to town via train, and the motive power is a UnionPacific E unit, and the cars say Union Pacific on their side as well…odd for north carolina…
Or eerily prescient…
It’s just that nobody ever told the good folks of Mayberry that there were actually living in California, not NC.
Don’t know if I saw scanning through the list an oldie(10 years +} and not so goodie called “The House on Carroll Street” starring Kelly McGillis (wow}. The plot is pretty bad but its saving grace is the last 15-20 minutes of a chase thru GCT.
There are scenes of Kelly running on the tracks with an old retired Electric coming at her and then a chase through the upper floors prior to its renovation.
Doubt if it is available on DVD so keep your eye out for a late nite TV showing.
Another movie that, while not a train film per se none the less features a lot of railroad footage is:
The Journey of Natty Gann (1985) by Disney. A depression era movie about a girl who travels cross country by train “hobo style” to be with her father. Allong the way the girl picks up an unlikely companion and protector - a wolf (played by a dog). The movie also features an excellent train wreck scene that is very convincing. Film critic Leonard Maltin in his 2003 movie reveiw book gives it 3 stars and a positive recomendation.
As for short but good train scenes in non railroad films, be sure to check out the following:
The Fugitive (1993) with Harison Ford. Features an excellent train wreck scene ussing real railroad equipment including a high nose GP30 and a U25B!
Blue Thunder (1983) with Roy Scheinder. The movie is about a high tech police helicopter but the director must have been a train buff considering how many times trains are mentioned or shown in the film. For example in the movie, Roy Scheider playing police chopper pilot Frank Murphy meets a friend in a railroad museum, the conclusion of the movie has Murphy landing his high tech helicopter in front of a moving freight train pulled by a pair of GE 70 ton switchers, and just before the credits roll you hear a voice over of a telivision report summing up the movie and then mentions for his next news story “a high speed bullet train that maybe comming to southern California, maybe”.
Superman (1978) with Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, and Ned Beatty. Young Clark Kent outruns what appears to be a repainted Canadian Pacific passenger train being pulled by an F7. Lex Luther’s hideout is in New York’s Grand Central Terminal, Lex Luthor even usses a New Haven FL9 to dispose of a New York detective who had followed henchman Otis to the entrance of the secret lair. Finally don’t miss the scene where Superman saves an Amtrak train with a SDP40F triple header pulling heritage equipme
LOL! I was thinking the same thing,…I.E. “Darn! They finally did it! UP sucked up EVERYTHING!!”
Don’t know if it was mentioned earlier but there are some nice train sequences in the movie Broken Arrow, with John Travolta and Christian Slater. Its not the best movie but the last 15 or 20 minutes happens on a freight train.
Mike
yea I seen that that is odd one day acouple weeks back I was watching monk
the guy whos afraid of every thing Espessially germs anyway at the end monk and the hot chic try to save this guys life while his car is stuck at a RR xing the wierd part is where monk throws a switch and a WP pass train misses them the WP pass train
was a consisit of F7 ABBA and 5-7 cars now my question is when did WP start runnin
passenger trains and F-7’s again I could belive amtrak BNSF or UP but not WP [2c]
What about RUNAWAY TRAIN with John Voight? This is one of my favorites.
Two convicts in an Alaskan prison escape their inhumane jailers, trek across the icy Northeast wilderness, and board a speeding freight train.
Hiya gang from captain video aka rixflix
I’ve been filling in my railroad vhs collection lately and it’s been an adventure!!! Having
good luck with Amazon new/used and Railroad Video Productions. Amazon is pretty
crazy though. My last order of 13 films came from 11 different sellers, cost mostly between 2 and 10 dollars each and total freight was about 45 dollars.
Some of these flicks give good movie but bad or minimal train.
Some give bad movie with good train.
Some are beginning to end awful.
Some are plain marvelous.
I think you will like a couple of these, though.
LA BETE HUMAINE (The Human Beast) directed by the legendary Jean Renoir is a
beautifully shot, disturbing story of a French engineman’s life on and off the rails. Can a
violent temperament be inherited?
I am here to tell you that the French can railroad!!! The opening sequence shot from the steam locomotive’s cab of the LeHavre express, at speed, over impeccable right-of way
will put mist in your eyes. Very atmospheric railroad scenery features LeHavre (ocean pier?) terminal,
engine and coach yards, yard office, dormitory and of course STEAM.
This one has joined the films I’m wearing out, like “The Train”, “Emperor of the North”, and
“Danger Lights”. [tup]
OUR HOSPITALITY usually comes with “Sherlock Jr.” in VHS. This Buster Keaton film is
sooooo funny!!! Buster heads south from New York in 1830 to claim his inheritance but
doesn’t know he is the last member of a family nearly extinguished by another in a feud
Well the pretty passenger he’s falling for is from that other family and complications
ensue.
The “steam cars” is a train with those old stagecoach on flanged wheels affairs that goes so slow that Buster’s dog follows him all the way to Tennesee or wherever by
running along under the last coach. In one scene: (a)hillbilly throws rocks at engineer
(b)engineer throws firewood at hillbill