I am certainly fond of DANGER LIGHTS. It was mostly/all shot on location, I think. The plot is total B movie. Which is OK, really. But the “sets” are just great.
I was gonna vote for EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE. It’s a better movie, acting and story-wise. And it was also shot on location, up on the OP&E in Oregon. Apparently, THE GENERAL was also shot there.
The only technical flaw I noticed when I saw the movie was a boxcar, in the background, with the big SP&S initials on the side–1960’s in a 1930’s movie. But, really, they did a darn good job, I think.
Ed, I agree that the railroad photography is outstanding BUT there were at least two depictions that were to my mind beyond the pale of what even a crazy conductor would do.
The first was messing with the safety appliances. Trainmen’s lives depended on them being intact.
The second, and most egregious, was the sequence about getting out of the yard very quickly AND in the face of a superior train, and in the resulting near miss at the next siding to the north (railroad east on the SP). The very quick departure is doable only if there is a switch tender, which the SP called ‘herders’. If crew had to throw their own switches, they had to pull up to main track switch slowly for head man to open it, and stop, or nearly so, for rear man to close it behind the train.
If there was a herder on duty, he would not open switch for the local freight in the face of an oncoming superior train on close time. If signaled main track, as the SP main through Oregon was at the time, the five minute rule may or may not have been in effect. That rule requires a five minute wait by the train entering the main before fouling the main track so that any train on the main had a chance to see an other than clear signal and thus avoid collision.
The near collision with the opposing mail/passenger (can not remember which it was said to be) at the siding has several problems. First, the rules required the freight to be in the clear five minutes before the opposing superior train was due. Absent block signals, running against the other quy’s time was a form of russian ro
One of my all-time favorite railroad movies came out less than a year ago; it’s called “Unstoppable”, based on a true story, and stars Denzel Washington. This movie keeps you glued to your seat; truly thrilling. Goldspike 1
I was gonna vote for EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE. It’s a better movie, acting and story-wise.
The only technical flaw I noticed when I saw the movie was a boxcar, in the background, with the big SP&S initials on the side–1960’s in a 1930’s movie. But, really, they did a darn good job, I think.
Ed
Ed, I agree that the railroad photography is outstanding BUT there were at least two depictions that were to my mind beyond the pale of what even a crazy conductor would do.
The first was messing with the safety appliances. Trainmen’s lives depended on them being intact.
The second, and most egregious, was the sequence about getting out of the yard very quickly AND in the face of a superior train, and in the resulting near miss at the next siding to the north (railroad east on the SP). The very quick departure is doable only if there is a switch tender, which the SP called ‘herders’. If crew had to throw their own switches, they had to pull up to main track switch slowly for head man to open it, and stop, or nearly so, for rear man to close it behind the train.
If there was a herder on duty, he would not open switch for the local freight in the face of an oncoming superior train on close time. If signaled main track, as the SP main through Oregon was at the time, the five minute rule may or may not have been in effect. That rule requires a five minute wait by the train entering the main before fouling the main track so that any train on the main had a chance to see an other than clear signal and thus avoid collision.
The near collision with the opposing mail/passenger (can not remember which it was said to be) at the siding h
I was gonna vote for EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE. It’s a better movie, acting and story-wise.
The only technical flaw I noticed when I saw the movie was a boxcar, in the background, with the big SP&S initials on the side–1960’s in a 1930’s movie. But, really, they did a darn good job, I think.
Ed
Ed, I agree that the railroad photography is outstanding BUT there were at least two depictions that were to my mind beyond the pale of what even a crazy conductor would do.
The first was messing with the safety appliances. Trainmen’s lives depended on them being intact.
The second, and most egregious, was the sequence about getting out of the yard very quickly AND in the face of a superior train, and in the resulting near miss at the next siding to the north (railroad east on the SP). The very quick departure is doable only if there is a switch tender, which the SP called ‘herders’. If crew had to throw their own switches, they had to pull up to main track switch slowly for head man to open it, and stop, or nearly so, for rear man to close it behind the train.
If there was a herder on duty, he would not open switch for the local freight in the face of an oncoming superior train on close time. If signaled main track, as the SP main through Oregon was at the time, the five minute rule may or may not have been in effect. That rule requires a five minute wait by the train entering the main before fouling the main track so that any train on the main had a chance to see an other than clear signal and thus avoid collision.
The near collision with the opposing mail/passenger (can not remember which it was said to be) at the siding has several problems. First, the rules required the freight to be in the clear five minu
“The Train,” starring Burt Lancaster and Paul Schofield. Great story, Paul Schofield as a greedy, psychotic German army colonel trying to steal paintings by the greatest of French artists, and Burt Lancaster as a French railroad man and Underground leader trying to stop him. Super railroad action, to say nothing of war movie action, and the great finish…
Burt Lancaster standing amid the bodies of massacred hostages and the stacks of crated artworks with the look on his face, " Just to save some paintings, was all this all worth it?"
I’m with Firelock on this one. Those are real locomotives being wrecked. Another nice touch are the aircraft used in the picture (A-26s and a Spitfire) Notice that they have the correct D-Day stripes on the wings and fuselages which would be right for the time the movie was set. And “The General” is awesome!
When I was a teenager in El Paso, Texas, I ran away from home and hopped a Southern Pacific “hotshot” freight to San Antonio.
I rode in a boxcar with a group of Mexicans.
They didn’t speak English, and I didn’t speak Spanish, but they were nice, and shared their lunch with me.
As the boxcar banged and bounced violently like a bucking bronco through the pitch-black, freezing night, we could see the open door gradually, and inevitably, sliding closed, which would obviously seal us inside and kill us in the glaring heat from the hot Texas sun.
One of the Mexicans found a two-by-four (or something), which we placed in the rapidly narrowing open space, and it took the combined strength of all of us working together, all night long, to keep that boxcar door from slamming completely shut.
Thank goodness for the Lackawanna Railroad, or Edwin S. Porter may have been out of luck!
There’s a story that the people you see getting off the train during the robbery were all Edison employees. The day of the filming Edison went into the company office and said “No work today everybody, we’re gonna make a movie!” Possibly Edison himself may be in the crowd, but who knows, I can’t spot him.
A bit out of sequence, but fun to watch anyway! Thanks Wanswheel!
“Emperor of the North Pole” is my favorite, but I also enjoyed “Under Siege: Dark Territory” as well. Who says that movies must be factually accurate to be entertaining?
“Atomic Train” was amusing as well, using HO scale cars as props.
there’s also “The Cassandra Crossing” which captures the flavour of European train travel in the 1970s except for the outbreak of plague aboard. The story is nonsense and the wreck scene is obvously a bunch of Marklin trains going off a bridge. But any pictue with Burt Lancaster is worth watching.
