I need some help in figuring out the names of a couple of movies I saw on TV a long time ago. Both were made in the mid-70’s/early 80’s.
The first involves a passenger train that has been taken over by terrorists? At the end of the movie, the govt and railroad decide to route the train down an abandoned dead-end branchline where the train subsequently falls through a dilipidated bridge into a river.
The second movie involves a pair of passenger trains (Amtrak I think) on a collision course with each other; one of them, I believe, was a runaway. The MofW dept. comes to rescue at the last moment and builds a crossover between two tracks to move one of the trains over to track 2. (I remember the MofW guys having to actually hold the rail in place while the train passed over due to not having enough time to spike the rail down.)
Not much info to go on, but I’d greatly appreciate any help in obtaining the titles to these movies!
The answer to your first question is the Cassandra Crossing with Burt Lancastor as the Key Player in the movie. As for question two, I remember the movie but can’t remember the name.
The second one, is probably Disaster on the Coastliner, starring William Shatner. A techinican, who’s family was killed by the railroad in an accident, overrides the computerized train control system, in an attempt to get the railroad to admit it’s negligence in the accident.
William Shatner is, predictably, the guy that saves the day by building the crossover.
That would be the ones! It looks the Cassandra Crossing is available on DVD, but that Coastliner movie is going to be a bit harder to come by. Many thanks for the info!
Yep, that’s right on…I recall how cool it was to see those MOW guys holding the temporary rails in place with push bars while the Coasliner blasts over the track at what seemed like 60 plus mph and then smashes in to a MOW shack…very exciting, but also very scarey.
Disaster on the Coastliner was a made for TV movie, so it may not be available on DVD. Yeah William Shatner was the “hero” of the film, but you also had E.G. Marshall in the dispatching center and the always-entertaining Pat Hingle in the locomotive cab (an Amtrak F40).
Those of the you in the New York area may remember TV’s “Million Dollar Movie.” Several times, The Cassandra Crossing was their “million dollar” pick. That’s where I first saw Burt Lancaster sending Richard Harris, Sofia Loren, Ava Gardner, Martin Sheen, Lionel Stander, and others on a cheesy European train ride to disaster. Actually, the most memorable role – to my mind – was O.J. Simpson playing a priest!