While channel surfing, I landed on a movie called “Fatal Instinct”. A wacky comedy. Was pleasantly shocked when I saw a Santa Fe passenger train being hauled by an FP45 in Warbonnet colors! [:)][:D][8D][8)][;)]
Made me remember that seeing our “favorite vehicles” on the big and small screen can be fun and refreshing (except when they “wreck”, of course!).
SUGGESTION: List movies with significant TRAIN scenes in them? Give the title and brief “train scene” description. We can take notes. When any of these movies come on, we can be on the lookout! I’ll write down your tips and keep them near my t.v.
Here’s some that I’ve either seen or have been tipped off by some of you:
Fatal Instinct: Santa Fe Red, Yellow, Silver Warbonnet FP45 hauling stainless steel passenger train. Train looks sharp!
It happened to Jane: In color. 1959. New Haven Railroad featured. NH Steamer and a nice shot of an FL9 hauling a NH passenger train. Doris Day, Jack Lemmon.
Silver Streak: CANADA. Color. Beautiful, long Canadian Pacific Streamliner hauled by EMD “FP” units. Great closeup shots. Wilder & Pryor work well as a team.
The Out of Towners USA. Jack Lemmon. 1960s.Color. New Haven passenger train interior shots. The actor who played “Bookman” in the sitcom “Good Times” is one of the train’s service attendents.
Trading Places. USA. 1980s. Eddie Murphy, Dan Ackroyd. Amtrak in northeast corridor. Interior & exterior shots. AEM 7 zipping by. All passenger cars are Amfleet.
Superman the Movie. USA. 1979. Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman.
New Haven FL9 with “Hancock” horn blowing. Another scene; Amtrak Super Chief in desert, hauled by three SDP40fs!
I know two good ones. Both are available to rent from Hollywood Video, maybe Blockbuster.
The Train- A good movie from the late 40’s. It takes place in Germany/France during WWII. It’s all about a train, and its cargo of stolen artwork. Very good, most of it is a train scene. It was also listed in Trains magazine, as one of the best train movies! I thought it was very good!
Atomic Train- This was a special two or three part NBC or ABC (whatever) movie. A runaway train carrying nuclear weapondry needs to be stopped. I haven’t watched it in so long, I don’t remember much. It first came on, five or so years ago. I know I thought it was good!
I reccomend both of these movies! They get two thumbs up from me!
[8]TrainFreak409[8]
Antonio- the movie with McQueen was “The Getaway” co-star Ali McGraw.
And the one with Borgnine was Emperor of the North- Co star Lee Marvin
1-Also don’t forget Silver Streak (1) starring (It’s actually listed in the credits) The Burlington Zephyr- -Polio strikes workers at Hoover Dam and the Silver Streak tries to beat time and numerous disasters to get an Iron Lung to the stricken!
2-Silver Streak (2) Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor- everyone knows this one, a pretty good comedy.
3- Valley Of The Dolls- 2-3 good scenes of PennCentral RS-3 hauling commuter train through the snow.
4-Mr Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse-Cary Grant, Myrna Loy William Powell- A great comedy, has a (I Think) New Haven electric as backround pulling into the station. A movie well worth watching.
5-Bad Day At Black Rock- Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Ann Francis, Marvin and Borgnine
A war vet ventures to Black Rock to give medals won by a Japanese-American of the 442nd Div, only to come face to face with prejudice, betrayal and MURDER! Opens with a close up nose shot of an SP black widow F unit, closes with the same. Another good flick
6-Crack in the World- Dana Andrews- Trying to tap an unlimited power source scientists explode a nuke in a volcano, and the earth cracks open! Not as bad as it sounds. (I’m just making these teasers up as I go)A neat little industrial diesel pulls a passenger train to it’s untimely demise, quite a long tracking shot.
7-THEM!-James Stewart, James Arness- Giant ants are the result of early atomic tests. One of my favorite movies, has a very good shot and recording of a Santa Fe Zebra stripe Alco.
8-The Lady Killer- Jimmy Cagney- Not a gangster movie, a comedy. Cagney plays a small time thief that ends up in Hollywood in the movies- A great shot of an SP steamer splashing through 2 feet of rain water.
9-Fog Over Frisco- Bette Davis- Murder and mayhem abound.SP steamer and drawbridge figure in police chase.
10-Dirty Mary
hi
you can add
Von Ryans Express
Pow’s escape take a train
The Titfield Thunderbolt
fifty’s ? Syd James staring the Locomotive Lion
as the Titfield Thunderbolt basicaly the storie of a village that looses its railway and fightst to re open it under the light railway act very ammusing
in places.
The Dirty Dozen II
trainig too and taking a train load of high level ***
shame they blow up the train in the end.
Harry Potter. Beutiful restored British Steam train hauling students to and from School.
Thomas the Tank Engine. What more needs to be said.
The General. Great silent action comedy featuring silent film great Buster Keaton.
Under Seige II. Dark Territory. Steven Segal battles with international terrorists on a luxury passenger train on the Rio Grande.
Emperor of the North. A-#1 (Lee Marvin) and the Shack (Earnest Borgnien) duke it out on the roofs of freight cars in this drama about a depression era Hobo and his efforts to ride the unridable train.
Episode of the “Days of our Lives” Drama unfolds as our hero tries to disarm a bomb aboard the Black Hills Central.
Big Boy. A 1950s NBC TV- Movie about steam locomotives and the engineers who love them in their fight against the encroaching diesle.
This next one is not well known but may be making the rounds on PBS stations.
Last Train to Spencer. The Central Wyoming College drama department and the Heber Valley Railroad put on a drama about how a the abandonment of the railroad through town changes a peoples way of life.
And Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You in November 2004. The Polar Express.
Antonio- the movie with Jack Lemmon might have been the “Out Of Towners”.co star Sandy Dennis
Also(can you believe I have so much useless knowledge) Murder Most Foul- Margaret Rutherford, Brit steam, starts off on a train.Good flick based on A. Christie novel.
And finally( i promise) Curse of the Demon- Dana Andrews- Niall McGinnis- Movie ends with train ride and Brit steam shots at dark.
Hmmm, sure you aren’t thinking of ‘4:50 from Paddington’ there Philnrunt? The murder takes place on one train and is seen by a passenger in another. Maggie as Miss Marples solves it…of course.
Then there is ‘The Railway Children’ and the biggy ‘The Great Locomotive Chase’ with Fess Parker (Davy Crockett)
Oh Yeah wasn’t there a Ray Milland movie made on the Flying Scotsman?
The Bone Collector. Angela Jolie (as a cop) tries to preserve a crime scene by flagging down an Amtrak train headed by a P42 Genesis before it runs over a “message” left by a serial killer. Of course it stops just feet from her standing right in front of it (only in Hollywood). Nice shot of how big one of these units is.
Enemy of the State. A chase leads the two main characters by passing CSX coal trains.
Tough Guys. Burt Landcaster and Kirk Douglas are old cons out to steal the same train they failed to rob before they went to prison. Rather extensive shots and use of an old SP “Daylight Scheme” steam engine (sorry, I’m not into that era and I don’t know the exact name of the train).
The Fugitive. Classic train wreak involving a fictitious IL RR. I also recall a hilarious spoof on this scene done in one of the Leslie Neilson comedy movies. Loved the part when Leslie thought he had lost the loco that was following him through the woods only to see it peak out at him from behind a tree. LMAO.
here’s a few, just cant remember names. 2 convicts escape from an Alaskan prison, just remembered, Runaway Train, has some pretty cool scenes. The one I have been looking for is one I seen when I was a kid mid 70’s I remember a scene were a track crew unbolted fish plates to derail train into a large grassy area then they found out the units were occupied and had to realign track and just as they did train came speeding by, the part that sticks in my mind is that this track gang had to hold the rail in place with these track bars as units came by, it also had to pass a chemical plant and of course a tight curve. Can anybody help me on that? Nuclear trian, very Hollywood, thats all I can say to that. What about the one were British POW’s build bridge for jap’s then blow it up on opening day. Randy
Thats Emperor of the North, ( sorry goat, no Pole in the title) great flick!
Dont forget "White Christmas!!!
Breif clips of SP and SF f-units. Funny. they were taking a train from NYC to Pine Tree Vermont.[%-)][%-)][%-)][%-)] I guess thats Hollywood for ya!
Well, if you include model trains and subways/the el/trolleys, this is what I come up with off the top of my head:
Broken Arrow
In The Heat of the Night
Them
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Throw Momma From the Train
9-1/2 Weeks
Scanners
The Omen II (or was it III?)
Back to the Future III
Blues Brothers
Escape from New York
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Risky Business
Total Recall
Home Alone
Night and the Darkness
Matrix II
Schindler’s List
Goldeneye
Doctor Ziavago
Lawrence of Arabia
Every Godzilla movie ever made
Every other Western ever made
Just a couple of movies that I didn’t see mentioned are:
A River Runs Through it - Don’t remember too much about this one except there was a train in it. If I remember right, the Heber Valley Railroad in Heber, Utah bought the entire train that is featured in the movie!
The Train Robbers - John Wayne. One of my personal Favs! Great movie!
What about the one were British POW’s build bridge for jap’s then blow it up on opening day. Randy
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That was “Bridge on the River Kwai” - story of the RR built in Burma by allied POWs - they were treated appallingly by the Japanese soldiers (to be expected (but certainly not justified) really - to the Japanese in that era surrendering lost you all honour, hence their behaviour towards POWs). There’s been trouble recently because the Burmese government wouldn’t allow relatives of those buried there to visit the graves.
I can think of a really bad one. A film I saw recently on TV. Was called “Murder on the Orient Express” and was clearly based on the A. Christie “Poirot” novel but it was truly dire. The original book was set in the 1930’s, and the best film adaptation of this followed suit, but this made-for-TV film (must have been made during the '90’s judging by the loco used - that paint scheme only came out then). Most obvious fault - after things like the actor playing Poirot being too young, using the wrong loco and cars, etc…was that every so often you’d hear a crossing bell ringing - we don’t have those over here…!
LightBender(Tony) I think what we have here is Hollywood renaming a Brit release.
I recorded that flick from TCM, and it definitely was titled Murder Most Foul. The moguls in H’wood must have thought without the word “Murder” in the title, no American would go to see it. I also have “Murder Ahoy” and" Murder at the Gallop"…hmmmm, seeing a pattern here. Dame Maggie was a fantastic actress, I love her to death…or should I say Murder!
orsonroy-pretty impressive list for winging it! The 'zilla movies alone would fill most peoples movie library. After the 30th or 40th one, I could’nt understand why 20,000 Tokyoites-Tokyoians?-Tokyoaks? would immediately load onto the 5:15 to Doomsville and become 'zilla kibble.Oh well.
Railroading Brit- A few months back, PBS did a 2 hour show on the Kwai Line and that brutal act alone, without the Bataan Death March, the forced sex camps, the biological experiments in China, the Rape of Nanking
or any other of the insanely criminal horrors the Japs (they deserve to be called Japanese only after sanity and civilization was restored post war), made them deserve anything that happened to them during the war.
They interviewed some Aussie and Brit survivors, and there is a huge amount of ill will still felt, as there should be.My dad was a combat Marine, fought quite a few battles and it never failed to amaze him how tenacious his enemy was. He told me once that it astounded the men in his squad when they read of Nazi surrenders. They thought every enemy fought to the death.
Sorry, got off the subject there. This is a good list, and I’ll be on the lookout for them.
nslakediv- The movie where the trackworkers held the rail was a Movie of the Week, starred William Shatner, but I don’t remember the name. TV guide had a great piece on how they did the wreck, using huge scale equip.