I remember the opening credits for the TV series, The Fugitive (the 1st season), it was an obvious model railroad that they show “jumping the tracks” and subsequent smoldering train. Others that come to mind are the scenes in Von Ryan’s Express where the train flying through a yard is being bombed by the allies. I think this movie and Walt Disney’s The Great Train Chase, starring Fess Parker, had as much to do with me getting into model railroading as the trainsets my dad bought for us when we were kids.
I remember a BNSF layout in a movie call The Westing Game
I totally agree. Hollywood tends to use our hobby as a device to underscore a characters eccentric nature. It’s now cliché that all megalomaniacs have their own little world in model trains.
I also believe that this sort of portrayal has had a negative impact on the general public’s perception about our hobby. Wouldn’t it be nice for a change to see a popular actor take on a well adjusted and likable role who was into model railroading?
Overall, while many here might be looking for any sign of model trains in movies/TV and how well the layout is done, I am far more concerned about how it’s portrayed. This hobby could use some positive characterization in the mainstream media for once. Imagine the interest that could generate.
I maybe dating myself on this one, Does anyone remember a TV show, “The Wonderful World of Trains”. As I recall it was a show that promoted Lionel trains. Dates back to at leaste the 60’s.
Lbeach, I don’t remember the show, but it sounds interesting.
MABruce, as far as an actor taking on a role, in which the main character could promote model railroading and NOT be a psycho, maybe Michael Gross (Family Ties) would be interested. I understand that he is SO into trains, that he and his wife recently sold their own short line RR. I have seen many video productions that Mr. Gross has appeared in, and I’ve always been impressed.
Yes, Mike has been a great promoter for this hobby over the years. While I think he’s a talented actor, his recent notable roles are not exactly along the lines of the type of character that I’d like to see associated with MRR. I can only be relieved that ‘Burt’ the survivalist/gun freak didn’t have a layout in his fortified basement. [:D][;)]
Sorry to carry on about this subject, but I am someone who someday hopes to write and direct movies. So if the opportunity ever comes up, I’ll do my best to incorporate this hobby into a movie in a positive way. But it will have to be in N-scale… [:p][:D]
Don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this, but a model layout is used as a sight gag in the Superman movie. I always enjoy movies about trains in general just so I can pick out inaccuracies in them.
Well, there is this stupid Burger King commercial that usually airs on “Nickelodeon” and other kiddy channels (my brother watches them, and I’m on the internet sometimes and I glance over and watch this commercial). In it, a few kids are playing with a pretty well-done O gauge layout with one Lionel steamer hauling two passenger cars. It goes over a bridge, which has a section missing, and just before the train goes over it, a sock puppet that looks like “The King” shows up out of nowhere and brings the train to a sudden and violent stop. Then it goes into the whole “Now at Burger King! New Superman Returns Toys in every Big Kids Meal!” At the end, another kid throws a toy at the train and knocks it off the track. [banghead][censored][banghead][censored]
I wouldn’t let those kids anywhere near my layout!
-Brandon
That Cary Grant film you’re thinking of is a real favorite of mine: PEOPLE WILL TALK, made around 1952 or so. In one scene, his new wife, Jeanne Crain goes to a department store and tells the salesman that she wants a very elaborate train set for a birthday present. The salesman asks, “And how old is the boy?” Crain answers, “40. He’ll be 41.” The actual train sequence, with track all over the second story of the house is run on a “Beep”, “Beep-Beep”, “Beep-Beep-BEEP!” set of signals between Grant, his father in law and a fellow professor. It’s a really funny sequence, especially when the “Beeps” get mixed up and Lionel carnage ensues.
Terrific movie.
Tom
Yeah,seen that one. People love to destroy model trains for effect.
There is a Splke Lee movie about a gansta, I believe the name is Clockers. The gansta has a Lionel layout in his house. He is shown playing with the trains in several scenes.
Plot summary for Clockers (1995) (http://www.imdb.com)
Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug-lord Rodney Little, who, when not playing with model trains or drinking Moo for his ulcer, just likes to chill with his brothers near the benches outside the project houses. When a night man at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike’s older brother turns himself in as the killer. Det. Rocco Klein doesn’t buy the story, however, and sets out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.
Jaime
Here’s a spoof about model railroads found in YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC8VzVmNPOI
It is actually listed in www.imdb.com:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417276/
Jaime
The movie mentioned earlier by rtpoteet about the Jewish U2 pilot is John Goldfarb, Please Come Home. Seeing as we got off into animation with “Chip 'n Dale”, I’ll mention the classic Wallace and Gromit short, The Wrong Trousers.
Thanks to twhite for identifying the Cary Grant movie with the trains. I’m a big Cary Grant fan, and I’ve never seen People Will Talk. I knew The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer didn’t have the trains. What it did have was a teenage Shirley Temple with a crush on Carey Grant.
Speaking of Cary Grant and trains, in a recent blog post I wrote about about North by Northwest, how Cary’s character rides the 20th Century Ltd. in that movie, and about the unusual SP consist used in the final scene. I’d be grateful for comments if anyone knows anything about that SP train used.
Best!
That was Chicago Hope…and Mandy Patinkin is an avid Lionel collector from what I have read…I also remember a Dudley Moore movie that had a Lionel layout…I think it may have been Arthur…
Okay, I’m dating myself by the shows I watched in the '70’s, but hey, I was just a kid. There was an episode of Ellery Queen where the clue to a guy’s murder was found in the tunnel on his model railroad. If I remember right, Ellery stuck a piece of gum to the front of an engine and ran it through to collect the all important evidence.
Randall–
That final scene, with the SP train going into the tunnel is of the SAN JOAQUIN DAYLIGHT. Reportedly, one of Hitchcock’s assistants said of that sequence, “That’s pretty–uh–‘suggestive,’ Mr. Hitchock, don’t you think?” Hitch stared at the assistant and said, “ANY idiot could figure that out.”
Tom
Yes, Fireman, that movie was “Arthur”–and the amiable and wealthy drunk had an extensive vintage Lionel layout. I was born less than a hundred yards from the Milwaukee Road’s double-tracked Milwaukee-Twin Cities main line and spent the next 13 years less than a block away, so I sorta absorbed railroading from the air I breathed, as well as the trains that rushed past in front of my eyes. My eldest brother had a prewar Lionel train set, set up on a 4x8 that came out of storage in the winter and went back in the spring. I didn’t realize until later that this was a top of the line set–among the stamped sheet metal offerings–with magnetic uncoupling. But it still ran on 3-rail track, which offended my prototype sensibilities when I inherited it after he went off the the Air Force during the Korean War. Mom sold it to my aunt, for her little boy, for TWELVE BUCKS, and when we moved to a larger house with a full basement, I asked for an American Flyer set for the next Christmas because it was 2-rail.
But as I grew older, I came to enjoy those old tinplate trains, even the Marx stuff–and when I looked up that old Lionel of my brother’s, I was shocked to find the loco alone was worth (I think) $750. When a friend and I went to see “Arthur” in the theater and saw that huge collection of prewar collectible Lionel stuff, I was blown away! I seem to recall reading somewhere that all those goodies were borrowed from someone in Hollywood for the movie, so t
Randall, didn’t they also play a football game against an Arab team vs. Notre Dame in that movie?
Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen the Twilight Zone episode, read no further.
There was an eerie “Twilight Zone” [the original–hosted by Rod Serling] episode in which the drama ended with the “world” in the drama actually a young boy’s layout. (I hate giving away the ending).
in last seasons CSI, they had the minuriture killer. he was a model railroader. now we are killers?