I watched the movie October Sky (with Jake Gyllenhall about the kid who builds rockets) and as I went to turn it off during the credits, I noticed a familiar name that I would have never thought I would see. That was O. Winston Link. He cameoed as the engineer in the scene where the boys are pulling up the rails for scrap.
His only film credit, according to IMDB. He was probably about 84 when the film was shot.
Yep In a later interview he said he really enjoyed being the engineer of a N&W steam engine Larry
Technically is was Southern Steam. Southern 4501 was painted in black as a N&W loco for the film.
The movie was filmed in the area between Knoxville and Harriman, Tennessee. 4501 was prepared for the movie in the yard of the TVA power plant near Harriman and then filmed in different area locations. Many of the scenes were filmed on the leads into the TVA plant but the train did get out on the NS mainline toward Oliver Springs a few times. The scene with the boys taking up the rail was filmed on the line into the former K-25 Manhattan Project plant at Oak Ridge. The Southern Appalachia Railway Museum operates their excursion train over this line. Right after the movie came out, we had crowds riding to see where the filming was done. We sold spikes from the site and had folks lined up to buy them.
Bart Jennings