Tonight (11/8) there was an episode about a guy who takes trains to different points in Las Vegas and kills people. On the show, one of the CSIs, Grissom, gets a call and states that he is at a rail siding. But this rail siding has welded rail! And near the end of the episode, LVPD ad FBI head to a rail yard because that where the guy was supposed to go. But if you looked closely, reporting marks on cars are either covered or missing. And it show a BNSF MK1200G with the BNSF logos covered in orange. Then it has them boarding an ex-Amtrak car in the middle of an frieght train. What’s up with that?!
Argh! Yes, TV (and movies) have rarely gotten things right when it comes to railroads. I’m a Law & Order and CSI junkie and I remember a couple of episodes that made me groan… One was someone that ran a pickup truck in front of either a LIRR or Metro-North commuter train. The “wreck” was the lead MU car covered from top to bottom in what looked like loose fiberglass insulation-my guess to make it look like it had been “torn apart” by the collision, even though it was still on the rails. Outside of You Tube, the few grade crossing accidents I’ve seen have totalled autos and chipped paint on the train, little more. The other episode was someone commiting suicide by paking on a crossing in front of a train-whose schedule they knew to the minute. Only later does it get mentioned this was a freight train! Commuter train, maybe. Amtrak, hardly. Freight train? Highly unlikely, to my mind. And, of course, scenes of the track area afterward are quite plainly in a yard somewhere. Argh, Again!
A CF-7 pulling a train of freight cars thru a BNSF yard filled with UP engines with a 1970’s Amtrak “phase I” paintscheme passenger car (full of paying customers) in the middle?? Gee, what’s wrong with that?? [:)]
I too noticed that they referred to every rail line as a “siding”. “Check the map, where’s the nearest siding near me??” and it turns out to be a rail yard apparently on a mainline.
I thought they used the word “spur-line” every time they ended up beside a main-line. Did you also notice it was an ex railroad worker who went on the killing spree? Maybe he wasn’t allowed to vent anonymusly on a web-site.[:-^]
Some of my favorite “We have no idea what we’re talking about” moments from movies and or TV include a 3600 hp RS type loco on an episode of CHiPS and an 8600 hp GP40 in some ski train disaster movie I once saw. Also lets not forget the way the engines change in runaway Train. Its fun to see how much things are exagerrated for effect by people who don’t know.
Something inaccurate in CSI??? Say it ain’t so???
Actually, trains are the least of their worries. Now where can I get me one of those magic spectrometers that gives you the perps name, address, and driver’s license information…
Continuity is probably the hardest thing for film makers (TV shows included) to have in their productions. Even in the same ‘scene’ that gets shot over a succession of days. Keeping the vase on the table stocked with the same flowers. Keeping the actors in the same costumes. etc. etc. etc. To most people out side of rail workers and rail fans, the perception is - Seen one train you have seen them all and things such as all the faux pas that were demonstrated in the CSI episode have no meaning to the 99.5% of the world that have no knowledge of rail operations and practices.
Wow. There’s an identical thread on the MR forum right now!
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/1261410/ShowPost.aspx
Talk about a coincidence![:O]
The episode of “CHiPs” was “One Two Many” from the first season. Funny thing was that the driver of the car said the signal was broken, and the crossing only had crossbucks. Also, the train stopped with the front of the locomotive in the crossing and no damage to the car.
The ski train movie was Runaway! from 1973. For a TV movie, I didn’t think it was half bad. The crew was calling signals (granted they were calling them “high green” and “flashing yellow”) and talking about 10 pounds of air when applying the brakes and checking the anglecocks, something a lot of movies and shows don’t get into.
Kevin
I saw the joint CSI/Without a Trace episode last night, too. I like the Vegas CSI, but the rail related stuff last night was hilarious. The old Amtrak coach sandwiched in the cut of freight cars “bound for Chicago”… Their armed, down-the-aisle search of the passenger coach… Their climbing through a boxcar with open doors, the load being some motorcycles standing on their kickstands… [(-D]
It can get downright funny, but to me the real tragedy is that the combined efforts (or not) of California’s government, Nevada’s government, and the whole Vegas gambling industry cannot sponsor a train – not even a weekend train – from L.A. to Vegas.
Nothing wrong with the way they were calling signals. Those terms are still heard when calling signals across the cab even though the proper name of the signal is supposed to be used now.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that one. Wouldn’t mind seeing it again.
Jeff
Rule 1 of TV or movie watching: Do not watch any show where you know anything about the subject matter.
For 30 years I was a volunteer track worker and official for road racing (sports cars). The old TV show “Quincy” had some real howlers in a show about a race driver. They showed a crash that started at Phoenix and finished at Riverside. Later in the show, the driver took several hot laps around Willow Springs (near Edwards AFB) and parked the car. Back in the garage, he climbed out of the car wearing jeans and a polo shirt and was standing there as Quincy walked into the room. The driver tells Quincy that he had sat in the car but hadn’t driven it. Quincy, standing one foot from an engine that had just been flogged around the track for several laps, believes him.
Another time, they had a show where the action was based in Stony Brook on New York’s Long Island. The story was based on the premise that Stony Brook was such a hick town that they had to share a coroner with the next town and, pressed for time, he didn’t do an adequate autopsy. Stony Brook. Home to the State University of NY at Stony Brook. Where there is one of the largest teaching hospitals in the Northeast. Then they had a closing scene at the “Stony Brook” airport. With a line of perfectly visible palm trees stretching across the horizon in the middle distance. I recognized Torrance Airport. I guess the budget wouldn’t stretch to some air-brushing.
As for movies, that Tom Cruise disaster about NASCAR made me sick. For auto racing watch “Winning” with Paul Newman, “Grand Prix” with James Garner, or “Le Mans” with Steve McQueen. Not much else is worth it.
Jack
The Reporting Marks and Logos appear to have been digitally blanked-out in post production.
It would have taken too much time to cover the markings with paint during such a short shooting schedule.
The Motorcycle load in the Box Car with open doors was a visually stunning shot. It was like a subtle advertisement for Mike’s Train House O Gauge line of Harley-Davidson freight cars.
There was recently an episode of “The Dead Zone” that was set mostly on passenger trains. At least “The Dead Zone” producers did not mix freight and passenger service like on that episode of “CSI” set in Las Vegas.
Andrew
As a firefighter, I’m a fan of the ground-breaking “Emergency” series that aired in the 70’s. While the technical firefighting and EMS aspects were second to none (the show’s producer and advisor made sure of that), some things tend to show up when you are watching the ‘boxed set’ of the first seasons of the show.
As with many such shows, they used a number of stock shots - but during a marathon of three or four shows one day, I discovered that they seemed to make the same trip down the same street with the same car parked in the same spot an awful lot of times…
Randolph Mantooth (John Gage) spoke at a conference I attended (he autographed my model of Squad 51). During is talk, he told why Roy always drove - during shooting for stock footage, Roy was driving…
I could go on.
Of course, TV/Hollywood should never be taken as portraying realistic anything.
In that light, the entire CSI series sets new records of leaving reality at the door. Zugman pretty much has the idea.
| I think the Fillmore & Western was on CSI ?? |
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ITS Called TV ! It aint real railroading,its just for show and some of the script sounded good so the writers left it in…I wanted to watch that episode and missed it[banghead]
I was pleasantly surprised that the CSI writers even know that railroads exist. So many people today are quick to praise truck drivers for delivering the goods and don’t even know what a train is.
They did lose all credibility, though, when I saw that ex-AMTRAK car in the middle of a freight train!
You know, those writers probably get so much money that they might have gone on a private car once, if they even know that they have those, and thought of that while writing that show. They could have possibly been on a private car on the back of a freight train. Once I went on a trip with American Rail Excursions and they said they could travel on freight trains. But on the other hand I think the’re the exact opposite of a foamer and who in there right mind would do that? I mean If them or any other series would ever write about trains again, get a darn foamer workin with you!
Foamers are smart, use them!