I saw the film, Silver Streak today. I was wondering if some of the proceedings are correct, or pure camera trick?
Nevertheless, it sure makes for a good movie doesn’t it?
Thanks for answering my questions!
Justin
I saw the film, Silver Streak today. I was wondering if some of the proceedings are correct, or pure camera trick?
The locomotive engineer operating the FP7’s on the left side.
[color=blue]CNW with their English style running I believe had the engineer on the left side of the cab.[/color]
Steam coming out of the top and bottom of the locomotives
[color=blue]Steam out of the top would have pop off from the steam generator, from below the engine would have been from the steam trainline connections. There should also have been steam coming from the rear car’s steam train line connection.[/color]
If you decoupled the cars would the breaks apply and bring the remaining cars to a stop.
[color=blue]A normal air brake system would have stopped both ends of the train.[/color]
I bet it is pretty close to impossible to decouple those Budd cars, or and rail car for that matter, when the slack is pulled tight.
[color=blue]With slack stretched, the pin can’t be pulled. While a train is in motion on anything other than a up grade, slack will be moving within the train. True engineers are controlling how that slack moves. [/color]
Would 2 FP7’s really travel that far into Chicago’s “Central” station, and only sustain a large crack in the front of the unit, and some busted glass?
[color=blue]Damage from each and every collision is unique…you don’t really know what you are hitting until you hit it. Facades are not normally substantial constructions. [/color]
Any other things that aren’t correct?
[color=blue]The swinging Signal…No No NO. [/color]
Are all the switches in yards run by a computer that can’t be overridden in the case of an emergency?
[color=blue][b]Switches and signals can be changed, however, all of them have time ou
Most assuredly not the case–as a fireman or brakeman on various runs, it was I who was responsible for snagging the train orders from my cab window and taking them to the engineer for reading and study.
Please don’t take this personally, but I’ve heard 'way too much about the CNW’s left-handed running being “English” in origin. The official explanation is not like that, and the plausible explanation (which now happens to coincide with the official one) refutes it.
Consider: those yard tracks that the train went barrelling through were working tracks for the switching of cars. There is no way that any of those would have had automatic switches (I believe the hand-throw switch-stands shown will bear me out on that). Besides, no dispatcher would have used a yard track with a maximum speed of about ten miles per hour when the main track around the yard was open and available. There would have been too many factors unknown to him, or even to a yardmaster in charge of those tracks–such as location of employees at work, contents of cars on adjacent tracks (one had to expect a high-speed train to derail somewhere on a track such as this, which makes the jeopardizing of passengers’ lives an acti
Wasn’t it because when they build the depots on the original single track line, they built them all on one side and then when they double tracked, they didn’t feel like moving or demolishing the depots so they just laid another track and added a platform? I don’t remember exactly why they didn’t just use the depot for the other direction…
Justin, remember it’s a movie and movies tend to be removed from true life. People have noticed anomalies such as six shot revolvers that fire 27 times without reloading, changes of clothes from one scene to the next and then back again on the third, etc. Hollywood, FWIW, knows very little about railroads and cares less, so just enjoy it and disregard the inaccuravies. BTW, SILVER STREAK was an excellent movie…
Ty, you have the correct explanation. Now just think about it: stations are used primarily by passengers who will be getting onto trains, because they want to buy tickets, stay out of the weather, or whatever. People getting off the trains go somewhere else, usually involving a trip home. This primarily involves Chicagoland commuting, but those would have been the first portions of the railroad to be multiple-tracked.
So, when a second track was built, it was naturally built on the side opposite all of the depot platforms. That new track, not blessed with a building designed to accommodate a bunch of boarding passengers (may have had a shelter but it wouldn’t have an agent of its own), became the track for outbound trains. The track nearest the stations became the inbound track. CNW’s stations were built to the north or west sides of the right-of-way, so this setup favored left-handed running. (CB&Q’s stations, on the other hand, just happened to be on the south side of the tracks, so right-handed operation worked better.)
Back to the original topic: Silver Streak was indeed a funny movie, and the perpetrated misconceptions about railroad operations were just more funny stuff to me, as preposterous as other parts of the plot. I guess it wasn’t gut-busting, more like eye-rolling.
There were many other railroad inaccuracies, Justin. (Dead-man’s pedals didn’t work like that, for example.) And some of the geographic liberties taken were pretty funny, too. The terminal tracks shown just before the final crash were those at the North Western Station in Chicago, and the station interior was that of the Toronto Union Station.
When the movie “Silver Streak” was made my Dad was a dispatcher. They used various locations in southern Alberta and southeastern BC. (See Kootenay Central’s stories about it.) Dad would tell us a lot of stories about the goings on. It took a number of months as I recall to make the movie. The one thing I do remember is when he told us about how the train crews caught on to the movie making biz. At first nobody wanted to do it so younger guys got the jobs, but the movie making business is a lot of hurry up and wait and the amount of waiting coupled with very little work soon had guys at the top of the list taking those jobs. Those jobs were set up the same as MOW work train jobs and they paid real well.
An interesting tie in to current times is that when the train comes into the city before it gets to the terminal tracks mentioned by Carl, the real train is coming into Calgary NB on the Macleod Sub. A lot of the houses in the movie have been replaced by commercial buildings. But near the end of that sequence, say within a handful of city blocks, is where the Holiday Inn I mentioned staying in on the Trackside Lounge thread in early November is now located. It has got to be a decade since i last saw that movie but now I am wondering if the 42nd Ave. crossing where I saw the large covered hopper isn’t in the movie. Now I am going to have to look for that movie myself. Oh well.
Bruce
Any resemblance between a movie and the real world is strictly coincidental. Dad (flew combat in the 8th AF) used to point out numerous inaccuracies in both the movie and TV series “12 O’Clock High”, but we all enjoyed them anyway, it’s still Dad’s favorite movie. I’m ready to tear my hair out with some geographic and place name inaccuracies in movies and TV series set in Chicago, but if the plot line and acting is good, I can live with it.
I saw the film, Silver Streak today. I was wondering if some of the proceedings are correct, or pure camera trick?
The locomotive engineer operating the FP7’s on the left side.
CNW with their English style running I believe had the engineer on the left side of the cab.
Only when the engineer is napping and the fireman is running.[:-^]
Actually, the C&NW had a few dual-control locomotives (Alco C628, inherited from N&W); but other than that, the locomotives were all standard-issue.
If you decoupled the cars would the breaks apply and bring the remaining cars to a stop.
A normal air brake system would have stopped both ends of the train.
Yes, but the weight of the locomotives would cause the head-end to travel further, especially if the units were still under power.
I bet it is pretty close to impossible to decouple those Budd cars, or and rail car for that matter, when the slack is pulled tight.
With slack stretched, the pin can’t be pulled. While a train is in motion on anything other than a up grade, slack will be moving within the train. True engineers are controlling how that slack moves.
However, even passenger coaches have some slack–otherwise they could not be uncoupled (and if you watch closely in the movie, you can see the slack adjusting just before he pulls the pin).
Would 2 FP7’s really travel that far into Chicago’s “Central” station, and only sustain a large crack in the front of the unit, and some busted glass?
Damage from each and every collision is unique…you don’t really know what you are hitting until you hit it. Facades are not normally substantial constructions.
The bigger questi
[(-D] [(-D]
But not quite. Al Franken was ‘‘Baggage Handler #1’’ in Trading Places (1983) - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086465/fullcredits#cast and 13. under Actor: at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0291253/#actor1980
But he’s not credited anyplace in Silver Streak (1976) - compare with http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075223/fullcredits#cast
Thanks anyway - I had never thought of that until you mentioned it. But what I can’t remember is whether he was the ‘smart’ one or the ‘dumb’ one - I’m pretty sure he was the one who was claiming it was his turn to drive the motorized baggage cart ‘tow-motor’, though . . .
- Paul North.
.
You are quite correct. On both counts.
I don’t know how I got the two movies confused. Except that sit next to each other on my shelf.
Too much holiday cheer perhaps.
I’m wondering how accurate they’re going to make the movie Unstoppable (based on the 2001 CSX runaway), which comes out next year.
Kevin
Well, consider the plot: A rail company frantically works to prevent an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train carrying combustible liquids and poisonous gas from wiping out a city. A veteran engineer and a young conductor chase the train in a separate locomotive in order to bring it under control before it’s too late.
I suppose the best we can hope for is that they do not include a steering wheel in the cab…
Coincidentally, filming was delayed one day when part of the train accidentally derailed on November 21, 2009 http://wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=70791
Two other howlers I remember:
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The layout of the baggage car, with shelves, etc, and the absence of a train baggageman. The latter also pops up in a 1938 movie by Alfred Hitchcock I caught up with only last weekend, “The Lady Vanishes.” In both cases, passengers were free to enter the baggage car and rummage around as they pleased.
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The hero rejoining his train by hopping onto a vestibule, complete with steps, at the REAR of the end car.
You’d think a railroad-themed movie would at least call for a railroad consultant.
We have the same problem in the fire service…
I’m sorry, I should have taken more pains with my post immediately preceding.
By “the REAR of the end car” I should hasten to add that I refer to the gated end, right above the coupler.
Locomotive steam generators don’t have a “Pop off” valve. Steam from the top would be from the manually operated orifice valve. Fireman might use this with a small train in mild weather to keep steam generator cycling more often (drier steam), or open it while units cut away from train for a p/u or s/o. As in steam days Road foremen objected to this valve open as wasting steam/fuel.
To protect steam generator there was a “Stack switch” which will shut it down due to high exhaust temperature. Normal (automatic) operation is on/off when minimum and maximum pressures obtained. If for some reason doesn’t cycle off, then stack switch will eventually.
Am I adding a memory that does not really exist when I speak of the hero’s being swept off the top of the train by a semaphore blade that reaches over the train?
Johnny