Two questions: First, just for kix & giggles, Clark Kent’s home of Smallville KS is located on what RR in your opinion? Fallen Flag or modern road, either is OK.
Second: The grain elevator town in the aerial flyover scene in the opening credits of most “Smallville” episodes… Can any of us identify that town? Someone frequenting this site must live near there. I’ve racked my brains on google earth & have found similar towns, but not THAT town. For the record, I don’t think it’s in Kansas. The town & geography looks like northern Iowa to me. But I’ve scoured the entire prairie on g-e as & turned up nothing. North Bend Nebraska is very similar, but not it. To get a better view of it check the premier episode near the beginning, when Lionel & young Lex fly to Smallville.
PS: I’m not asking for guesses on this one. Trains.com is probably the best resource for geography info. Surely someone among us recognizes the place.
PPS: No, it isn’t a flyover of Cloverdale BC. In fact, very slim probability of being in Canada at all.
For the first part, ATSF / BNSF might be a logical choice. For the second part, as you say I’d assume it wouldn’t be that hard to find out where the footage was taken. As you note it could be outside of Kansas - the outdoor scenes for “Northern Exposure” (set in Alaska) were shot in a small town in Washington state.
Both the KATY RR (N&S) or AT&SF (E&W) ran thru Neosho County crossing at Erie,Ks.
Given the age of the town, there is likely to be a Carnegie Library with ‘Let There Be Light’ inscribed above the doors within a block or two of the town hall.
Assuming a population of of about 3,000 for the town proper, 4,
The flyover is obviously what is known as “file footage”. That means it isn’t regular filming & could be from anywhere. In BC the only possibility is Peace River, but I don’t think it is. If it’s Canada, it’s either AB, SK, or MB.
I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with this, but there’s gotta be someone on trainsdotcom who actually recognizes the town.
Wow! Good call. A cursory scan of White City shows very real promise. And Deerfield, near Wolf, has similarities with the flyover town as well. I’ll examine both more closely.
Deerfield is on the old ATSF Northern Transcon (too busy)…Every burg out there has the cursory Kansas Skyscraper…Deerfield/Lakin was out at the end of my old roadmaster territory. Nearby Holcomb is where “In Cold Blood” actually happened, south of the tracks and about half a mile east of town.