Stephen Low, the guy that did “The Rocky Mountain Express” has another train movie in the works.
The Rocky Mountain Express was stunning.
Lovely. Looks like only the Canadians can run a steam engine in modern times (for the filming) without a baby sitter diesel!
The train scene in October Sky, when they thought they had ripped up the track the train was going to run on, didn;t have a babysitter diesel in the consist. For filming purposes is one thing, when a failure of a 50-100 year old piece of equipment could block your one and only main line, and/or strand passengers in the middle of nowhere - you run a diesel, dead in tow, just in case.
AN infamous incident with T1 2102 ended up with people having a more than 24 hour excusrion, most of it sitting in the dark - the lack of steam servicing infrastructure can really bite you. Some fire departments use foaming agents in their water, to better put out fires. But this really messes up a steam loco. Seems having the local friendly fire company top off the water in the middle of your trip wasn’t such a great idea, and the train was stalled for a long time until a rescue diesel could be dispatched. Now they run a diesel in the train every time. It’s not pushing, just idling - it’s there just in case.
–Randy
On the other side of the coin, there was a severe winter storm in England a few years ago which knocked out power to an electrified commuter railway. Chuffing to the rescue was an old tourist line steamer which towed the stranded train back to civilization.