Which one would you like to put on a top 20 list? Which is your alltime favourite?
I always liked Emperor of the North, with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine.
“Danger Lights” - IF you can find a tape / DVD of the entire movie, not one all chopped up in a ‘railfan version’ as was done a few years ago. One of the first (maybe the first?) sound movies to be shot entirely ‘on location’ (Milwaukee Road in Montana).
“Titfield Thunderbolt” - If we can sneak in a little British ‘humour’. 
“The Great Locomotive Chase” from Walt Disney, starring Fess Parker, and “The Train” with Burt Lancaster. Both are excellent, I can watch them over and over.
Von Ryans express and the Classic Australian short film “A steam train passes”
Have to agree with von ryans express
I am not sure it qualifies as a train movie, but the segment in How The West Was Won has a great segment in it which includes a steam donky on a flatcar as well as a steam train. It was shot with Cinerama cameras so there has to be some great footage in that format that did not make it into the movie
Paul-D&MR
Many Pauls on this board, so I will sign with my fictitious model RR reporting marks.
Course it depends whether we’re rating how good the movie is as a movie, or how good the train shots within the movie are, or both. There have been some bad movies that have good train scenes - and some good movies that have goofy train scenes…you know, the people are going from New York to Boston and they run stock footage of UP or the “Super Chief”.
In the movie White Christmas, Bing Crosby and crew leave New York on the Santa Fe and head to Vermont!
Aw Gee Mojac, that was my favorite part of that movie.
Dick
Texas Chief
My favorites:
THE TRAIN
UNION PACIFIC
DENVER AND RIO GRANDE
A TICKET TO TOMAHAWK
VON RYAN’S EXPRESS–especially the latter scenes in the Italian Alps.
DANGER LIGHTS
SILVER STREAK (not the Gene Wilder film, but the 1930’s film featuring the “Pioneer Zephyr” as the star.
Tom
North by Northwest (I know, I know, just a cameo of NYC 25)
As for the “Great Locomotive Chase” the near total lack of originality really hurt it. That movie could have been about a gang of robbers in the old west trying to rob a train (to avenge having been wronged by the railroad) as much as it was about a civil war raid on the Southern rail infrastructure. Fess Parker? Please. If there ever was a drama that cries out for a quality re-make this story is it!
You might want to catch the 1927 silent epic THE GENERAL starring Buster Keaton, which covers the same story as THE GREAT LOCOMOTIVE CHASE but does it with a lot more style and wit and excitement. It’s basically a silent comedy (and one of the best comedies ever made,IMO),but it’s also a very thrilling Civil War epic, and the trains are an absolute marvel to watch. And don’t let the fact that it’s a ‘silent’ deter you–the film is just TERRIFIC! I forgot to put it on my previous posted list–why I don’t know.
Tom
D’OH! I forgot “The General”![X-)] It really has a better “feel” to it, I agree. Now, I’ll renew my call for a quality re-make, too bad we’ve missed out on Clint Eastwood* or The Duke doing it right, but there are stars that could get it. And there are stars that should avoid this story like the plague! (* Clint is still alive-but will not appear in a film unless it is right for him-wish I could say that about working!)
BREAKHEART PASS
That’s a fun film, and really SPECTACULAR train action. Just wish they’d used models for the wreck sequence instead of smashing that cute little ex-NP caboose all over the mountainside, though (sigh!). But then I shouldn’t carp, I included DENVER AND RIO GRANDE on my list, and it had two actual narrow-gauge trains smashing head-on. But BREAKHEART PASS is a darned good movie.
Tom
Turner Classic Movies recently reran Buster Keaton’s silent movie “The General”. Very interesting engine pictures, but the story line is awful. Keaton is the engineer, based in the South and I’d swear the history is all screwed up, to use the vernacular.
Great comedy, though.
Art
I have to agree. I like the Milwaukee and it shows some really nice steam locomotives in that movie. Plus you can see the canternary lines above all the railroad. It’s some good footage of the line. Something that has disappeared. I watched the movie just for the railroad really.
Happy railroading[(-D]
James
“Runaway Train” is a good movie. You will get the shivers watching it.
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” has some good Silverton train shots.
“Bite the Bullet” has some good Cumbres and Toltec (former DRG) shots.
“Broadway Limited”. 95% of the movie is filmed on this train in 1940. I’ve seen these “movie” threads before…many movies listed show just a few minutes of trains. I’d like to have a list of movies that are BASED on trains.