Train Scenes in the movie "The Island"

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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Did anyone else get to see “The Island” yet?

There are two train related scenes that are pretty cool, one small, one big.
I’ll try not to ruin the storyline, but when I first saw the previews I thought “Oh great, a remake of Logan’s Run” but I was pleasently surprised by the films very well done action sequences and a depection of a downtown Los Angeles that looked very beleivable. [:0]

Train Scene #1, Amtrack 1, Minetta 0 [;)] Amtrack in alive and well in the future, so well in fact that it now uses MAG LEV’s, thats right a MagLev carried our heros to LA. but unlike todays MagLev, this one looks completely self contained, 2 level jobs hovering above the dirt ground and using “guide blocks” cast into the desert floor to guide it. Its only onscreen for one sceen but its tantilizing.[:p]

Train scene #2, With all passenger service now on seperate magnetic levitaion trains running down the dirt back roads of the desert, that leaves the steel railed tracks free for freight only as can be scene by trains in LA harbor, and when our heros try to escape from the heavies the hide on a large semi-truck flatbed trailer carrying steel RR wheels, which Ewan unlatches and starts to roll off into the path of the Heavies armed pursuit motorcade, its one of the best action scenes in the movies, really neat to see something like this more or less realisticly depected, or at least as real as Hollywood can get. Suffice to say none of the wheelsets bounces “off” the cars, quite the reverse, if you get me…Lets see, Steel RR wheelset + Armored Car + 60mph = Oh Boy! [;)]

Also be sure to check out LA’s new cable stayed Metrorail Hovertrains, and the new Metrorail Monorail system in the LA scenes. Production values on this movie are very good indeed.

So if you need to beat the heat, this is a really fun flick to waste an afternoon on…[:D]

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Saw the movie Saturday and found it kind of wierd. The maglev portion of the movie kind of intrigued me. Did you notice the very short scene where they showed a F69 Amtrak California Service train of today standing still at the LA station?

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I also noticed that they get on a prop train in the desert, but get off standard bi-level supers in LA[}:)]

There are always little things like that, overall its still a fun flick…I’ll see anything with Scarlett in it…Mmmmm Yummy! [:p]

BTW I hope Cadillac really does have a car like that in the flick and its not a prop tease![:D]

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Yes, I believe it was a Caddy concept car, but have you ever seen a Caddy Escalade as a taxi cab, did you notice the cab in the movie they rode in was just that?

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I also like the Chrysler 300 cop cars, kinda reminded me of the Ford Taurus’s in Robocop. I guess its not ment to be too far into the future.

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I always love picking out railroad bloopers in the movies myself. My favorite (that drives my wife nuts) is in the movie White Christmas (1953). They take a train from Florida to New York, then a second one up to Vermont. The first outside shot of the train is the Santa Fe in Long Beach CA (now THERE’S a round about trip, sounds like a railfan planned it). On the second leg, there’s an outside shot of an Illinois Central train out on the plains.

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Just a thought,
but has any one ever tried to start a wheel set moving by hand? The trucks on our tender weige 22.5 tons each <8 wheel buckeye trucks> dividing by six <4 wheel sets and the truck frame, gives 3.75 tons each for the wheel sets, call it 3 tons, thats an awful lot to start by hand…
Gunns