Just watched Silver Streak again last night on Fox movie channel. For passenger train freaks this movie has a lot of good interior shots that would be useful for gathering interior detail information.
I’m guessing the locomotives were FP7’s ? Looked like the paint scheme was CP although they had bogus AMROAD logos everywhere.
It’s funny how after getting immersed in the hobby for a while movies like this take on a whole new perspective.
I haven’t seen silver streak in a while, and I don’t have any passenger trains yet. But thats all right!
I also found that I paid closer attention to details on trains in movies and so forth after I got into the hobby.
I first saw Silver Streak at the old local theater when it first came out in the late 70s and a couple of times on TV since then. I like the part at the very end when the loco comes crashing through the station…
Tracklayer
Silver Streak has always been one of my favorite movies. Years ago, I read somewhere that it had to be filmed in Canada because Amtrak refused to cooperate with the film because of the obvious negative images of the run-a-way train etc. Course that could just an excuse since it seems to cheaper to film there than in the US for some reason i.e. Toronto is often used in films to represent a large US city.
This is a remake of a movie of the same name. It came out in either the 30s or 40s. It doesnt seem to be around, but can probably be found on the net if it was ever released on DVD or VHS. Should be interesting to watch
The locomotives are FP9.
Movies and TV series are shot in Canada because the Canadian goverment believes that it is advantagous to thier economy, thus the film companies get breaks that are not offered in the USA.
Has anyone seen the original Silver Streak movie with the Pioneer Zephyr in it 1934 I think?
I have the original movie on DVD. It’s actually a pretty good movie.
BTW it has nothing to do with the 1970’s movie except the title, completely different stories. The 30’s movie is about an engineer who designs a new diesel train for a railroad, and his problems getting everything to work correctly. The RR is about to cancel the diesel program when the RR president’s son is taken ill while working on building Hoover Dam and has to be rushed east for treatment. It turns out only the diesel train can make the run in time. The train saves the day, the engineer is a hero and gets the girl etc. etc.
Thanks very much, I can picture the action!!
Ken.
Nigel, are you sure about that? I don’t think CP had FP9’s only 7’s.
I’ll have to get the movie to double check!!!
& actually, the movie making business is advantagous to the economy because of the decent paying jobs the industry creates as a result of them filming in Canada! Major plus for any local economy
Gordon
CPR had both FP7 and FP9. The 9s were numbered in the 1400s, the 7s in the 4000s to 4100s, but many renumbered into gaps in th 1400s. 1405-1415 were FP9.
The train in SS was the Canadian re-lettered. A friend of mine has a slide of the Silver Streak consist tacked on behind the regular Canadian.
For people around Toronto, the final runaway sequence was amusing. The train seems to run down all the lines coming into Toronto; just imagine a run into New York which starts along the Pennsy, floows the Hudson south along the NYC and finally crosses the Hell’s Gate bridge into Grand Central.
Actually, though both films share the same title, the Gene Wilder comedy is not a remake of the 1930’s movie of the same name. The 'thirties action-adventure film ‘starred’ the Burlington “Pioneer Zephyr” and had to do with a transcontinental race from the West to the East coast to transport a seriously ill person to the only hospital in America that could treat the disease (Johns Hopkins, or something like that, on the East Coast). The original film had some wonderful shots of the Burlington ‘streamliner’, but the plot was straight out of the Hollywood B-film vaults.
Tom [:D]
While it is true Amtrak did not want any part of the movie (mainly because of the crash scene)…they do appear in it.
If you look closely in the background when the dispatcher (Fred Willard) is talking to the cop about the Silver Streak being a runaway, you’ll see a black Alco switcher pulling a few Amtrak baggage cars. This background shot was clearly taken in Chicago. The baggage cars were in phase I paint. So Amtrak does appear in Silver Streak. Wonder if they ever noticed it?
Silver Streak (1976) is my favorite movie. Fantastic actors and a somewhat interesting story loaded with action and trains makes this a winner. Gene Wilder and Richard Prior were fantastic in this movie. And Mr. Devereau (Patrick McGoohan) was perfect. I’ve contemplated a new cast for a modern day version of the movie, but just can’t seem to find anyone up to McGoohan’s talent to fill the role. Recasting for Gene Wilder is also challenging as no one has his range of seriousness and comedic timing.
Great movie. Liked it since I was 4.
The Wiki page on the movie says the station scenes (both Chicago and K.C. were filmed at Toronto’s Union Station. The biplane scenes were filmed in Alberta.
My favorite scene in that movie is when Gene Wilder is in the sheriff’s office.
“Tell them I have the Rembrandt letters.”
“Is he with the Feds?”
“Who?”
“This guy Rembrandt.”
“Rembrandt is dead.”
“Dead?! That makes four.”
Steven S,
Even though,this is a seven year old thread,that was funny. [(-D]
Cheers, [D]
Frank
I hadn’t noticed. But Basinger1 resurrected it so might as well keep it going.
Steve S
Steven S,
Yeah I know he started it,but I still think,a lot in that movie,was funny. [swg]
Cheers, [D]
Frank
I know what you mean, now my favorite Hitchcock movie is “North by Northwest”, still can’t decide which is more elegant, Eva Marie Saint or the “20th Century Limited”.
regards, Peter
I would wonder whether an entertainment movie would be a good place to get passenger train interior information. I understand most extended interior train scenes are filmed on mockup sets, where walls can be moved out of the way to allow camera angels, with background action out the windows matted in through the green screen process. Since “Silver Streak” was not duplicating any exact specific prototype, the set designer would be under little incentive to copy any train interior verbatim. Just get the general appearance, “suggest” the dimensions of a typical railcar and design the details to fit the story needs.