I have watched several televison shows featuring the interior of trains. Andy Griffith Show, Leave it to Beaver, I Love Lucy, and Roseanne. Are those real train interiors and how accurate would you say they are if they are not real? thanks
Given TV’s record, I’d say rarely are the scenes accurate!
However some movies aren’t too bad. My favourite is “North by Northwest” where Cary Grant “stows away” on the “Twentieth Century Limited”. A friend of mine insists that the Pullman sleeping compartment in the movie is a mirror image of the real thing, but it looks reasonable to me.
Most trains don’t have room for cameras, lights and sound equipment, so “Mock ups” are built on movie sets so that clear views of the actors can be obtained. Most TV would be the same, more so in the early days when TV cameras were huge and hard to move.
Peter
just like the car scenes…most are fake because of all the camera angles they need. Inspired by the origional? I’d say so.
My favorite part about the Lucy episode is how a speeding passenger train stops instantly when she pulls the cord.
Yeah…really accurate…lol!
Most TV RR interiors I’ve seen appear to be reasonably accurate. The problem is more likely to be that the set designers used an inaccurate prototype. Since the bulk of the shows are shot on the west coast, they are going to use the west coast RRs as a resource. Exteriors is where they usually really screw up, using whatever they have available or can shoot cheaply. While I can’t recall seeing such an example, said practice is why you might see an SP GS4 hauling the “20th Century Limited.”
Anyone who has visited a local TV station (or has perhaps visited the taping of a sitcom, etc, will know that the sets are usually three sided (and occasionally only two sided).
Check out this link on the forums for more on this topic:
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23745
And, despite the near-instant stop (bet you didn’t know those E’s could stop on a dime like that), the cited “I Love Lucy” episode is one of the funniest on TV. Lucy pulls the air (more than once) and dumps dinner (or breakfast–I forget which) all over Ricky, the Murtzes and all the rest of the COLA pax.[(-D][(-D][(-D][dinner] Right up there with vitameatavegemin.
sometimes what isn’t prototypically correct can be hilarious…
You’ll see a G pulling a train in “California”, a GS4 pulling the 20th Century. Kinda like the WW2movies where a Wildcat peels out of formation, dives at as a Corsair and pulls up as an SBD. The fun part is to figure out which RR they are filming on by the engines and cars. The movie “End of the line” was filmed around Little Rock and Various parts of the yard were supposed to be different cities hundreds of miles apart. Very few TV shows should be taken as accurate. The History channel special on the War of 1812 used the couple dozen 1820’s troops from Ft Atkinson, NE stand in as 1812 troops since there are no War of 1812 recreators.
Dave H.
the movies are the ones i like… the equipment might be real…but the plots are thin…or they do stuff to the trains that would derail in real life…or put the brakes on right now…but then agin…its movie magic…
i sat through most of the atomic train on tv the one night…only high point to me was it had kristan davise in it…man she is hot!!! other then a few shots with her in it…the move overall was pure bull…and i am actualy dummer for watching it… my train handeling has suffered…and my switching skills took a hit to…i spent the next 2 nights re educating myself on how a train runes agin…after haveing it sucked out of my mind from that horrably horrbly made movie…
csx engineer
The family won’t watch anything with me because I point out what is not possible or so rediculous that I can’t watch any more of it and they get mad because they were “into the story” .
Some are some aren’t, Silver streak was pretty accurate i thought
There is an Andy Griffith show (one of the color ones) that show a Union Pacific train coming into the station. I believe it’s when Barney comes home from the city and thinks the fan fare is for him, when it’s really for an old hometown girlfriend coming home for the opening of a film.
Anyway, just thought it was funny to see a UP passenger train in Southern land. That goes to show you how accurate that they can be off at times.
Brian (KY)
In the movie Iron Will, they are very accurate becasue they fit all the camera’s into the cars. (and had to pay thousands of dollars in damages Disney did)
Hitchcock always paid attention to accuracy on the railroad stuff in his films. In North by Northwest the train announcement for another NYC train in La Salle St. Station matched the current timetable information. That’s the scene when Cary Grant got off the train disguised as a redcap.
Any accuracy on television is strictly coincidental and occurs when it fits the plot line. We are pretty aware of the howlers involving railroads but I’m sure that aviation enthusiasts and professionals, police, firemen, and others all cringe at other situations.
[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]
Saw an episode the other day where Andy was talking to another gent in the rail yards,
standing next to a WP caboose. (color version)
And Andy Griffth was supposed to be set in where[?][%-)]
A few years back, there was a run-of-the-mill cops-and-robbers type TV show and the climax of this particular episode was a shootout in an Amtrak passenger car yard in LA. Obviously, the art direction team didnt do their homework, because each scene during the shootout occured in a different type passenger car. The bad guys and cops entered an Amfleet coach, shots were exchanged in a dinette/lounge and the actors would be seen leaving a Superliner coach. There were scenes in at least a half dozen types of passenger cars, although according to the script, the actors were entering and exiting 2 cars. It was unintentionally hilarious.