train movies again

[beampaul7]

We just saw an old John Wayne western movie last night, Three God Fathers.   My guess is that it was filmed in the Owens valley on the old Carson and Colorado.  The loco was #9 a 4-6-0 complete with whale back tender and pulling a flat car/horse car and a combine.  This is a 1948 movie.

Paul

[J3a-614]

Looks like you were right; here's a location list from a movie site:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040064/locations

I understand the Owens Valley line was used in a number of films, among them "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," with Humphrey Bogart.

[ryeguyisme]

john wayne also did the ":hurricane express" with southern pacific engines

[J3a-614]

A couple of cool movies (at least I think so)--

"Broadway Limited," 1941--movie studio tries a publicity stunt with a baby, with problems that occur as the baby and the actress in the stunt make their way to New York on the Pennsy's Broadway Limited:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5OpOU4HFNY

"Powderkeg!"--1971, pilot episode for the "Bearcats" television series; mercenaries take on Mexican revolutionists in 1914:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF3ZwkcpU-k

Have fun.

[Woody Elmore]

The "Three Godfathers" was indeed done on the SPNG. THe depot and water tank featured in the movie were built for the film. Some of the equipment still exists at the SPNG museum which I believe is in Laws, California.

[phillyreading]

The Harvey Girls is more of a musical than a train film, however it does have some nice history about the Santa Fe railroad. Because of when it was made they had a steam locomotive as power for the train.

Lee F.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

We just saw an old John Wayne western movie last night, Three God Fathers.   My guess is that it was filmed in the Owens valley on the old Carson and Colorado.  The loco was #9 a 4-6-0 complete with whale back tender and pulling a flat car/horse car and a combine.  This is a 1948 movie.

Paul

I'll have to work for that one. I never knew they did any movie work on the C&C.

Not a movie, but a dear friend recently sent me a half a dozen discs of recordings he made of the old TV series Iron Horse, with Dale Robertson.

Evidently they had a mock-up of Sierra #3 that was used "on set." It wasn't very well proportioned. The boiler looks too big to me, and the domes way too small.

The Harvey Girls is more of a musical than a train film, however it does have some nice history about the Santa Fe railroad. Because of when it was made they had a steam locomotive as power for the train.

Lee F.

I think the engine was the old V&T Inyo.

[phillyreading]

This is more of a sit-com series than a movie, Petticoat Junction. The passenger car was a combo baggage and passenger. They even had a handcar being used at times.

Lee F.

[ebtnut]

Both "Petticoat Jct." and "Iron Horse" used Sierra RR No. 3 for their location shots.  The engine was recently returned to service after a long overhaul.  The on-set mock-ups had a passing resemblence to the real loco.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

This is more of a sit-com series than a movie, Petticoat Junction. The passenger car was a combo baggage and passenger. They even had a handcar being used at times.

Lee F.

One of these days (years?) I need to get around to seeing the British movie The Titfield Thunderbolt. What I have read of the plot of the film--English villagers try to save their local rail service from being shut down--sounds to me suspiciously like the premise of Petticoat Junction, at least initially--the Bradleys and their friends and neighbors from Hooterville trying to keep the C&FW Railroad from scrapping the Hooterville Cannonball.

Incidentally, if you ever get to see the pilot episode for Petticoat Junction, watch very carefully and quickly the scene set in the railroad boardroom. Although that episode is in black and white, if you watch carefully, you can see that the large mock-up of an F-unit diesel that sits on the boardroom table is clearly decorated in the Santa Fe's Warbonnet paint scheme. 

[Terry Toenges]

When I went on vacation out West a few years ago, I saw #3 when she was still disassembled.  It was like seeing a movie star all torn apart. Kind of sad for me at the time.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

When I went on vacation out West a few years ago, I saw #3 when she was still disassembled.  It was like seeing a movie star all torn apart. Kind of sad for me at the time.

I can imagine it was. That engine has been in so many TV shows and movies that it's like it's an old friend.

It's good to know that it's been put back together again and is in service. 

One of my goals is to "visit" it some day. I guess you could say that's on my bucket list. 

[J3a-614]

Johnson Bar, I've seen "The Titfield Thunderbolt," and can personally say it's one of the most delightful films I've seen in years.  It's a comedy about villagers wanting to save their branch line, and yet also has a number of accurate technical aspects to it (i.e., the different regulations for a "light railway" operating certificate). 

One of the wildest parts of the movie involves the efforts two of the (drunken) principals to acquire a replacement locomotive after their own engine is wrecked by sabotage (courtesy of a rival bus company).  They just steal an identical locomotive from an engine terminal--but fail to line up the turntable properly!  The result is a locomotive running down streets and roads (disguised truck, really), scaring auto drivers off roads, waking up people sleeping in houses along the road, being chased by a policeman on a bicycle, and ending up hitting a tree.  In the police station, the charges against the two include operating an overweight vehicle, unlicensed vehicle, vehicle lacking proper lights, operators without a license, public intoxication, drunken driving, reckless driving, etc.--wonderful list of charges!

The whole movie used to be on YouTube, but sadly no longer is (I'm going to guess over copyright issues), but some clips are on, with some unfortunate music choices.  Consider these a preview of what you'll get to see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZsurlCbAsk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=jexGJsppkP0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lwhnpq4cTY&feature=endscreen&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-pEqKxXkus&feature=related

A footnote:  the "replacement: locomotive the little road gets is the "Thunderbolt" (actually the "Lion"), a very early locomotive that is preserved and still operational--and note that it has a pair of early safety valves, operated through levers to springs in cases.  These were discussed in another thread on early 4-4-0s in America that also used this arrangement, and here they are, in real life, keeping the steam pressure down in a locomotive from the 1830s. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ZHUcQDXEFpA

Sadly, both the branch line and the main line featured in the opening are now gone. . .

Do get the movie, you won't be disappointed.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Do get the movie, you won't be disappointed.

Thanks for all that, J3a. I guess the fact that I haven't seen it yet has mostly to do with my being a chronic procrastinator. ...   

Never enough time, never enough. ... 

[J3a-614]

Link to an earlier discussion on train movies, with titles in the discussion:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,6894.0.html

Link to the 1930 classic, "Danger Lights," shot on the Milwaukee Road:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM07gDi_ds0

One episode of a movie "serial" (actually a series, not a "cliff-hanger" type as the serial form would later become), "The Wild Engine," episode 26 from the "Hazards of Helen" series in the silent era:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rb3ZKwmRis&feature=related

Some other clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OcdUqNGCxA&feature=related