train movies again

[john tricarico]

if anyone remembers the older our gang comedys ,, i mean the silent ones filmed in the late 1920s, theres a show called sundwon limited where the our gang kids are running around a santa fe engine facility, with what  looks like brand new or washed clean santa fe pacifics running by.

[az2rail]

I am suprised that no one has mentioned "The General" or "The Railroader" with Buster Keaten.

Bruce

[poliss]

You can watch The Railrodder on the National Film Board of Canada's Youtube page. No, that isn't a spelling mistake. The title is Railrodder, not Railroader. I have no idea why.
What would have happened if the ad in the newspaper had been Drink Canada Dry instead of See Canada Now, I wonder?

[phillyreading]

There was a Laurel & Hardy movie from the 1930's, I think the 30's maybe late 1920's, anyway it has some older hopper cars from freight trains in it, I thought that Lionel had dreamed up the idea for one of their prewar hoppers(#3659) but after seeing that movie I can see where Lionel got the protoype from. The hopper is a side dumping one with a V shaped bin.

So before you say that something was never made, check back in history a few years or more.

Lee F.

[glennk28]

Two DVD's I got recently:  "Sinister Journey " starring William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy) on the SP narrow gauge--
"A Ticket to Tomahawk" Dan Dailey and Ann Bancroft--loco is RGS 20, mockup was built for close-ups and the big sequence of hauling the loco overland.  This was alsso used for studio shots in Petticoat Jct.  Now being restored in Durango as a trade for the returned-to-service D&RGW 315
gj

[J3a-614]

For John Tricarico, a double feature:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CpStbku ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5tAnll0WTQ

I have to call these guilty pleasures--shouldn't like these, they're as politically incorrect as can be but I find them hilarious, had forgotten how funny those kids could be, but yikes, the !!@#$%&*$#!!! chances they took with running a locomotive over a kid!!

I know this was done slowly with undercranked cameras, and the later version of the same stunt looks like it may have been done with a puppet, but still. . .

Then there was that crazy train on one set of wheels in "Unstoppable". . .

[phillyreading]

The movie "Unstoppable" had too many crazy things in it; first a locomotive that gets away from the engineer(modern diesels have a failsafe switch or deadman switch-that, must be activated every 25 to 30 seconds or the emergency brakes come on, won't allow an engine to move if nobody is in the cab), second the brake lines have to be connected or the freight cars won't move except by manual override. Freight cars were parked in the yard area and the engineer didn't hook up close to half the service airlines. Nobody jumps out of a moving engine to throw a switch manually.
Common sense tells you that the movie "Unstoppable" is a Hollywood fantasy!!

Lee F.

[electrical whiz kid]

The marx Brothers did a movie featuring a ride on a trai, in which Groucho and Harpo were running the locomotive.  I was building a wall unit at the time, so all I could afford was an occasional passing glance at the TV; but I do remember one of groucho's lines as  "...Well, pop goes the diesel", and thought that as typical of Groucho's razor sharp and lightening quick lines.
Rich

[richg]

The movie "Unstoppable" had too many crazy things in it; first a locomotive that gets away from the engineer(modern diesels have a failsafe switch or deadman switch-that, must be activated every 25 to 30 seconds or the emergency brakes come on, won't allow an engine to move if nobody is in the cab), second the brake lines have to be connected or the freight cars won't move except by manual override. Freight cars were parked in the yard area and the engineer didn't hook up close to half the service airlines. Nobody jumps out of a moving engine to throw a switch manually.
Common sense tells you that the movie "Unstoppable" is a Hollywood fantasy!!

Lee F.

I could not suspend disbelief long enough for the movie trailer before the movie was release so I never did go see the movie.

Below is what happened. Store the link in Favorites.

http://kohlin.com/CSX8888/z-final-report.htm

Three people where in danger. Chase loco crew and the 52 year old RR supervisor who had to step on the runaway loco at a 12 mph. The chase loco was running backwards so the loco engineer could not see right hand curves coming up. The conductor up "front" at the rear of the loco used hand signals to let the engineer know about right hand curves, Max speed for this type of loco unloaded is about 25 mph. They sometimes where doing 65 mph to catch up. Remember, the runaway loco was running at full throttle.
I have the article printed March 2002 if anyone is interested.

Rich

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

"A Ticket to Tomahawk" Dan Dailey and Ann Bancroft--loco is RGS 20, mockup was built for close-ups and the big sequence of hauling the loco overland.  This was alsso used for studio shots in Petticoat Jct.  Now being restored in Durango as a trade for the returned-to-service D&RGW 315
gj

Close, but it was Anne Baxter (of All About Eve and The Ten Commandments). A weird movie, IMO, with Anne Baxter riding horses and shooting guns and trying to sound countrified, but I watched it again a few weeks ago for the first time in years. I knew it was filmed on the Silverton branch, and since I rode the Durango & Silverton last spring, I wanted to see if I recognized any of the scenery. I did. The High Line is unmistakeable, and the town of "Tomahawk" is unmistakeably Silverton, Colorado.

[glennk28]

I knew it was Anne Baxter--how did that clip past my spell checker??  8^))    gj

[J3a-614]

The movie, "Ticket to Tomahawk" also features a young, young Marilyn Monroe as one of the chorus girls.

The Marx Brothers movie in question is "Go West," and it has one wild, wild train sequence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOUC_D2DAn8

Now if I could figure out how to get money this way, and actually get it to work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve4TybVfMh8&feature=related

[glennk28]

Not really rail-rrelated--but one of Marilyn Monroe's first movie appearances was also the last Marx Bro's movies--"Love Happy" in which she is a client of lawyer Groucho.  gj

[electrical whiz kid]

Groucho and Monroe-what a hoot!

[phillyreading]

As mentioned by Richg, about the movie "Unstoppable", this was common practice for the Pennsy RR, as they ran their diesel engines with the cab in the rear on the mainline service. 

Lee F.