Movie train production

[Terry Toenges]

Watching from atop the water tower sounds really cool. I Googled a number of different things and visited a few sites to come up with that info.

[Trainman203]

Oh yes Terry it was beyond the height of cool, especially as the train slowly pulled out.  From the top of the tank we watched it slowly disappear into the desert distance.  When it was just about out of sight a tall white steam plume silently rose up from the engine, now only a speck near the horizon.  After a long moment that faint lonesome whistle scream floated in on the wind, now discernable, now fading away like steam itself.  An unforgettable gut wrenching tableau emblemental of the last twilight glimmer of revenue service steam railroading.

[ebtnut]

I think the Jim Garner movie probably post-dated 1981.  I remember watching it, and I think some of it was filmed on the Texas State RR, which is where I believe the Magma engine is now located.  i'm going to guess this was some time in the early '90's. 

[Terry Toenges]

The movie was done in '82  and was done on Texas State RR.  In '74, Texas State RR bought Magma's #7. They rehabbed it in '78.

[Terry Toenges]

Here's a trailer from a new movie. The loco looks too new to me to be around Civil War time. Am I correct?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5960386/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_2

[Trainman203]

It's definitely too modern.  Can't get a good fix from the little snips but could that be one of the WP&Y 2-8-2's from Dollywood?  Definitely a fake stack on an engine that never burned wood.  And the pilot is a modern steel strap one, surprised they didn't put a big silly red "cowcatcher" on it.  Is that 3' gauge track?  The rail is way too heavy for the times and the track is too straight and too ballasted.  And in one scene the corner of the vestibule of a riveted steel passenger car is seen, which didn't come till after 1900 more or less.

Man.  Doesn't anyone pay attention anymore to, or care about, detail accuracy when it come to railroads?

[ebtnut]

I'm pretty sure that the loco is Little River RR No. 110.  It is the smallest 4-6-2 ever built for a standard gauge U.S. railroad.  I believe it still resides at a museum in Indiana.  It's definitely too modern for the post-Civil War time frame.  There are at least two period-appropriate locos out there - the "Leviathan" and the "York".  Both were built by Kloke as copies of mid-19th Century 4-4-0's and both are operable.  You can take a look at the "York" on the net.  Search for "Steam Into History".

[Trainman203]

Good call.  I looked at pictures of that engine and I agree that is probably her in those scenes.

What a cool little engine.  I knew of her before but had no idea she had been preserved , much less in operating condition , what a find, thanks.

She also has a fake square oil lantern headlight in the clips. 

Again and again you see the same thing all the time- balloon or diamond stack, big goofy cowcatcher, and square headlight make any engine instantly  1800's in the public's eye.

Remember the engine in Breakheart Pass?  I talked to the now deceased owner over 30 years ago, a retired UP old steam head. He bought that engine from the Great Western in Colorado when he retired, along with enough vintage freight and passenger cars to make a creditable vintage train, with the purpose of servicing Hollywood's vintage railroad needs, and he did. He said he picked that engine because with a variety of stacks and cowcatchers he could make that engine reasonably be anything from 1880 to 1950.

Where are guys like this when you need them.  The old heads are all gone now.  I miss talking to them.

[Terry Toenges]

In looking at pics of 110, having the domes so close together and the whistle on a short dome looks kind of odd to me compared to others. That makes it more identifiable in the movie. though.

[Trainman203]

That's an auxiliary dome dedicated to pop valves and whistle, a more modern way to install those appliances.

That engine might be a 4-6-2 but with those low, low drivers she was never meant for mainline passenger runs.  The only reason there is a trailing truck is to keep her on the track when running in reverse for long distances pullling a train which was very common on short lines and logging lines.  It's in effect a "logging" Pacific, although "logging" prairies were a lot more common.

[bbmiroku]

I watched that clip three times.  Where's the diamond/balloon stack?  All I see is a coal-burn stack with a styled lip.

[Trainman203]

Yes, correct, I missed the stack.  The clips are very, very short, attuned to an attention deficit disorder age.  Easy to miss details.  The engine has a late 1800's capped stack, very cool, not many of those left.  But if this is supposed to be the mid to late 1860's,  the stack and the entire engine are 40 years too modern.

Plus, I have to wonder, what is a tiger doing in the movie.

[Terry Toenges]

I wondered about the tiger, too.

[Trainman203]

If it's set in Louisiana, maybe it's SEC "LSU Tigers" 😂😂😂

[bbmiroku]

Maybe it's just a hook.  It certainly made you pay attention, didn't it?