More Vintage railroad film!

[Trainman203]

https://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/search/pb_parent_subject_txt%3A%28railroad%20sound%20movie%20outtakes%29

There's lot of railroad footage mixed in with other subjects, called "outtakes", which makes them even more interesting!  You get to see the screw-ups!

I liked the one where four "engineers" came down from the cab, gathered on the pilot to "practice" for the "shop meeting tonight" and starting doing barbershop quartet versions of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and other songs. Hilarious! What if the superintendent had seen them wasting company time like that! Remember superintendent Dan Thorn in 1930's "Danger Lights?" Classic! He'da kicked their collective posteriors! Then, at the end, they get back on what you now can see as a caboose hop with a wooden crummy, and on its side the road is revealed as C&O. To top it off, they are followed by a transfer run through what is now visible as a nightmarish northeastern heavy industrial landscape, the engine shrieking a truly horrible single tone screecher whistle.

[Trainman203]

There are a lot of films in this collection to sort through.  A lot are non railroad, you'll have to cull those out, although many are interesting just because of their age and depictions of bygone times. A noticeable number appear to be from one family's vacation films, but someone in that family really liked trains and we get scenes of 1940s and 50s Deep South railroading, which was not particularly well documented in comparison to other regions.

I've been through about 2/3 of them now and many don't have enough to comment on , but I'll get around to the ones I think have something notable to show.  Of course everyone is welcome to make comments too, I'd like to see them.

[Len]

Not exactly a "vintage" film, but there's a pretty nice shot of a cab forward hauling heavy freight at the 49 minute mark of the 1956 Sci-Fi film "Earth vs the Flying Saucers".

The film itself is kind of hoakey, but the special effects by Ray Harryhausen aren't bad. And they inspired a lot of the sequences in the later Sci-Fi parody, "Mars Attacks!".

Len

[RAM]

Those four engineers did not work on the railroad.  three of the four step on the rail to cross over it

[Trainman203]

Great observation.

Here's the link:

https://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/object/usc%3A46256

[Terry Toenges]

Another observation - The leader of the pack is wearing nice shiny low quarter shoes. The older heavy set guy (who doesn't step on the rail) is wearing what looks like dull work boots. The other two it's hard to tell. I'm guessing the older guy might be actually be used to working.

[Trainman203]

Two more observations.  I do not believe that the 2-8-0 is a C&O locomotive.  I looked at numerous photos of C&O steamers and none featured the large engine numerals on the tender, but rather "Chesapeake and Ohio" in a distinctive font on the tender.  So then, the question is .... whose locomotive is this?  Any clue on the cab is obscured by reflectivity.  One clue that might be useful, oddly enough, is the valve gear.  Very close frame-stopping study reveals that the eccentric crank is set 15 deg behind the driver axle, fairly unusual practice compared to the more common 15 deg before. Perhaps some more detail conscious locomotive historian could determine which northeastern road used this eccentric crank setting.  I'm pretty sure that the track is the C&O since C&O cabooses appear twice.  The identity of the passing Pacific on the passenger train is not  immediately apparent either, but the very distinctive painted star in the center of the smokebox door instead of a number plate is a very strong clue, and I bet that research of C&O Pacifics would show this engine to be one.

The other observation is the hats.  Today's stereotyped engineer cap is a low rise striped denim affair but two of the guys have tall peaked caps that used to be seen fairly often when I was a kid along the T&NO , you know that at least half the old heads then were old steam hoggers. I'd like to have one but haven't found them yet.  They were denim striped, plain or even polka dotted, very cool.

Another engineer cap from bygone days was the low rise cap but in blue denim or other colors.  I once had a dark blue one and a yellow one with wide black stripes, both are now in the mists of the past.

You can still get the "Kromer" caps.

Its pretty hot down here a lot of the year.  Ive seen engine photos with the hogger wearing a white shirt and a straw fedora.  Don't know how much denim I'd want to wear in a steam cab on a 97 deg day like we've been having lately.

[Trainman203]

Looking at photos of C&O 4-4-0 #231 that was buried in the Church Hill Tunnel cave-in in 1925, it carries the same lettering scheme with big tender numerals as the 2-8-0, only a year earlier than the singing crew video, so maybe the 2-8-0 really is a C&O engine.