I don't watch the movies to critique the railroad operations.
Metalrailz, sorry, didn't mean for anyone to take offense to my remarks. I'm afraid that critiquing railroad operations on TV and in the movies is something I've always done (and drives my wife to distraction
).
One of the most technically accurate movies that I can remember is "Emperor of the North Pole" with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine. The producers seemed to go to great lengths to recreate a depression-era steam operation, and were successful for the most part. I do remember one shot that showed some Spokane, Portland and Seattle 50' plug door boxcars that were well out of the time frame but other than that a good portrayal of 1930's railroading. (The gory ending I could have done with out-something I would have expected from extreme fighting or the World Wrestling Federation.)
Another movie that I really enjoy, admittedly a fanciful flight of fiction, but a good portrayal of railroad operations is "The Titfield Thunderbolt", a British film, made in 1953. With the exception of one segment where a couple of very inebriated individuals take a 0-4-2 tank loco on an "off-road" excursion, the movie does give a good representation of post-war British branchline railroading.
To each his own-someone else may find one (or both) of these movies a horrible piece of dreck, didn't mean for you to take offense by my remarks.