Railroads in the movies

did anyone see the movie Fandango with Kevin Costner where they had that Santa Fe GP40 (or was it a GP50?) all patched up? weird. and how the one guy tied a cable to their front bumper and hooked the other end to the coupler of the caboose and it ripped off the front end of the car!

also i can't forget my favorite Cheech and Chong movie, Things Are Tough All Over, where they're driving thru St. Louis and a train led by a quartet of Missouri Pacific U-Boats appear on the overpass they're driving under.

In Kevin Smith's 1999 comedy "Dogma," the characters travel aboard an Amtrak train bound from Chicago to New Jersey. In the lounge car, the protagonist, Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) and her traveling companions, Rufus, the 13th apostle (Chris Rock); Serendity, a muse (Salma Hayek) and prophets Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) encounter two fallen angels, Loki (Matt Damon) and Bartleby (Ben Affleck) they must stop from re-entering heaven.

After a fight scene, Silent Bob throws Loki and Bartleby off the train. He then utters one of his only lines in the movie to a bewildered fellow traveler: "No ticket."

Me, Myself, and Irene has a prominent train scene. Of course, what is presumably a Viewliner deluxe bedroom looks to be about twice the size of a real one (I think it actually was filmed in a Viewliner, though! Not sure how they modified it). I love how they make it look like you can punch right through the glass in the windows! Also, what is supposed to be the NEC (I think the station is supposed to be Providence) is a single track, diesel line. I think they filmed it along the route of the Vermonter.

Back in the 1950's, when the interstate highway system was being built, the passenger rail industy saw the writing on the wall. They were losing market share to the automobile's burgeoning popularity.
Some association of passenger rail providers got the idea to put together what was essentially a commercial movie short (20 mins) to be shown before movies. It was to extoll the romance and splendor of rail travel by showing fantastic views and scenery. The script was the poem "TRANSCONTINENTAL" by A.M. Sullivan which was set to a choral score. The color photography was brilliant. Most of the film was shot in the western United States. Royal Gorge, the Rockies and dozens of other locations which are the crown jewels of American vistas. The film was obviously shot with the idea of showing how much fun train travel can be.
The color photography is absolutely brilliant.
The film was produced by Paramount and showed in theaters around the country. Poet A.M. Sullivan travelled the west by train with the film crew to help scout locations.
I remember seeing the film a few times in the 1960's in private screenings. Several of the prints are still in the possession of members of my family. I think that film actually sparked my interest in train travel. I'd love to see it again.

Last night here in the North East, Metro TV had "Disaster on the Coastliner" showing. I learned a couple good points from the movie:
1) You can control a complete railroad system from the cab of your F40 by walkie talkie(operate switches, change position signals, disable cab phones)
2) When switching tracks on a crossover(with weak welds) that has just been built, at 100MPH, while pulling back on the throttle and going into full braking won't cause a derailment.
3) An F40 can get nice some nice airtime when hitting a dirt pile after just derailing.

I forgot how cheesy this movie really was..
Oh yeah and the Train numbers were North Bound 13 and Southbound 2

I also liked the Harrison Ford movie "Witness" with a AMTRAK F40PH. I think there were train scenes in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as well. Also it was interesting to see CSX 1992 in "In The Line Of Fire" I am surprised nobody mentioned "The Harvey Girls".

http://www.trainweb.org/csxphotos/photo ... /7812m.jpg 1992
Keep asking keep learning
http://trainiaxindex.cjb.net/ Still missing in action 11-12-04

Can anyone tell me what type of engine was the lead engine on the
passenger train in the movie Under Siege II?

I haven't seen "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" mentioned yet.
Dated now, so maybe slightly corny at times, but still a good flick.

Under the "You have to buy the pretense" banner, It's hard to believe that no one in the train would simply pull a dump cord to stop the runaway train. Or see if the cab door is open to try to control the train or start flipping off circuit breakers. The pax just sit around screaming and praying.
For better accuracy, they should have briefly showed the bad guys cutting off the dump cords and locking the cab door before they left.

Tom

P.S. There was talk of doing a remake of "Pelham" a few years back, but I don't think it ever happened.

there's a train in "Planes Trains and Automobiles" with John Candy and Steve Martin

The brief railway portion of "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" was filmed on the New York & Lake Erie Railroad headquartered in Gowanda, New York.
The locomotive was #1013, a high-nosed Alco C425 from the Norfolk and Western. (Wasn't it lettered "Amtrain"?)

Check out Les Wilson's Rochester Railfan website for more information:

http://www.nessman.net/rochesterrailf/nyle.htm

BTW-the NY&LE was also used in the filming of "The Natural" with Robert Redford and Glenn Close. Ex-GTW 4070, a USRA 2-8-2 pulled the passenger train at the beginning of the movie when young phenom Robert Redford strikes out Joe Don Baker (as "The Whammer"-a thinly veiled Babe Ruth-type) while the train is stopped. Slightly off-topic-Buffalo's old War Memorial Stadium was the stadium used in the film for the New York Knights' home field scenes.

it was labeled ConTrack hahaha, nice name for a railway

thanks for the information, because i was going to ask those questions after

There was a rerun of a movie on last night "Terror Train" (circa 1979?) that had a steam loco and 4 or five cars in faux NYC stripes. Anyone know where that was filmed? (Quebec?) and what the equip was?

Or the movie The Outsiders, it has a brief shot of a Burlington Nothern locomotive (probably an SD7?) pushing a car down the tracks. Kind of odd, as the film is set in 1966 and the Burlington Northern didn't come around until 1970.

British movies featuring trains

The Ladykillers - filmed near Kings Cross and St Pancras stations in London. Bodies are disposed of into passing freight trains from above a tunnel! (NB this is a comedy)

The Railway Children - filmed on the Keighley-Oxenholme tourist line, Yorkshire

It's a Hard Day's Night - the Beatles' first film - scenes at Marylebone Station, London and on a train including Ringo playing drums in the guard's compartment