If you want to soak up the "atmosphere" of steam railroading, this is the movie! The roundhouse scenes are superb, the frantic whistle calling out the wreck train, the brand new F6 Hudson slipping through the scene, the "bo's" on the freight train, the tough Division Superintendant keeping the whole thing running, the mention of "The Olympian" (predecessor of the Olympian Hiawatha), and even a scene along the Chicago River of the hospital train coming into virtually brand new Chicago Uniion Station (built 1925). Always got a kick out of the speed the hospital train had to make, to get to Chicago, in what, 12 hours? When Larry Doyle crawls out to put a water hose in the hot trailing truck journal, statistically, the locomotive would have to have been doing about 300 mph!!!
Oh, in the roundhouse scene, where Larry Doyle is put to work, the Div Supt, suggests Larry work "on the big boy, here" (a USRA heavy Mikado). Wonder if that was the inspiration for the chalked nickname put on the brand new 4-8-8-4 at ALCO in 1941?
