MOVIES OR TV SHOWS WITH TRAINS IN THEM.

There is a movie were the main character is a... locomotive.

The Rocky Moutain Express. A Imax movie starring  Canadian Pacific hudson 2816 in a journey throught the canadian rockies.

Great scenery, superb sound and filming of the 2816. 

A great story how the line was built in the rocckies with the technology of that time...

Everything in this movies is Big; the landscape, the project to build a railway line, the difficulties and the locomotive.

And if you have a chance to see it in Imax... Well, that will be a great experience...

Hum... Gotta see ( and rewatch) some of the movies that you have noted in this topic

Thank you all for this topic.

And lest we forget, Danny Devito in "throw momma from the train".  I think that's the movie where he had a postwar Lionel carpet central.

How about the beginning of the move, Arthur, or was it called Ten.

IMO, the trains were nice, but not as good as Bo Derek.

Correction: Arthur had the trains, Ten had Bo Derek.

While the Superman Movie (The Original) was mentioned, I didn't see reference to the other train scene in the beginning of the movie with the FL9s in the tunnels below Grand Central.   Off course I was 9 when that movie came out.  I could be mis-remembering...

the great locomotive chase with fess parker

https://www.bing.com/videos/se...ovie%26FORM%3dSBRS02

Just watched "Nothing But A Man" with Ivan Dixon and Abby Lincoln. Shot in the South in the mid 1960's. Its a strong story of what being black in a small southern town was like in those years.

For the first part of the movie the main character works on a section gang. Lots of great footage of laying rail and etc and what it was like to live for months away from home in a dormitory car on the work train.

Since it's that time of the year again, I sat down to watch John Carpenter's (one of my all time favorite film directors) Halloween from 1978 with Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence. In the scene where Pleasence calls Haddonfield (fictional town set in Illinois, named after the New Jersey town producer Debra Hill grew up in) in the phone booth, you can see a Southern Pacific freight train go by headed by three 'bloody nose' units. If this seems odd, they shot this in the California area, but intended it to look like the midwest burbs. Of course, considering the extremely low budget, they had to work with what they had.

"The Narrow Margin," from the early '50s and mentioned in this thread, is on at 2a Eastern overnight tonight on TCM.

David

OK, OK, some of these don't quite fall under the subject, but perhaps they're close enough.

Saw "Kansas City Confidential" the other night. Opening static shot is an aerial of Kansas City's Union Station.

"This Gun for Hire," from 1942, and "To Live and Die in L.A.," from 1985, both feature a pedestrian bridge over a Southern Pacific yard (Taylor Yard, I think). Alan Ladd's character jumps from the bridge onto a gondola in a moving train in the former, and William Petersen's character chases someone onto the bridge in the latter. Lots of stuff shot on or near tracks in both movies, especially the latter.

David

We saw the new Mr. Rogers movie this week, (worth seeing BTW) the trolley and town are in it.

Also, the animated series Daniel Tiger has a trolley.

So we started watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel recently.  In one scene they were standing outside a department store in new York City.  Now the time was the late fifties.  In the store window sat a couple of LGB short passenger cars.  One was even partially derailed.  

As we all know, LGB trains didn't come to be until 1968.  You would think that the producers of a show depicting the fifties would have certainly had the wisdom to include Lionel or American Flyer trains in the window display.

All of you are talking about real trains .How about the TV show from the 60s The Addams family .Gomez had Lionel trains that he blew up !

"Other Men's Women" is a great train movie.  The opening shot is great and later shots have roundhouse, bridge, train wreck.  1931 with Grant Withers and a bit part by Jimmy Cagney.

When you're done with that try "Danger Lights", 1930 with Robert Armstrong and Jean Arthur.

This week-end, I watched most of the "In the Heat of the Night" with Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier, again, though it's been decades since the last time.

In the closing seen, as Poitier is leaving Sparta, and Steiger is seeing him off, Poitier is boarding a beautiful GM&O coach, in  striking maroon and red with gold stripes livery, pulled by an equally beautiful E-7.  The movie closes with the train departing and the camera pans out from altitude. 

Some cool footage in the opening.....is that station stop ABQ???

Yes... along with the train crossing the bridge at Harper's Ferry.  That's some trip!

Jon  

Harper's was easy to spot....ABQ I have visited often...but looks a little different today.  Shops look like ABQ too. 

Green Bay & Western posted:

How about the TV show "That Girl" with Marlo Thomas. Some real neat rail footage in the opening scenes. Does anybody know where that was filmed at?

NEC?

GOOD TIMES had the CTA EL in it's intro.

Pingman posted:

This week-end, I watched most of the "In the Heat of the Night" with Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier, again, though it's been decades since the last time.

In the closing seen, as Poitier is leaving Sparta, and Steiger is seeing him off, Poitier is boarding a beautiful GM&O coach, in  striking maroon and red with gold stripes livery, pulled by an equally beautiful E-7.  The movie closes with the train departing and the camera pans out from altitude. 

The modern TV show seems to have the Heritage Fleet CRESENT in it.

Dominic Mazoch posted:

Green Bay & Western posted:

How about the TV show "That Girl" with Marlo Thomas. Some real neat rail footage in the opening scenes. Does anybody know where that was filmed at?

NEC?

GOOD TIMES had the CTA EL in it's intro.

Regarding "That Girl" I think someone mentioned that a while back in this thread.  Keep on mentioning it.  IIRC, the video was taken from a train in New Jersey looking towards Manhattan. Maybe the film was also shown in reverse?

CHICAGO EL - On the Bob Newhart Show in the 70s, the opening sequence featured Bob's commute on the El to his office.

Ron Moore posted:

All of you are talking about real trains .How about the TV show from the 60s The Addams family .Gomez had Lionel trains that he blew up !

This weekend I saw a very strange commercial with an odd shaped, blue engine that appeared to be on three rail track.  It went into a tunnel and appeared to have an explosion.

I guess anything can be perverted these days.

Dominic Mazoch posted:

Green Bay & Western posted:

How about the TV show "That Girl" with Marlo Thomas. Some real neat rail footage in the opening scenes. Does anybody know where that was filmed at?

NEC?

GOOD TIMES had the CTA EL in it's intro.

So the "That Girl" opening was filmed from the rear of a Penn Central train heading into NYC. The exact spot is where the Seacacus Junction station is now. You can see the Erie Lackawanna tracks with a truck on it as it passes over. The NJ Turnpike is to the right.  It is shown backwards, as to appear from front of the train. Really look at the cars on the turnpike, they are going backwards. Fact: Anne Marie (That Girl), was from Brewster, NY in the show. The North end of the Harlem line of the Penn Central..

Bad Day at Black Rock with Spencer Tracy has shots of him both getting off and getting on a single unit diesel passenger train. Also, the 1940s B&W one where the big time producer (O Malley's Journey?) goes out into the world with no $$$ in his pockets has a plot line in a mammoth switching yard with myriad tracks to try to cross in front of a train coming. Joel McRea is the hero. 

Little Rascals:  Railroadin'

Must be seen to be believed ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRC6a9MAjMA

David98 posted:

Little Rascals:  Railroadin'

Must be seen to be believed ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRC6a9MAjMA

Good clean fun!!! No violations that I can see!!!  Great vintage footage.

Runaway Train with Jon Voight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpiqxnoux7w

The Train with Burt Lancaster .

Dark of the Sun (The Mercenaries in the UK) (1968)

Filmed in Jamaica and a train played a major role in the movie that featured Rod Taylor and NFL legend Jim Brown as a band of mercenaries.  The steam locomotive used was a famous postwar Engine 54 in the Jamaica Railway System and was destroyed as part of the film.

And then a couple of entries from the NY area passenger trains along with a couple of humorous points.

After arriving at JFK Airport, Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall take a taxi to "QUEENS" where they stay in a seedy rental in Long Island City.  As the cab arrives at the rental it drives by under an elevated train... which is actually the Hewes Street Station in Williamsburg, BROOKLYN.   FYI, the tenement was at Hooper Street & South 5th Street.

Opening scene with the night lights of New York and a northbound F or G elevated train is seen leaving the Smith/9th Street Station (the highest station above ground in the system) in BROOKLYN  on it's curve to go underground at the next stop at Carroll Street. The camera zooms towards the train and then the next frame is of a close up of an elevated subway train zipping across the screen and the camera pans down to street level which is to represent Harlem... in MANHATTAN. 

In the aforementioned TV show by me and others, the Penn Central train is carrying Marlo Thomas towards Manhattan east from NEW JERSEY, when she actually lives north of the City in Brewster, PUTNAM COUNTY, NY. 

Bearing in mind that 99.9999% of viewers watching a movie or TV show don't care about geography , I always find it humorous watching film made in areas in which I have lived (New York, South Florida, Jamaica, etc.) and other areas that I know well and see geographic impossibilities or inconsistencies, such as car chases over 1-2 mile long bridges that take 10 minutes to cross, but I digress lest I stray from the topic.    

Amfleet25124 posted:

Dark of the Sun (The Mercenaries in the UK) (1968)

Filmed in Jamaica and a train played a major role in the movie that featured Rod Taylor and Jim Brown as a band of mercenaries.  The steam locomotive used was a famous postwar Engine 54 in the Jamaica Railway System and was destroyed as part of the film.

And then a couple of entries from the NY area passenger trains along with a couple of humorous points.

Coming To America (1988)

After arriving at JFK Airport, Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall take a taxi to "QUEENS" where they stay in a seedy rental in Long Island City.  As the cab arrives at the rental it drives by under an elevated train... which is actually the Hewes Street Station in Williamsburg, BROOKLYN.   FYI, the tenement was at Hooper Street & South 5th Street.

 

Shaft (2019)

Opening scene with the night lights of New York and a northbound F or G elevated train is seen leaving the Smith/9th Street Station (the highest station above ground in the system) in BROOKLYN  on it's curve to go underground at the next stop at Carroll Street. The camera zooms towards the train and then the next frame is of a close up of an elevated subway train zipping across the screen and the camera pans down to street level which is to represent Harlem... in MANHATTAN. 

 

That Girl (1966-71)

In the aforementioned TV show by me and others, the Penn Central train is carrying Marlo Thomas towards Manhattan east from NEW JERSEY, when she actually lives north of the City in Brewster, PUTNAM COUNTY, NY. 

 

Bearing in mind that 99.9999% of viewers watching a movie or TV show don't care about geography , I always find it humorous watching film made in areas in which I have lived (New York, South Florida, Jamaica, etc.) and other areas that I know well and see geographic impossibilities or inconsistencies, such as car chases over 1-2 mile long bridges that take 10 minutes to cross, but I digress lest I stray from the topic.    

Kevin, you sure know your NYC trains'.  I also check the geography in films. I recently watched a movie that was to take place in Colorado, but was actually Norway.  Another was Louisiana, but actually Canada.  And the list goes on'.... Must be our generation, or LEOs just like to know where they are at all times'.... 🙄

The 1957 movie "A FACE IN THE CROWD" with Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal.  There is a scene of a Southern Pacific Daylight E-8 pulling into the station.

Another movie came to mind just now.  I'm going back about sixty years.  On TV I was watching a movie where a guy is running from the police or a gangster, not sure.  Anyway, he gets his foot caught in a switch track just as the points are closing.  An F unit is fat approaching.  Of course we don't see the blood & guts.  But in those days we had imaginations.   

Maybe someone can name the movie.  I sure can't at the moment.

Dan Padova posted:

Another movie came to mind just now.  I'm going back about sixty years.  On TV I was watching a movie where a guy is running from the police or a gangster, not sure.  Anyway, he gets his foot caught in a switch track just as the points are closing.  An F unit is fat approaching.  Of course we don't see the blood & guts.  But in those days we had imaginations.   

Maybe someone can name the movie.  I sure can't at the moment.

I think it was  Sullivan's Travels 1941. A bum robs Sullivan , and run across the rail yard  and get hit by the train. Every one thinks it was Sullivan.

Amfleet,

I lived down the block from Mystic Pizza when they were shooting the movie.  Knowing the geography of the area makes watching much harder.

Jon

Hey all...if nobody has yet mentioned it, James May of "Top Gear" has videos of him messing with trains, as in a T.V. show.  The last video had him and friends running a toy train race, yes PARALLEL TRACKS, for several kilometers, and using his cherished childhood engine. His "opponents" were the two German gents who built and maintain "Miniatur Wunderland". Good stuff!!!

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  CGI train, burning trestle.

Rusty

The Station Agent (2003)

This beautiful little movie starts with the main character "Fin" working as a train store repairman, then living in an an old abandoned train station and at least one scene of real train watching.  I would highly recommend it!

Rusty Traque posted:

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  CGI train, burning trestle.

Rusty

Only *slightly* less realistic than The Polar Express 

Two that were on recently:

My Cousin Vinny: Joe Pesci is woken up by a freight train at 5am.  He asks the hotel clerk if it always comes through at that time and is told it's very unusual.  The next morning the same train goes by so when he confronts the clerk he's told something like "yes, it's very unusual, it's supposed to come through at quarter past 4"

Also, a bit of a stretch but American Graffiti: in the scene where Kurt (Richard Dreyfuss) is hooking a cable to the rear axle of a police car, you don't see a train, but the sounds of a train whistle, engine sounds, click clack, and squeaky brakes mask his movements through the lot.

People will Talk

Cary Grant With O gauge trains