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This is another one that's a little out there - more of a comedy scene involving railroads. "It's a Great Feeling," early Doris Day picture with Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan. There's a bit at a train station with the man at the information booth looking up an obscure stop (Goerke's Corners) in Wisconsin. He keeps finding the double asterisks, circle, dot and square and referencing supplements and appendices and special schedules.

Toward the end of the movie, there's a process shot out the windows of the observation car - taken in Los Angeles along San Fernando Road along the SP. There's a building that looks like it has Pacoima on the sign; they pass Alibi Cafe.

Here's a what looks like the process shot, part of which was used in the movie:

https://archive.org/details/pet981r5

There appears to be a dash of color here and there in process shot in the movie, in signage. Maybe it was added. The part in the movie starts around the 6-minute mark.

EDIT: For fans of old movies, many actors and directors turn up in cameos in this movie. Look for a "Mildred Pierce" reference. I could swear Dennis Morgan was impersonating Ronald Colman in one scene, and that someone else was singing like Maurice Chevalier in another.

David

Last edited by NKP Muncie

Just watched one which I recorded last night on TCM - "The Hucksters," with Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr and Sydney Greenstreet, from 1947. Greenstreet's character says in New York that someone will be taking the Century and the Chief to Hollywood. So, Gable's character says he'll meet the guy on the train.

A few scenes later - a Dreyfus Hudson leading a passenger train what appears to be north along the Hudson. After movie had ended, was going to try to see cab number. When I slowed, though, realized it was printed backwards - train was running south - NEW YORK CENTRAL on tender was reversed. Then lots of interior shots of train cars with characters talking (studio, I'm sure), with process shots of river views.

A quick head-on shot of a Santa Fe loco taking the main through a turnout. Then shots of some Santa Fe diesels leading a train slowly at Albuquerque. Lead loco not in shot. The two units in the shot I couldn't see numbers - they each had four round portholes.

David

Saw 2 instances today, I apologize if they’ve already been mentioned…

1- The new movie “the fabelmans” features a Lionel set that is opened over the 7 days of Hanukkah and becomes the inspiration for the movie. I’m not keen enough to know what it is, but makes for a neat couple of scenes.

2- In the Netflix special “Pepsi, where’s my jet?”, the ad executive has a nice static Lionel display on the top shelf to his left that is shown many times. Again, I’m not keen enough to know what it is.

Last edited by David K. Simpson

Holiday Affair....staring David James Elliot...Its all about a Lionel...Santa Fe Set......with Chrome Sided Cars...and Remote Control. It is very hard to find this movie on any T.V Channel. It never came to DVD in the USA....just Canada. If you do find it...it is very expensive....over $50.00. I bought one many years ago when it was a lot cheaper. Its a great train movie.

@trainnerd posted:

Holiday Affair....staring David James Elliot...Its all about a Lionel...Santa Fe Set......with Chrome Sided Cars...and Remote Control. It is very hard to find this movie on any T.V Channel. It never came to DVD in the USA....just Canada. If you do find it...it is very expensive....over $50.00. I bought one many years ago when it was a lot cheaper. Its a great train movie.

@trainnerd

I remember seeing this one on TV a few years back. It’s a remake of the 1949 original that had starred Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh.

I liked the later one better, because it was in color. I also cringed when the boy dropped his Lionel Amtrak aluminum passenger car train set in the elevator and somebody stepped on one of the cars when exiting the elevator. 😳

@trainnerd

I remember seeing this one on TV a few years back. It’s a remake of the 1949 original that had starred Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh.

I liked the later one better, because it was in color. I also cringed when the boy dropped his Lionel Amtrak aluminum passenger car train set in the elevator and somebody stepped on one of the cars when exiting the elevator. 😳

I agree with you. If you remember in the movie,the woman paid $1,100 for that set. That was a lot of money...even back than.

@trainnerd posted:

I agree with you. If you remember in the movie,the woman paid $1,100 for that set. That was a lot of money...even back than.

Yes, that WAS a lot of money for that set! In the original 1949 version, Lionel had just come out with the Santa Fe F3 2333s, which were featured in the film. However, Lionel had no matching cars to go with the new diesels. So as I recall, they used the older Pennsylvania cars with the logo “The Red Rocket,” or some such. Looked kind of funny.

That’s another reason I liked the updated version with David James Elliot and Cynthia Gibb. At least, the Amtrak F3 diesels matched the gleaming Amtrak aluminum cars. 😉

Yes, that WAS a lot of money for that set! In the original 1949 version, Lionel had just come out with the Santa Fe F3 2333s, which were featured in the film. However, Lionel had no matching cars to go with the new diesels. So as I recall, they used the older Pennsylvania cars with the logo “The Red Rocket,” or some such. Looked kind of funny.

That’s another reason I liked the updated version with David James Elliot and Cynthia Gibb. At least, the Amtrak F3 diesels matched the gleaming Amtrak aluminum cars. 😉

Passenger cars were standard Madison/Irvington/Manhattan cars - they had Red Rocket Express lettering along the top of the cars, the Santa Fe F units were also decorated with Red Rocket Express (looks like the logo was taped onto the engines). You can get the movie for under $10 at Amazon - look for 4 Film Favorites - Classic Holiday Volume 2.

Here's a clip of the title sequence - nice shots of the train on an impressive movie set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kT4W6bi1Mo

Posting here about the movie: https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...y-affair-film-on-tmc

I remember CTT had an article about a set of cars being unearthed - maybe someone can look up which issue it was...

Last edited by MTN
@MTN posted:

Passenger cars were standard Madison/Irvington/Manhattan cars - they had Red Rocket Express lettering along the top of the cars, the Santa Fe F units were also decorated with Red Rocket Express (looks like the logo was taped onto the engines). You can get the movie for under $10 at Amazon - look for 4 Film Favorites - Classic Holiday Volume 2.

Here's a clip of the title - nice shots of the train on an impressive movie set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kT4W6bi1Mo

Posting here about the movie: https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...y-affair-film-on-tmc

I remember CTT had an article about a set of cars being unearthed - maybe someone can look up which issue it was...

Thanks. Just watched this movie last week on TCM. It’s coming up again this week.

I only wish TCM would play the newer one this time of year as well.

Last edited by Yellowstone Special

I didn't read all the posts, so sorry if this is a repeat.

We watched "White Christmas" last night and early in the movie they travel by train from Florida to New York and then to Vermont.  The FL to NY train passing shots of the train are of a Santa Fe passenger train and then the NY to VT is a Southern Pacific.   Both of which made me cringe - unless they went to Vermont by way of California, I doubt they would be on SF or SP right of way.  There are also several scenes at the train station in Vermont. The passenger cars which are bluish green with silver roofs and didn't have any road markings that I could see.

Link to pictures of scenes from "White Christmas" showing some of the train scenes.

Thanks. Just watched this movie last week on TCM. It’s coming up again this week.

I only wish TCM would play the newer one this time of year as well.

Hey There...Do you know how to transfer it from your computer to DVD ? I have the newer one with David James Elliott on my computer. It might be too big to send to an email.

Last edited by trainnerd
@johnstrains posted:

An interesting note on "Holiday Affair" which is frequently discussed in these movies-with-train-threads...

The actor who played Timmy, Gordon Gebert, was interviewed a number of years back and stated that he has the actual train (s) used in the movie. Forget how he came to possess them but made for a fun story.

This is far from certain. Gerbert said just a few years ago that it wasn’t the original train from the movie. We don’t know if he found out later that he wasn’t given the original. Anyway, this thread discussed this discrepancy.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...-film-holiday-affair

Just released film, the fabelmans, young man receives a series of lionel trains for Hanukkah,  sets them up, stages a crash based on the movie greatest show on earth.  Michelle Williams,  his mother, encourages him ti film it so he can see the crash all the time without damaging the train.

After watching the Fabelman's I went to various web sites to find out what really occurred in Stephen Spielberg's life. Turns out that watching the train crash in "The Greatest Show on Earth" and then filming Lionel train crash scenes at home actually happened. It started his love of movie making. I had not seen the "The Greatest Show on Earth" before but it seemed that Cecil B DeMille also used model trains for his big crash scene.

It's hard to imagine that Spielberg would have remembered the exact cars he received for Hanukkah. In the movie "Sammy" receives a Lionel Lines Maplewood #2421, a brown Pennsylvania 65400 Box Car X6454, Lionel Lines Chatham #2422 and a #1033 90 watt transformer that was not new. (Obviously the scenery people couldn't find a perfectly new one but they did a good job cleaning an old one up.) Off hand, I couldn't recognize the steamer, tender and caboose. I'll leave that to others! The mixture of passenger and freight cars seemed odd. Only accessory was (what appears to be) a #252 crossing gate. The layout is the traditional 4' X 8' oval set up on low wooden saw horses. When he first turns on the train, the engine smokes up a storm. That was unrealistic but can't blame the director for wanting to show a Lionel steamer in all its glory.

Last edited by Bruce Brown

The Fabelmans

Comcast has this movie but they want $20 to watch. My public library has it for free. I am going to go with the free copy. They only have two copies, they are both out. So I added my name to the waitlist.

I did watch the trailer on YouTube, looks great to me.

The Fabelmans

Hope to see you out rail-fanning. Gary 🚂


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  • The Fabelmans

The Fabelmans

Comcast has this movie but they want $20 to watch. My public library has it for free. I am going to go with the free copy. They only have two copies, they are both out. So I added my name to the waitlist.

I did watch the trailer on YouTube, looks great to me.

The Fabelmans

Hope to see you out rail-fanning. Gary 🚂

Your library has them on preorder.  The movie is currently streaming. The video disks (DVD, Blu-Ray, etc.) have not been released. So you’re going to have to wait a while.

This topic is closed due to several copyright infringement notices we have received.  Those of you have made posts here that have copyright issues will be receiving notices/emails from OGR along with your forum memberships being terminated.  We have warned the members of this forum over and over about being careful when it comes to posting material here that is copied from internet sites but it seems some of you just don't get it or take the time to review our TOS at the top of the forum pages.  Time to make some examples.

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