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I hope this isn't an inappropriate post.  I'm trying to think of the name of the movie that has a scene near the end that is a fight on a moving train.  I believe it is a western or maybe detective movie, but more modern than old west.  The train (for some reason I think Rio Grande) is moving through a canyon with a rapidly flowing river nearby.  It is winter as there is snow on the ground.  One of the good guys has been shot and is in the caboose, but still alive.  The other good guy (maybe Charles Bronson - but not Breakheart Pass) is fighting the bad guy.  There are some unusual long, iron wing-like arms attached to the caboose (I think) and the good guy swings out on one of them after it comes loose.  He is dangling over the canyon and manages to swing back just before the train enters a tunnel or another structure that would crash the arm. 

 

I wouldn't normally post such nonsense, but it is driving me nuts trying to remember and I've literally spent hours on the internet trying to find it.

 

So I thought, railroad people might know.  Hence this post. 

 

Thanks.

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Nobody was shot in Emperor of the North, (Cracker, the brakeman died of a broken neck when he was slammed into the front of the cuploa when A-No.1 put the train into emergency by forcing a brake cylinder.) no canyons or tunnels as such, nor were there any wing-like arms on the OP&E caboose.  There was a river valley where A-No.1 knocked Cigarette off the train into the river at the end of Emperor though...

 

Rusty

I think you're doing a mash-up of Emperor of the North and Breakheart Pass. The fight on a car at the end of the train was in EotN between Borgnine and Marvin. Now I seem to remember that this movie when it was released was called Emperor of the North Pole. The scene of hanging on over a canyon in the winter was in Break Heart Pass. Now perchance was Burt Lancaster in it also on a train helping the French Resistance?

 

Emperor of the North spanish

breakheartpass

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Thanks for the suggestions.  It was not, however, Emperor of the North.  The movie I'm trying to remember was not about trains per se, rather it had the described scene as an important part. 

 

And not Breakheart Pass (also a good movie).  The part that I think is unique are the long metal arms attached to the caboose that swing out.  I'm not sure what they are for.  The hero swings out on the arm (like Steve McQueen did on the El in Chicago in Hunter). 

Originally Posted by wb47:

OK, here is another request.  Dwight Yokum song at the very end of the movie, I think, or was that just his video.  Western scene with the camera on board the train looking back. 

Maybe South of Heaven, West of ****?  I haven't seen the movie, but Yokum produced and starred in the movie and his songs are listed as the soundtrack. 

 

The movie has terrible reviews, but maybe the music was good.

Last edited by SouthernColoradoMarxFlyer

Yes, the movie "Emperor of the North" was originally released as "Emperor of the North Pole" (which is the term used in the movie to describe the 'King of the Hoboes'). Not sure why it was changed, maybe people were confused thinking it was about the arctic??

 

A-No.1 (the Lee Marvin character) was a real person, Leon Ray Livingston, who wrote a number of stories and books about his years as a hobo in the late 19th and early 20th century. The movie is based (at least to some extent) on his stories. The character of "Cigaret" (Keith Caradine) was based on author Jack London, who travelled with A-No.1 for a time.

Yep, that's it.  Thanks for the trailer.  I watched that movie a few years ago, and the train scene stuck with me.  I just ordered it along with Emperor of the North (which I have never seen) and a couple other "train" films I haven't seen (Runaway Train and the newer Denzel Washington one). 

 

A lot of Switchback was filmed in Colorado.  After y'all reminded me of what the movie was called, a friend told me the restaurant scene is at the wundervu cafe in Coal Creek Canyon.

 

What are those huge metal wings for?  I tried to find photos of them on actual trains, but didn't find any.  I'm not sure what they would be called.  

Mark, that link doesn't work for me for some reason.  But I get the idea - for snow removal. 

 

Thanks Allan.  Quite an imposing piece of machinery.

 

I Googled "snow spreader railroad" and found lots of images, but none that appear to have the spreader wings on a caboose.  I'll have to watch the movie again (I ordered it) - maybe the spreader wings are on a separate car, but are still at the rear of the train, not the front as most snow spreaders are.

 

This is the closest to a caboose spreader that I ran across (from Railnet):

 



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