Trains on TV & in the Movies


In "The Train", the engineer is on the LEFT side of the cab.

Brakeman Hal
Never let the facts get in the way of a good 'frame'.
When I was working in auto body assembly as a welder, about 55 years ago, a documentary for TV was made in the plant and the camera man got one of the other welders to do some on a bit that never got welded inside the engine bay so he was framed within the grille opening to make a 'better' scene.
 
Ahhh, the magic of movies. (Spoiler follows: In Wrongfully Accused, the locomotive leaves the rails and pursues Harrison through the woods. Just when he thinks it has stopped, it surprises him from behind a rock and resumes the chase.)
 
And some crummy looking light aircraft trying to look like ME109e's attacking it in the pass.

HOLD IT, TOOT.....
They were not Messerschmitt BF109's, they were British Spitfires trying to stop the German Amaments Train from getting to the Front, or the French Arts train from getting into Germany.

Burt Lancaster knows how to handle that French Loco, operating the Throttle, Brakes, and Handwheel-Driven Johnson Bar.

Brakeman Hal
 
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Got your movies crossed there HAL - no Spitfires in "Von Ryan's Express".

So who's talking about "Von Ryan's Express"? I never saw that film!
I'm talking about "The Train", ol' buddy!
Yowzah!
Hal
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Hey JazzDad,

I couldn't find an Off-Topic section so I'll ask you right here:

What Jazz era do you like best?

Ragtime (Scott Joplin)
Dixieland (Louis Armstrong)
Swing (Benny Goodman)
BeBop (Dizzy Gillespie)
Modern Jazz (Miles Davis)
Other...

My record collection contains 2 types of music: Classical and Jazz.

Hal
 
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Even more evidence of what lousy stand ins they were.

As far as the French loco's cab, that would have been a wooden and drywall mockup anyway.

Not sure which movie you're referring to, but if you mean "The Train," I don't believe any mockups were used. They used actual SNCF locomotives, primarily 1-230.B class 4-6-0's, outfitted with cameras. Several actors, including Burt Lancaster as mentioned above, actually learned the basic operation of the locomotives for the film.

They wrecked real locomotives (they were getting old at the time), a yard, and several cameras while making the movie. For example-
-In the scene where the locomotive derails coming out of a siding, the (real) engineer brought the train out much faster than expected. When it jumped the tracks, it slid further than expected, crushing several cameras that had been set up. The only camera that survived was set at ground level along the tracks and ended up with an incredible shot of a derailed wheel spinning over it as the locomotive stops. During the initial screening, when this scene came up, an executive turned to John Frankenheimer, the director, and said something like, "Wow! That's incredible! How did you get that shot?!" He didn't tell him it was basically an accident because all the other cameras had been wrecked in the shot.
-When the railroad yard gets bombed by allied planes, that's a real yard being blown up with dynamite. The railroad wanted to reconfigure the yard, so they allowed the movie to blow it up and clear the land prior to construction.

This info can be found on the DVD commentary for the movie.
 
I've made a couple trains for movies. There was a modified Z scale locomotive hauling "the gravy train" on the dining room table in Henry Selick's Coraline and I made a 4-4-0 in 10.25" gauge for "Missing Link" which, back in April, happened to have the 8th worst opening of all time for a film showing in more than 3000 theaters.

The gravy train, notice, no tender.
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And the American at the Santa Ana train station before CG enhancements, photo from cnet.com Again notice, no tender. I brought it up with the art director and was told, "It bothers me too but it was decided the tender doesn't help tell the story." Three of us did most of the work on the locomotive. I designed and built all the running gear and the other guys built the boiler (from Sonotube) and cab and most of the detailing. The reversing lever and valve linkages all worked because there was supposed to be a shot basically looking right at it. Unfortunately, in the film, it's not really visible because of all the CG steam. I put my name in the casting info on the pilot wheels (which are the same as the passenger car wheels). The locomotive is about 30" tall and 6 ft long.
 
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kjd, a movie that did not get the credit it deserved: Coraline.

Hal, actually my copyrighted songs were in the genre of 'punk gospel'. I'm now sorta diggin' Electro-swing.

And, re: "Ok guys...let's all go for beers!" You buying?
 



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