Danger Lights, A Railroad Movie

This is one of my favorite railroad movies!  It's kinda dorky, but that's what makes it good (not to mention the great trains and roundhouse scenes)!

Good Movie here is some background info

https://cinetrains.wordpress.c...steam-in-the-movies/

The film is set on the Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Extension out of Harlowtown, Montana,

Danger Lights has some of the only known footage of the Milwaukee Road’s steam operations on the Rocky Mountain Division. During this time, the Milwaukee had electrified this portion of the line, however, you never see any of the Electric operations. Another interesting fact is that the name “Milwaukee Road” is never mentioned in the movie, but you can clearly tell, since the railroad Plastered its name where it could through out the movie.  Here is a fact for the movie buffs.

I won’t go into much detail about the movie, but the movie is in Public Domain, so the copyright of the movie has expired, meaning that several small companies dealing in old movies has released the movie on DVD. You can also watch the entire movie on YouTube right here on the blog. Scroll down to the end of the post to watch the movie!

The movie was filmed on location on the Milwaukee Road’s Rocky Mountain division in 1930. This line was part of the Milwaukee’s Pacific Extension that extended the railroad from its Main core in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa out to the Pacific Ocean. It was also the first Transcontinental route to be abandoned. When the Milwaukee Road filed for bankruptcy for the final time in the late 1970’s, The court appointed trustee decided to eliminate as many miles as possible from the railroad in order to save cost’s. In 1979, the entire route west of Terry, Montana was abandoned. It is Ironic that this line was abandoned, because it was the best engineered route through the west.  At 1,100 mile, this was the largest abandonment of a railroad in history, until the next year, when the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific (Rock Island Railroad) completely abandoned its railroad (7,000+ miles). The Milwaukee did not last much longer, and in 1986, the railroad was bought and merged into the Soo Line Railroad.

This was a good train movie that I had not seen before.  Thanks for sharing it.

That was neat!  Some great old footage!

--Greg

A lot of 1920s-30s films were kind of dorky. I love this one for its non-stop steam action.

You really can't go wrong with having Jean Arthur in the cast, someone who should have received at least one Academy Award in her career.

Two thumbs up!

Tom

Never heard of that one before, thanks for the post

Steve

We have been talking about this movie on the forum here for ever.But when it is mentioned again lkie now,I watch it again and love it.Nick

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?