Not really movies, but Clive Cusslee wrote some good books in the Isaac Bell series that include some really detailed railroading of the early 1900s. Mostly based on the SP.
NS6770Fan posted:Not really movies, but Clive Cusslee wrote some good books in the Isaac Bell series that include some really detailed railroading of the early 1900s. Mostly based on the SP.
I was always fond of Dirk Pitt in Night Probe.
Just watched "Lady on a Train". New York venue. Snipets of electrics and finally a steamer at the end. Entertaining movie but not a great train movie.
Sounds like this thread should be re-titled to "Greatest movies that show a train in a couple of scenes."
May not be the greatest movie, but Unstoppable was on cable the other day, lots of action,
Oldmike
Runaway Train. Runaway Train 1985. Super thrilling prison break action film.
If any of you get the THIS TV Channel, tonight's movie at 8pm is:
Tom
One of my all time favourite Christmas movies, White Christmas features a pair of passenger trains. This is what I found when I did some research;
"The first glimpse of a real train follows a dining car scene. It's a daytime scene darkened to appear like it's at night, and it shows a long Santa Fe streamlined train behind four Santa Fe warbonnet F-units, (A-B-B-A) running alongside the ocean in front of palm trees apparently meant to suggest "Florida" but undoubtedly actually on Santa Fe's "Surf Line." The next scene, depicting a daytime segment of the trip, shows a Southern Pacific passenger train, with an A-B-B set of F-units in Black Widow paint, followed by several heavyweight head end cars and a string of heavyweight passenger cars."
I've never seen it before, but an old black&white...40s?... "Christmas Eve" is about to come on right now on "The Movies" TV station. Something about a goofy millionaire and shows a dinner table train scene in the preview/trailer.
MNCW posted:If any of you get the THIS TV Channel, tonight's movie at 8pm is:
Tom
I still think this original version is better than the remake.
Dan,
I agree. Merry Christmas. 
Tom
While not a train movie, The Greatest Show on Earth, has a train crash. Have not seen since the 50's. oldmike
One of my favorite train movies "The Narrow Margin" is on Movies! TV Network today at 11:30 PM here in the east. A noir film that takes place almost totally on the train from Chicago to LA and several scenes in stations.
Scotie,
Yes, that's one of my favorites, too. Thanks for the "heads-up."
Tom
If you folks like murder mysteries set on trains (or at least some portion), TCM has a couple tonight.
- 8pm- Murder She Said (1961), Miss Marple, the Agatha Christie character
- 11:15- The Lady Vanishes (1938). Early Hitchcock!
Tom
As many have mentioned, "the Train" and "Emperor of the North" are two of the all time great train films.
I would add Disney's "Great Locomotive Chase" also very good is "Making the Great Locomotive Chase" view able on YouTube.
While not a commercial movie, "Daylight Express" is excellent.
MNCW posted:If you folks like murder mysteries set on trains (or at least some portion), TCM has a couple tonight.
- 8pm- Murder She Said (1961), Miss Marple, the Agatha Christie character
- 11:15- The Lady Vanishes (1938). Early Hitchcock!
Tom
Tom, Miss Marple is a classic and we are watching it now, thanks.
Yes, I've seen several of the Miss Marple movies. Glad you can enjoy it.
Tom
Just watched a good WWII spy movie on YouTube which mostly takes place on a train. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock "The Lady Vanishes" j
" This Property is Condemned": A fair bit of train shots, since Robert Redford works for "the" railway...speaking of Redford: "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"
"The Heat of the Night": Opening and closing shots of GM&O(?)
"Valley Of the Dolls": Opening scenes with NYC RS3.
I prefer the last two, as the shots are of "real" trains, not staged for the film...
Mark in Oregon
@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:Run for Cover, Western, 1955, starring James Cagney.
Just watched that last night earlier in the evening on local TV. They seem to run that movie about once a month so I have seen it several times. Not enough screen time for trains is the only flaw. However just after Run for Cover ended I found The Lady Vanishes on YouTube. Eighty percent of the movie takes place on a train and they cut to exterior shots fairly often. j
Terrible railroading from a not so great train movie, Atomic Train:
Rusty
The Train with Burt Lancaster,
Von Ryan's Express with Frank Sinatra,
The General with Buster Keaton, and any 3 Stooges short that had the lion walking through the Pullman.
Sorry, fat fingers.
ROCKY passed a Conrail switcher, and ran under the Rockville Bridge.
Didn't anyone else see the Marx Brothers in 'Go West'? They staged a chase scene with a wood-burning steam engine. Good stuff. Chopped up the coaches for firewood.
I'm a huge fan of the Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. One of my favorites takes place on a train, the 1946 movie Terror by Night.
@third rail posted:The Train with Burt Lancaster,
Von Ryan's Express with Frank Sinatra,
The General with Buster Keaton, and any 3 Stooges short that had the lion walking through the Pullman.
Sorry, fat fingers.
The General and The Train are definitely on my list - also The RailRodder with Keaton crossing Canada on a speeder.
@Dominic Mazoch posted:ROCKY passed a Conrail switcher, and ran under the Rockville Bridge.
Correction: Bridge 69 on the NE Corridor.
There is an old old one called "Danger LIghts". The acting is typical 1930s very exaggerated. I don't think it is the greatest. However, there are many great scenes of steam on the Milwaukee Road I believe. There is one series of shots of a big Steam Wreck Crane doing some rerailing too. If is fun movie for the train scenes.
Not so much a "railroad movie," but the gang at Disney doing sound effects for Casey Jr.
Rusty
Rails Into Laramie is a western in color made in 1954 that stars John Payne and Dan Duryea. Payne plays an army sergeant who is ordered into a town to investigate repeated sabotage at the rail-head and it turns out an old friend is involved. Some nice shots of 1870s vintage railroad equipment though much of the movie is of personal interaction between Payne and Duryea and does not include trains. j
@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:Human Desire (Glenn Ford is the engineer on the passenger rain) is loosely based on Le Bete Humaine, and was filmed 16 years (1954) after it's French counterpart. Looks like there are several train shots taken from PR railroad promotional movies, however, the Alco FA ABBA set that Ford runs appears to have been given a special paint job especially for the movie. In the original French release, the steam locomotive is cut off the train after it reaches its final destination, and runs to the roundhouse. In Human Desire, the lead FA is cut off the ABBA set and heads for the roundhouse by itself with Ford at the throttle??? Hooray for Hollywood......LOL
Yes! Human Desire doesn't just use a train as a set for characters who are traveling. It is about railroaders.
Broderick Crawford is perfectly cast as an iron-pants railroad official of the 1950's, in a brown suit and a fedora. Glenn Ford is cast as a fairly young Locomotive Engineer, who holds a regular assignment on a passenger train. (In reality, passenger service was highly sought after by those at the top of the seniority list, and Engineers Ford's age could not hold it in most places.) Since it is about railroaders, there has to be a woman of easy virtue, and who could be better to portray her than Gloria Grahame?
The studio constructed a set that was supposed to look like the cab interior of an EMD F-unit, and actually does have some of the equipment from a real locomotive.
@OldMike posted:While not a train movie, The Greatest Show on Earth, has a train crash. Have not seen since the 50's. oldmike
The Greatest Show on Earth is a great train movie because it also gives an intimate look a RBBB Circus in it's hey day. Discovered it late -- just a few years ago and have watched it several times-- because I saw 3 of the last real RBBB Circuses and want to incorporate a circus scene along with my RBBB K-Line cars.
One of my favorite train movies was Silver Streak -- a Gene Wilder classic.
@Seacoast posted:Lots of Good picks. There are many on my Train movie list:
The Great Locomotive Chase 1956- Fess Parker. Classic Disney Civil War
The Denver and Rio Grande- 1952-Edmund O’Brien. Battle among competing Railroads.
Narrow Margin 1952 -Charles McGraw or the remake 1990 with Gene Hackman. A good guy protects the witness.
Northwest Frontier -1959-Kenneth Moore & Lauren Bacall. Great stream locomotive runs thru high desert country of India followed by bad guys. This is a hidden gem of a movie.
Human Desire-1954- Glen Ford, Broderick Crawford, Gloria Grahame, Railroad guys battle over a woman.
Any of the Murder on the Orient Express. Agatha Christie mystery.
Happy Thanksgiving
I watched the Denver and Rio Grande Movie last night, (was an "on demand" movie on Xfinity with no extra charge, I also see it listed as an Amazon prime movie).. Its about the building of the railroad, lots and lots of train action, most of it narrow gauge. Also has a actual crash of two engines (they look like generals). Its in color, lot of great railroad track scenes and amazing scenery from the Colorado Rockies. Found it highly entertaining and a nice distraction. Best, Dave
Some great ones listed here. I enjoyed these "less than classics but featuring nice train footage."
100 RIFLES...Revolution in Mexico (actually Spain) featuring Raquel Welch, Jim Brown, Burt Reynolds, and a great battle involving a train.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063970/
BANDIDO, another Mexican revolution film starring Robert Mitchum has another great battle scene involving a train.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048983/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
DUCK, YOU SUCKER, and another psuedo Mexican film featuring a train. Lee Marvin, Rod Steiger, and a bunch of dynamite!
@Former Member posted:I watched the Denver and Rio Grande Movie last night, Also has a actual crash of two engines (they look like generals).
Not even close.
Is it really that easy to think that a wagon-top boilered 4-4-0 American (not "General") looks the same as a straight-boiler 2-8-0 Consolidation? What are the similarities? That both have wheels?
@smd4 posted:Not even close.
Is it really that easy to think that a wagon-top boilered 4-4-0 American (not "General") looks the same as a straight-boiler 2-8-0 Consolidation? What are the similarities? That both have wheels?
At least they were painted "Bumble Bee." 
Well, they were built in 1881. At least they didn't use any of the K-class mikados. Plus, seeing there were no operable narrow gauge 4-4-0's at the time the movie was made, ya gotta go with what ya's got.
What I got a kick out of was during the head-on collision, the tenders exploded. Mighty unstable water out there...
Rusty
I just watched White Christmas (1954) and really enjoyed the brief scene of an SP mail train pulled by A-B-B F7's on a super elevated curve.
@Number 90 posted:I just watched White Christmas (1954) and really enjoyed the brief scene of an SP mail train pulled by A-B-B F7's on a super elevated curve.
And wasn't that supposed to be in Vermont?!
Yes. They board the AT & SF in Miami, and step off the SP in Vermont.
Jon 
