On the History Channel it seems like if they do show an American steam-powered train, it's usually from (IIRC) Cass Scenic RR. I'm thinking riding from San Francisco to Chicago on a train pulled by a Shay would take a while....
I've seen two different documentaries on Midway where they flat out said there was no actual footage of the actual battle. They would be using footage from other battles during the program.
Both documentaries talked a lot about a pilot named Dusty Kleiss who was the only pilot to hit three ships during the battle.
I never heard him mentioned in either movie.
My understanding is that John Ford filmed some of the fighting in the Battle of Midway from an island base nearby, and was wounded during the battle? However, I know a lot of documentaries about Pearl Harbor use footage from later movies. I bet at this point, the same scenes have been used so often, people don't realize it's fake. I recall that John Ford came to Pearl Harbor shortly after the attack, and I think I saw footage of his film crew starting fires near a wreckage so when they filmed it, it would look like it had just happened.
