Movie Confusion

Well, no worse that the $6M man series.  When Steve Austin (Lee Majors) was traveling by air, they showed one type of plane taking off, another type in flight, and a third type landing.  Like many other film companies, to save cost they used whatever stock film footage was available. 

 

I don't think some of these production companies really care about accuracy because they know most people watching the show probably don't know, or care to know, the difference.  Only those interested in trains, planes, etc. will notice, and I think we are in the minority.

 

Ron

My favorite British sitcom "Keeping Up Appearances" has a scene like that. The main characters go to the station to meet someone. The train which pulls in and stops is an InterCity 125. Moments later, they show passengers disembarking and, as the camera angle is changed to one which shows the head end in the background, you can see what appears to be a Class 47 diesel suggesting a different train was now on the platform. As stated above, I believe this is a fairly common occurence as most viewers won't notice or don't care.

 

Bob 

On the "The Andy Griffith Show"  they regularly used shots of Union Pacific passenger trains pulling into the station in "Mayberry, NC!" 

Then there's the "Happy Days" episode with Fonzie and the gang taking the Pennsylvania (pulled by a GG1!) from Milwaukee to LA.

 

It was in one of those episode arcs that coined the phrase "jump the shark."

 

Rusty

I also seem to remember a Santa Fe train to Vermont in White Christmas.  It is a pretty decent stock clip, though!

"Train people" may notice, but the vast majority of the viewing public couldn't care less about the minutia such as which lines served which cities and other stuff directly related to the prototype.

That's why towns like the CW/WB's Smallville, Kansas had mountains in the background.

 

Occasionally on TV or in the movies, Chicago's skyline looks suspiciously like Toronto and LA or Denver looks an awful lot like Vancouver.

 

Rusty

Of course this sort of thing happens all the time, so much so that it always surprises me when they actually get it right. A few more examples just for the fun of it.

 

The prominent appearance of an Illinois Central boxcar sporting the then new split rail logo in the movie "Hard Times" with Charles Bronson and James Coburn. As the story was set in the era of the Great Depression this one immediately caught my attention. 

 

Who can forget the steam loco sounds in the background in 1976's original "Rocky" as Stalone is working for the loan shark on the Philly waterfront. Should we cut them some slack and assume the American Freedom Train was coincidentally in town.

 

How about the intro to TV's "The Fugitive." Richard Kimble being transported to death row riding though the Indiana night on a Santa Fe streamliner. Then after the train derails as he makes his escape, we see a wrecked Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico heavyweight coach in the background,

Hollywood movie makers have been making minor errors for many, many decades. How about the goof in Ben Hur, when one of the actors forgot to take his Rolex watch off? Or those old western movies with some sort of truck way off in the distance?

How about the intro to TV's "The Fugitive." Richard Kimble being transported to death row riding though the Indiana night on a Santa Fe streamliner.

Ahem. I believe you made a mistake there. Richard Kimble was being transported on a Prison"Blue Bird" bus that overturned, rolled down the embankment and into the path of the oncomming train. Hollywood action at it's best!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvizgSKTaVE

Your wife is right.

.....

Dennis

Ahem. I believe you made a mistake there. Richard Kimble was being transported on a Prison"Blue Bird" bus that overturned, rolled down the embankment and into the path of the oncomming train. Hollywood action at it's best!

Yes and no.  It depends what the show is made for.  I would say somebody who would be viewing DOWNTON ABBEY would be VERY PICKY about what is shown on that program.  (it would also have to pass Violet's vote!)  But do th low common denominator on most shows......

that movie with betty white, i watched it a few years ago when cbs had the hallmark movies on sunday night.i think it was something  about her meeting herboyfriend/husband at that train station and years later after mia in vietnam hes found and she gets his ashes at the same station[or something like that]. i about had tears in my eyes at the end,and i did enjoy the railroad scenes in  the movie,prototypical or not .-jim

How about Atlanta & West Point 290 pulling modern steel boxcars (NS I think) in "Fried Green Tomatoes"?

Sometimes they get it right, or darn close to it.  Check out "Emperor of the North" to see a film made with some attention to prototype railroading.

I found an "Emperor of the North" trailer:

 

 

That will teach him to buy a ticket prior to boarding. I guess that would give new meaning to the term "On Board Penalty."

 

Bob 

Didn't know you could buy tickets to ride a freight train. Maybe NS should look into it as a source of revenue!

some shortlines did.  Technically, that would be a mixed train, but the caboose was the car of choice sometimes.

If memory serves, I believe "Emperor of the North" was filmed along the Oregon, Pacific & Eastern. The scenes of the 19 in operation were quite enjoyable. As far as authenticity of equipment and operation were concerned, I thought it was very good overall although, in one of the segments, I seem to recall some freight cars which were too modern for the movie's setting.

 

I've never read much about interaction between railroaders and "hobos." Is there historical documentation of employees acting in the vicious manner portayed by the movie's Shack character?

 

Bob         

How's about DANGER LIGHTS, made on the Milwaukee Road in the Rockies.  Got some good steam footage, including a pulling contest between a Pacific and a Mikado on a steel trestle.  There's a fun sequence of a hobo getting his just due at the engine terminal.

 

Proves that the Milwaukee F5 Pacific was the greatest steam locomotive ever built.  She ran from the Rockies to track 19 in Chicago Union Station without even stopping for water. 

 

Biggest boo-boo is that the F5 has an inboard bearing trailer, but to add excitement, the trailer ran hot, necessitating the hogger getting on the cab running board and reching down with a packing iron and fixing it; it morphed into a Hodges-style trailer so the engineer could get to the journal box, then morphed back into the inside-bearing job after it was done.

 

I'd put it up there with "Emperor of the North", though . . .

 

EdKing

Blystovski, that is the sequence in White Christmas after Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen (portraying the Hains sisters) and Danny Kaye talk Bing Crosby's character into taking the train to Vermont. In the next two shots, a Santa Fe Warbonnet F3 and a Southern Pacific Black Widow F3 roar past with streamlined passenger trains. Then everyone gets off in Vermont.

 

For extensive listings of train scenes in movies and on TV, go to www.toytrains.info. Click on "Train Movies" or "Trains on TV."

Another disparity takes place in just about every episode of the TV show Petticoat Junction. Action scenes were filmed on the Sierra Railroad with 4-6-0 No. 3 and a short combine and a full-size building for Sam Drucker's General Store. A sign on the water tank at Jamestown pointed to the SHADY REST HOTEL.

 

The Shady Rest Hotel was located some 350 miles south on a sound stage in Culver City. Among the sets was a replica of Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 No. 20, now being restored to operating condition at the Strasburg Rail Road, constructed of wood and fiberglass for A Ticket to Tomahawk, a movie filmed on the Silverton Branch. In the movie, nefarious forces diverted or stole a shipment of rails necessary to complete the line. The plot called for No. 20 to be hauled from the "end of track" to a stretch of track that had been laid into the town of Tomahawk. A mule team couldn't budge the real No. 20, so a replica was built. It wound up in the Hoyt Hotel in Portland, Oregon. The producers of Petticoat Junction acquired it and moved it to the sound stage to film scenes with the cast. In the end credits, HOYT HOTEL / PORTLAND / OREGON comes on screen as No. 3 is "rollin' down the track."

 

No. 3 has a WIDE space between the rear drivers and the first two drivers.

 

No. 20 has all three drivers in a row, but the producers probably felt that no one would notice.

 

My wife gets tired of my train commentary while we are watching movies. She thought we could watch True Lies (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis) in peace. Then I noticed that the limousine chase scenes were filmed on the Florida East Coast Key West Extension.

 

 

Or the recent movie '42' with a 5 year old Jackie chasing a stainless streamline car in 1924.

To say nothing that RGS #20 is a narrow gauge locomotive and Sierra #3 is a standard gauge locomotive.

 

However, as I recall, the replica of #20 was pretty darn accurate for a studio prop.

 

Rusty

You guys are a bunch of buzz kills.  Please don't ever watch a movie with me.  I notice these things but they never bother me.

I would take a guess that almost every movie ever made had mistakes that were somewhat nerd-specific and only caught by a few. The majority enjoyed them just fine.

And let's pay tribute to one of the most athentic train movies ever made:  THE TRAIN, with Burt Lancaster.

I'm surprised that no one here has mentioned the movie Giant.  The Chesapeake and Ohio never ran to Texas.

 

Stuart

Yes, one of my all-time favorites, and not just train-related. But I suspect it would have been considered a great film even if they used the train from Petticoat Jucntion.

 

Or "October Skies" (a VERY good movie, by the way...) with 4501 lettered Norfolk & Western with O. Winston Link running her.

 

Rusty

I fergot to say that the 4501 wuz lettered fer da Balamer & Ahya fer FOOLS PARADE.

 

EdKing

My favorite is "Three Days of the Condor" when Robert Redford gets on a Erie Lackawanna commuter train in Hoboken to go to Washington, DC.

Or how about "Coal Miner's Daughter" with N&W 611 shifting coal hoppers!

 

Kent

Kent, that wasn't 611 it was CP Royal Hudson 2839.

"Trading Places" has quite a few train scenes in it, including one of an Amtrak train with an Amfleet car modified to look like a baggage car for the movie.

 

Bob

Holy cow!  Is this the OGR forum or beancounters anonymous.