Speaking of models being used in movies, here is the live steam engine that was used in the 1952 movie greatest show on earth. Still alive and well. The owner has a loop of track surrounding his house in Jim Thorpe Pa. 
I hope to catch him running it some day.
"Breakheart Pass". For those who would like to see a movie in which ninety percent of the movie takes place on a train with lots of scenic shots of the train winding through mountains. "Breakheart Pass" Is on YouTube at least for the time being. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRAB5WzicfU One of Charles Bronson's best movies. j
This was on overnight this morning on MeTV: "Cannon" episode "The Predators," from 1972. Some aerial shots of Rio Grande 473 heading a passenger train (which crossed a bridge (I THINK it's the Animas River High Bridge) and also hugged a canyon wall), and some shots in Silverton, with a parked train in the background.
EDIT: Just watched that part again. Not sure what loco number is pulling the train in the canyon. Can't make out the number. It appears to have a black exterior on the smokebox, with the lower part of the stack silver. No. 473 is silver on both the smokebox and the stack when the train is in Silverton.
David
Another Movie for the database, this time its an outstanding foreign film
The King's Choice (2017) - A Norwegian film based on the true the story about three dramatic days in April 1940, where the King of Norway is presented with an unimaginable ultimatum from the German armed forces: surrender or die. With Nazi soldiers hunting after them, the Royal Family is forced to flee the capital. The Royal family travels by train around 24:30 mark (currently Free with Ads on YouTube)
Powderkeg, 1971 MFTV movie as the pilot for the short lived series "Bearcats."
Mexican bandits hold a train hostage for the release of their leader's brother while running it back and forth on miles of track in desolate countryside. Starring Rod Taylor,Dennis Cole and Magma Arizona 2-8-0 #5.
Rusty
Real trains:
So many. But the two that really stick in my mind are :
North By Northwest, (mentioned previously) where the sequences in train stations and on trains are directly integral to the plot. Plus, it has the classic "train entering tunnel" shot as the stand in for --ahem--well, you know...
Night of the Hunter: The only film directed by Charles Laughton, with Robert Mitchum. Daddy Bad plays Harry Powell, a fake preacher who kills widows for their little nest eggs. A classic of noir with influences of German Expressionism, this is one of my favorites. It uses some B roll stock shots of a locomotive roaring down the tracks to set up a feeling of extreme menace.
Toy Trains:
The Day The Earth Stood Still: Little Billy has an under bed Lionel layout. We even see it run.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The aliens are checking out our electric motors and in this encounter we see creepy footage of a train start and run...
First thing that comes to mind for me is The Fast And The Furious. I eventually plan to take the Greenlight 1/43 scale cars they made and put them to use with my trains somehow.
No way I could probably find it, and I apologize if it’s been mentioned as I got dizzy reading all 14 pages, but there was an episode of different strokes I remember as a kid where Arnold bought a Lionel passenger locomotive “as is” which was broken. If I remember right they ended up in court arguing “as is” vs “as was”. Of course, the locomotive is the only reason I remember the episode.
@David K. Simpson posted:No way I could probably find it, and I apologize if it’s been mentioned as I got dizzy reading all 14 pages, but there was an episode of different strokes I remember as a kid where Arnold bought a Lionel passenger locomotive “as is” which was broken. If I remember right they ended up in court arguing “as is” vs “as was”. Of course, the locomotive is the only reason I remember the episode.
David,
It's the Diff'rent Strokes Season 3, Episode 2 called "Small Claims Court" and available on a DVD from Amazon.
@Bruce Brown posted:David,
It's the Diff'rent Strokes Season 3, Episode 2 called "Small Claims Court" and available on a DVD from Amazon.
Wow. I clearly remember the scene in the store. Thank you.
A Bad Day At Black Rock was on TV this past weekend. IMO, it's an ok movie, not a fan of any of the actors. Anyway, the Southern Pacific is shown in the beginning of the movie and at the end. I didn't see the beginning but the ending had a few SP Daylight passenger cars being pulled by SP AB Black Widow F units. I'm sure this has been mentioned in this thread before now.
Steve
@carnerd3000 posted:First thing that comes to mind for me is The Fast And The Furious. I eventually plan to take the Greenlight 1/43 scale cars they made and put them to use with my trains somehow.
Well, before f&f there was Dirty Marry and Crazy Larry and without CGI.
@RideTheRails posted:A Bad Day At Black Rock was on TV this past weekend. IMO, it's an ok movie, not a fan of any of the actors. Anyway, the Southern Pacific is shown in the beginning of the movie and at the end. I didn't see the beginning but the ending had a few SP Daylight passenger cars being pulled by SP AB Black Widow F units. I'm sure this has been mentioned in this thread before now.
Steve
Yeah, its been mentioned a few times. The begging and the end are epic Black Widow pulling the Daylight. The first one is clipped but is better resolution while the second shows more of the approach.
The Wild Wild West, season 1, episode 20. Yes, it was HO, but for the late 1800’s it was a very impressive layout! Dr. Loveless used a toy train to try and blow up Jim West.
Just saw most of "The Hot Rock," from 1972 - George Segal, Robert Redford, Zero Mostel et al. A sort of heist comedy movie. At one point they take off in a helicopter from the area next to a car float in what looks to be Long Island City. Then, while flying over the East River, there's a barge with rail cars on the river. They also fly past the under-construction World Trade Center.
Oh, I meant to add - the movie is on FXM again Friday (Aug. 20) at 9:35a ET.
David
Additions to the movie list:
The FBI Story (1959) - While giving a lecture at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, veteran agent Chip Hardesty (James Stewart) recounts his career with the bureau. He goes all the way from the days when the bureau was nothing more than a over-glorified legal clerks office to the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country. When Stewart talks about moving across country for the bureau (happens several times) there are videos of steam engines at speed. I personally enjoyed the footage of the B&O's National Limited observation car in Washington DC. There also is a tail/chase of a communist spy on the NYC subways.
Whistle Stop (1946) - When beautiful Mary (Ava Gardner) returns home to her "whistle stop" home town, long-standing feelings of animosity between two of her old boyfriends leads to robbery and murder. The opening seen has Gardner getting off a train (Free on YouTube)
"Fours a crowd "1938. Great prewar Lionel outdoor layout with Errol Flynn and o
This thread would take quite a while to go through...but anyway I am sure Breakheart Pass has been mentioned (some of the best steam shots ever); and there's a lessor known Jimmy Stewart movie "Fools Parade" that has some excellent steam era train action, in fact quite a bit.
@Paul Kallus posted:This thread would take quite a while to go through...but anyway I am sure Breakheart Pass has been mentioned (some of the best steam shots ever); and there's a lessor known Jimmy Stewart movie "Fools Parade" that has some excellent steam era train action, in fact quite a bit.
Good ones! I almost oforgot-. "The Denver and rio Grande ",1952 with Sterling Hayden s,Edmond O'Brien and Paul fix as steam engineer a western with story of the building of thr DRG RR.
@Rusty Traque posted:Powderkeg, 1971 MFTV movie as the pilot for the short lived series "Bearcats."
Mexican bandits hold a train hostage for the release of their leader's brother while running it back and forth on miles of track in desolate countryside. Starring Rod Taylor,Dennis Cole and Magma Arizona 2-8-0 #5.
Rusty
Ok good one . How about 1964 "The Train" with Burt Lancaster, it's a classic !
The Keanu Reeves' gunplay hitman movies John Wick 2 (2017) and John Wick 3 - Parabellum (2019), both had New York area trains in them.
My wife binge watched the series over the weekend and I joined and watched the the second two with her.
In Wick #2 Reeves and another hitman, played by Common, have a gunfight in the PATH World Trade Center station, and in Wick #3 Reeves is in a fight scene on the Main Concourse of Grand Central Terminal. In both movies, one of the main characters played by Laurence Fishburne, has a roof top condo along the East River with a view of the Manhattan Bridge. Constant images in the background of the subway trains crossing the bridge.
@kj356 posted:
Movie magic!!!
Isn't the O Gauge world wonderful? Such a wide range of things from 1:43 to 1:50 to go with our trains. Gives me an idea - whenever the layout is built - to have a railroad crossing vignette with a scene from a movie. Used Cars (1980) with Kurt Russell comes to mind. 
Night Passage. A 1957 movie starring Jimmy Stewart & Audie Murphy.
While not a movie or tv show, how about a radio show? This is a recording of Jean Shepherd's trip is from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Ogden, Utah on the Union Pacific's The Domeliner City of Los Angeles.
Shep talks about trains, the Union Pacific, the west, and he interviews several UP employees (interview is at the 20:37 mark, I HIGHLY recommend listening to the interview)
Bryce
Thank you Bryce - love anything Jean Shepherd - that was great 👍🏼
HBO's "Big Little Lies" has a Lionel layout that becomes intertwined in a bad marriage, including an argument over spending money on "toys" amid the tension between collecting or operating trains. Might be too close to our experiences! But hit the 2:50 mark here:
Apparently, the set cost $30,000 to build (details Here) and was eventually destroyed in the show as part of a marital spat.
Crappy starter set.
Jon 
I watched the WWII movie "The Train" I liked that as it had the main theme being the train and the operations.
@Flytoget posted:HBO's "Big Little Lies" has a Lionel layout that becomes intertwined in a bad marriage, including an argument over spending money on "toys" amid the tension between collecting or operating trains. Might be too close to our experiences! But hit the 2:50 mark here:
Apparently, the set cost $30,000 to build (details Here) and was eventually destroyed in the show as part of a marital spat.
I imagine something close to this has actually occurred in real life where the wife takes her frustrations out on the layout and trains. Scary
Fly-to-get: Lesson..Don't keep you baseball bat collection in the same area as your model RR.
Have always enjoyed Jean Sheppard. Thank you for posting this one.
Jim K
I think the clip post needs a warning about the profanity in the sub-titles.
Watched "Chicago" on Thursday Noir on Movies! Ends with a chase through a freight yard and into the 40 mile underground railway used by stores to move goods in and garbage out. Neat elevators go from track level into the stores basements.
How about The Emigrants with Liv Ullman and Max Von Sydow. The train scenes were filmed in 1969 at the Mid-Continent Ry. Museum in North Freedom, WI. Many of the Swedish crews loved the fresh fruits and vegetables from the local ma and pa grocery store. The film crews came back later, and filmed some scenery shots as well because they liked what they saw. There were also many people from North Freedom, as extras. The other movie, Mrs. Soeffel with Mel Gibson, Mathew Modine and Diane Keaton saw all the train scenes filmed once again the Mid-Continent Ry. Museum. We met Mel and Mathew, but Diane Keaton was not here, only her stunt double. And once again, many of the people from town were extras in the movie. This movie came out in 1984, so I believe we filmed in Feb. of 1983. Of course my favorite movie is still IT Happened to Jane with Doris Day and Jack Lemmon. And last night, on TV, I once again saw Night Passage with Jimmy Stewart and Audy Murphy, filmed on the D&RW.
"White Heat" from 1949 with James Cagney starts out with a train scene. Great movie too. 
"The House on Carrol Steet" has a chase scene at the end that goes into Grand Central Station that used a real NYC electric locomotive, a scene that impressed me for the effort they went to for something you barely see just for a moment.
1967 movie "Hour Of The Gun". James Garner as Wyatt Earp. Jason Robards as Doc Holliday. Lotsa nice train scenes.
I'm trying to remember or find information on an old black and white movie that involved moving a train through a large yard as quickly as possible. I think the train had a time bomb on it and that was the reason for full speed ahead. I know it was B&W but can't be sure if it was silent. I remember the camera work from the front of the train was impressive. Anyone else remember this? Thank you.
Jim K
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