Trains In Movies, Unusual Sightings

October Skies, a movie about some Virginia boys who went on to be rocket scientists, with "Norfolk & Western" 2-8-2 #4501 in good old black.

(Yeah, I know it's Southern's 4501 repainted...)

O Winston Link was at the throttle during a close-up.

Rusty

An Alaska RR Alco MRS-1 appears in "Runaway Train" with Jon Voight and Eric Roberts. The power consist that the convicts stow-away on includes an F7 and two GP7's with "fake" high noses and Alco trucks.

There's the 'Chesapeke & Ohio' 4-8-2 in the movie "Giant" which was really a N&W K-1 relettered for the movie.

Stuart

In "Cincinnati Kid" they showed a passenger train with an engine that wore a Santa Fe warbonnet. It was implied that one of the players was arriving on it.

Anyone know what's odd about that? Or how about two things wrong with it?

In the first few years after the 765 was restored she was in a movie with New York Central lettering on the tender.

She also played a part in the film Matewan. The battle of Matewan took place in 1920 (NKP 765 was built in 1944) and was on the N&W. The film was mostly made in Thurmond, WV on the C&O!

IIRC, the Cotton Belt did have at least a couple of PA's for its meager passenger service.

Strasburg's 4-4-0 the PRR D class showed in "Hello Dolly" and perhaps several others. There is quite a bit of "Makeup" that goes and alters the engine along with certain camera views that does not show the tender etc.

Emperor of the North is a favorite as it seems to be where it belongs.

In "Bad Day at Black Rock" Spencer Tracy arrives on the Daylight.

What about the 4449 in "Tough Guys" which had Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster in it. And that classic with William Shatner...."Disaster on the Coastliner".......

IRM's Nebraska Zephyr made a brief appearance in "A League of Their Own" while their 2-10-0, Frisco 1630 made a cameo appearance during the depot scene.

Rusty

Thurmond was chosen to stand in for Matewan because the latter had changed too much since the time of the incident, while Thurmond was a time capsule perfectly suited to become a movie set. 765 looked fine in her role, even tho she is from the 1940's. Only us train nuts would notice, anyway. The only thing that puzzled me was why 765's tender was unlettered, rather than stenciled "Norfolk and Western." If you have never seen this flick, I highly recommend it. Great cast, incl. Mary McDonald, Chris Cooper, David Strathairn as Sid Hatfield, arch-villain Bob Gunton as the company spy, and the incomparable James Earl Jones. I think a fellow name of Melvin is in there, too. A low-budget operation directed by John Sayles, it stands up very well against much higher-dollar movies, and tells a story we all need to remember about the long, difficult road American working men and women have had to travel.

NKP 765 also was in a movie back in the late 1970s or early 1980s as I remember. The movie was directed by Mr. A. Penn, but I can't remember the name. It was filmed around Hammond Ind. as I recall.

quote:

In "Bad Day at Black Rock" Spencer Tracy arrives on the Daylight.

He left on it too. But, I thought it was F units with Black Widow paint scheme..could be wrong though. That would have made it some other SP passenger train.

Where is Black Rock anyway?

Btw, I'll answer my own questions about "Cincinnati Kid". You wouldn't have Warbonnets in New Orleans or in the 1930s.

quote:

IIRC, the Cotton Belt did have at least a couple of PA's for its meager passenger service.

I think a couple was all it was. They also used a Daylight painted FP7. It's passenger service was in fact "meager". And they had a mix of cars including some attractive black and silver like these - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cfMmLNazX8. Is that whistle cool sounding or what?? That's a well done video.

The PAs had an interesting feature. They came with black roofs which the Cotton Belt repainted silver. They found the dark roofs contributed to the engines over-heating too easily and when they did, they shut down.

Andy Griffith's character left from Piggott, Arkansas, which is on the Cotton Belt's mainline (it was mostly a mainline railroad with few branches). Among the folks who saw him off at the station was Miss Alice, the very elderly widow of the road's founder. I believe I recognized her from a company photo. And the train was probably the Memphis Star, although that time frame had to be at the very end of SSW passenger service to Memphis.

The PAs were also used in freight service - http://condrenrails.com/MRP/Me...Freight%20Trains.htm. It's the second pic down.

Ginsaw, I believe you're right about the Black Widow engines but the cars were in Daylight colors.

SP's passenger F's were all painted in the Black Widow scheme.

I was a kid when I saw Bad Day at Black Rock on TV. I still remember the last scene as S[pencer Tracy boards the train.

Conductor: "This is the first time the Streamliner's stopped at Black Rock."

Spencer Tracy: "Second time..."

Rusty

If Espee's passenger Fs were all painted in Black Widow, I wonder what the deal was with the Cotton Belt's F unit in Daylight (or Sunset which for some reason I tend to lapse into calling it).

I also recall a UP passenger train in Godfather. IIRC Mikey was on his way back from meetings in California or someplace.

quote:

Originally posted by John Meixel:
Ginsaw, I believe you're right about the Black Widow engines but the cars were in Daylight colors.

That is 100% correct....Black Widow units for the power and Daylight passenger cars.

quote:

Originally posted by Stuart:
There's the 'Chesapeke & Ohio' 4-8-2 in the movie "Giant" which was really a N&W K-1 relettered for the movie.
Stuart

Funny, I seem to recall an articulated locomotive on a passenger train at the beginning of that movie.

Someone jog my memory. What movie from the 60's(?) had a RDG T1 arriving at the CNJ terminal in Jersey City? (AAR It was just a front end shot.)

Reading #2124 was in the movie "From the Terrace", starring Joanne Woodward and Myrna Loy. Did anyone see "The Hurricane Express" a serial starring John Wayne, done in 1932? It's loaded with Espee steam (of course, right in Hollywood's backyard). Some of it is available via a google search.

"Switchback" with Dennis Quaid and Danny Glover had SD39's painted for the Rio Grande (which DRGW never had- they were SP units painted for the film) and an action sequence aboard an old wooden flanger car.

Spectacular Rio Grande scenery, too.

The engine at the beginning of "Giant" is, indeed, an N&W K1, lettered for the C&O on the camera side only. Can't recall which K it was, or whether it was one of them that had an ex-C&O tender. The movie producers were just a little bit late to capture a real C&O loco. The scenes with the K are the best in the whole flick, IMHO.

If you really want to see a movie full of real steam, get a copy of "Danger Lights" and bask in all those Milwaukee Road cinders. The scenes inside the roundhouse are priceless time capsules.

Regarding Black Rock - I got curious and did some looking around. At first I thought Arizona sounded about right. That's what it looked like. But, wiki says Black Rock AZ is in the extreme northwestern part of the state whereas google has it in the northeastern corner. I don't see a town in either area. And there's only an abandoned building shown on wiki. It's apparently just a place name out in the middle of nowhere, and there's no sign of a railroad anywhere near.

Then tried Black Rock, TX, without finding anything. Then I looked at an old SP system map and saw no sign it went through the northern end of Arizona.

On a hunch I typed in Black Rock CA, and there it was.

It's a fictional town set in California. So the railroad was fictional there too. Don't know where it was really filmed.

The only trains at "Black Rock" I recall in that movie are the "streamliners" arriving to drop off Spencer Tracy and again at the end, to pick him up with the same identical consist.

The setting to me looks like southern Arizona. But also looks like the desert and mountain area of southern CA.

No other trains were seen on that line in the movie, I think. Maybe it could have been along the SP branch between Redlands and Crafton CA? How about along the SD&AE SP subsidiary between Campo and El Centro CA, just above and along the border with Mexico's state of Baja California? It's a single tack, freight only SP subsidary, ideal for making movie shots like this without unduly interrupting any traffic.

In making that movie, both train scenes (arriving and departing) were probably shot at the same time. Movies are created piece-meal and put together later by editors. It's not unusual to film ending scenes first, then maybe some beginning or middle scenes.

The SP equipment I recall was a very clean set of four or five matched streamlined cars with a round end (parlor?) observation and a black EMD F unit for power. They likely were not to far away from an SP divison shop and yard.

Now a triva question for you all:
Was the train turned around to run in the opposite direction from its arrival to pick up Spencer Tracy at the end of the movie?

Or, did he board that train at the end with it headed in the same direction it was going when he first arrived at the movie set town and depot called "Black Rock?"

Ed Bommer

That's a good question, but it's unlikely the answer will be found on imdb.com, or that anyone here will have the movie (now watch someone prove that wrong).

It makes sense that it was near an SP maintenance area, and that if they could, they would do it with the train going in different directions. So that's probably what happened.

Anyway, I thought of another state to try. Just for fun, I tried Black Rock NM, and there actually is such a place and it's a very remote, small town. It appears to be in the Zuni Reservation area.

But, no railroad located nearby. The nearest would be somewhat north of there passing through Gallup, NM, and it obviously would not be the Espee.

So I think Ed's probably right on with possible locations.

I had never thought about it before, but I believe the train was going in the same direction for both the arrival and departure sequences. Don't know where it was filmed.

If you search on the movie title and "filming locations" you'll find more than one hit that says the train was filmed around Lone Pine, California.

Filming locations of "Bad Day at Black Rock" were


Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Death Valley National Park, California, USA

Lone Pine, California, USA

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA
(studio)

Sierra Railroad, Jamestown, California, USA

How about Railroad Park in Los Angeles in the TV show "Adam 12"? They chased a guy through it and they were all over the equipment, it was pretty funny to see.

Ginsaw, the 3 diesels the Cotton Belt bought all wore the SP Daylight orange schem, The two PA, 300, 301 and the FP& 306. Of course later were repainted.
Dan

quote:

the 3 diesels the Cotton Belt bought all wore the SP Daylight orange schem, The two PA, 300, 301 and the FP& 306.

I'm going strictly on long ago memories you understand, but I think there were three differences between the SSW's Daylight PAs as delivered and after further painting. They repainted the roofs silver, they changed the name to Cotton Belt from the full company name, and they changed the front to reverse the familiar logo style from black lettering on white to the other way around.

Lionel once did an F3 in the MPC style as an SP Daylight. I used to think about buying it, and changing it to the Cotton Belt Daylight. But now I know that SP never had that scheme, from what's been said here. Lionel also did an Archive Series SP Black Widow F set, that I would have bought if it said Cotton Belt on the side. A dealer told me, had someone suggested it in time, Lionel just might have offered both since they were almost the same paint job otherwise.

Btw, Cotton Belt didn't have F3s. But they had plenty of other Fs, and in Black Widow, Bloody Nose, Yellow/Gray (which was the best looking and has never been done in factory 3R), and of course the Daylight. There were a couple other early schemes too, one a factory proposal, but I doubt they were used on Fs.

Lone Pine and Alabama Hills are right together. There's also this - http://www.lonepinechamber.org/history/railroads.html (be sure to click on "film industry"). When I googled Lone Pine I found what looks like a rail line just east, but it doesn't look like it connects to much.

In any event, we'll have to book this one as what? The "Myth of Black Rock" solved or confirmed...

We here are at our best when we have a mystery to work on..

According to this site it appears the track is no longer there. See the pictures showing the train going over a bridge and the present day picture showing the bridge is gone.

Don't forget "It Happened to Jane" (1959)starring Doris Day and Jack Lemmon. The film featured the last steamer on the NYNH&H, a J-Class 2-8-2, #3016. It was numbered 97 for the movie. Sadly, it fell to the torches shortly after the movie was filmed.

SSW did have a DL Geep!

quote:

SSW did have a DL Geep!

I believe it was just one, and the only engine other than FTs in the colorful yellow/gray paint scheme. They also had a very early (I think) purple/silver scheme copied off the ACL or someplace. I've never seen a toy train wearing it. And I've only seen one toy train in the yellow/gray, a brass two rail Hallmark FT set.

As a side note on Black Rock, another place name from the movie was Adobe Flat. Remember?

There actually is such a place in California, but up in the northern part of the state.

Not knowing any of this all these years, I always just assumed the movie must have been set in Arizona. It just looked like it. Since it was in fact fictional, I guess you can pretend it was anywhere you like...

Now, where was the town and train in High Noon??

I once had the pleasure of seeing Tex Ritter perform that song in person.

What about a more recent flick, "The Majestic" with Jim Carey was set in the post WW II era with what year maroon diesels pulling his maroon passenger train??