Greatest Train Movie
NICHE541
scenery? Breakheart Pass?
John in the Indian Nations
Christopher A. Lee
wrote:
>Out of curiosity, what was the movie that had the greatest Train
>scenery? Breakheart Pass?
>John in the Indian Nations
The Titfield Thunderbolt with its archetype English countryside and
village complete with cricket match.
Sir Ray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Hospitality
OK, OK, I kid, but it did have a great replica of Stephenson's Rocket
in it, and the train travel segment was a significant portion of the
film, during which various amusing events occur, like the crew moving
the track to avoid a stubborn mule, the engine leaving the tracks and
continuing along a dirt road untill the passengers wake up the
engineer, a large log being used as a tie and the engine having to
climb over it, and among the most absurd to me, this incredibly long
for the time (1830s) rail route running directly from New York
(probably New Jersey since they don't seem to cross the Hudson..or the
Delaware, or the Susquehanna, or Potomac for that matter) to a small
town in Kentucky - apparently no other stops, as no passengers get on
or off at intermediate stops; oh yes, a dog chases the train from New
York, and arrives at the terminus before the train, waiting at the
general store porch for Buster to show up.
Actually, Buster Keaton had a lot of railroading in his films as he
was a proto-railfan (he also had a lot of Baseball scenes too, being
a big baseball fan).
Besides 'The General' (of course), he had scenes like the water-tower
escape in Sherlock Jr, and the Junkyard bride-chase scene in Seven
Chances, as well as short but key plot points like the Train NOT
smashing into his 'custom-u-build' house in 'One Week' (or maybe it
did)...and, well, although railroads did play a much larger role in
everyday life then, he still fit in more railroads scenes then
expected.
OK, here's a somewhat lesser known Buster Keaton short that fits the
OP's request better - the 1965 Silent (but in Color) Keaton comedy
short 'The Railrodder' for the Film Board of Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Railrodder. It's available on
YouTube (Legally!), and pretty much consists of a cross country trip
across mid-1960s Canada in a Canadian National Speeder (think the CN
Noodles are on the cart)
Wolf K
[...]
> OK, here's a somewhat lesser known Buster Keaton short that fits the
> OP's request better - the 1965 Silent (but in Color) Keaton comedy
> short 'The Railrodder' for the Film Board of Canada
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Railrodder. It's available on
> YouTube (Legally!), and pretty much consists of a cross country trip
> across mid-1960s Canada in a Canadian National Speeder (think the CN
> Noodles are on the cart)
Not "for" the National Film Board, but _by_ the NFB, which was and is
one of the great documentary producers of all time. You can view pretty
wel everything they made online, and download a whack of it, too. They
excelled at animation, Norman McLaren in particular pioneered many
techniques which have now become commonplace, see Syrinx, for example.
I like The Cat Came back, it ven has some railroading in it:
http://www.nfb.ca/film/the-cat-came-bac
Enjoy!
Wolf K.
Roger Traviss
> Shows a lot of the old style infrastructure of The SNCF like grade
> crossing barriers that are closed by running parallel with the tracks
> ,the old French style of naming towns on buildings like water towers
> etc. Then there are the old Locos some of which are wrecked for the
> film, as is a freight yard because the SNCF needed to redevelop it and
> didn't mind it being blown up with real explosives.
> The final scene ends on a track constructed with chairs and Bullhead
> rail a rare thing outside the UK and probably extremely rare in France
> now.
And Lancaster drove the locomotives several times in the movie. None the
train crashes were models, all done with withdrawn locomotives and cars.
Excellent movie.
--
Cheers
Roger Traviss
Photos of the late GER: -
http://www.highspeedplus.com/~rogertra/
For more photos not in the above album and kitbashes etc..:-
http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/rogertra/Great_Eastern/
Special Agent Melvin Purvis
wrote:
> \> The Train ,the 1964 one starring Burt Lancaster set in Wartime France.
>
> > Shows a lot of the old style infrastructure of The SNCF like grade
> > crossing barriers that are closed by running parallel with the tracks
> > ,the old French style of naming towns on buildings like water towers
> > etc. Then there are the old Locos some of which are wrecked for the
> > film, as is a freight yard because the SNCF needed to redevelop it and
> > didn't mind it being blown up with real explosives.
> > The final scene ends on a track constructed with chairs and Bullhead
> > rail a rare thing outside the UK and probably extremely rare in France
> > now.
>
> And Lancaster drove the locomotives several times in the movie. None the
> train crashes were models, all done with withdrawn locomotives and cars.
> Excellent movie.
>
> --
> Cheers
> Roger Traviss
>
>
> For more photos not in the above album and kitbashes etc..:-http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/rogertra/Great_Eastern/
For my money, the best train movie ever is "Danger Lights", followed
closely by Buster Keaton's "The General".
Christopher A. Lee
Don't forget The Titfield Thunderbolt.
Twibil
>
>
> > Don't forget The Titfield Thunderbolt.
Voting for the same thing twice doesn't get you anywhere......unless
you're a Chicago politician.
Roger Traviss
most popular movie will be probably American or at least North American.
Fred Ellis
Let us not forget 'Emperor Of The North' or 'Heartbreak Pass'.
Fred Ellis
--
"Who do you serve.... And who do you trust?"
(To e-mail me, remove the X from my address)
Christopher A. Lee
wrote:
Two more European contenders: La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast) and
Closely Observed Trains
Wolf K
Or Silver Streak, or Union Pacific, or The Lady Vanishes, or Muder on
the Orient Express, or ....
I like any movie with a train it. ;-)
Wolf K.
Rick Jones
>>>> closely by Buster Keaton's "The General".
>>>
>>> Don't forget The Titfield Thunderbolt.
>>
>> Let us not forget 'Emperor Of The North' or 'Heartbreak Pass'.
>
> the Orient Express, or ....
>
> I like any movie with a train it. ;-)
Von Ryan's Express with Frank Sinatra
--
Rick Jones
Remove the Extra Dot to e-mail me
Opportunity knocks once; opportunists many times.
Bruce Burden
:
: Let us not forget 'Emperor Of The North' or 'Heartbreak Pass'.
:
Do you mean "Breakheart Pass", with Bronson?
Bruce
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I like bad!" Bruce Burden Austin, TX.
- Thuganlitha
The Power and the Prophet
Robert Don Hughes
Fred Ellis
> Fred Ellis <fke...@sticx.net> wrote:
> :
> : Let us not forget 'Emperor Of The North' or 'Heartbreak Pass'.
> :
> Do you mean "Breakheart Pass", with Bronson?
>
> Bruce
Yes, don't tell me I got the name wrong. Great movie.
Lobby Dosser
news:Pv%1q.274367$ET1.2...@unlimited.newshosting.com...
There have been some Stinkers. Under Siege: Dark Territory comes to mind. As
does that bio hazard thing with Gina Lolabrigida. Phew!
--
"I'm the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo ..."
Christopher A. Lee
<L...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>There have been some Stinkers. Under Siege: Dark Territory comes to mind. As
>does that bio hazard thing with Gina Lolabrigida. Phew!
Mmmm.... Gina Whatalotofher.
Rick Jones
> On Sat, 20 Aug 2011 19:34:05 -0700, "Lobby Dosser"
> <L...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>> There have been some Stinkers. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory comes to mind.
>
> I've stuck the two in before any notices.
> I'm fairly sure that the Movie when shown in the UK still retains the
> Dark Territory line in the Title.
> It's a reasonable assumption that hardly anyone outside North America
> realises what it refers to and just accept the term as a wacky way of
> making the title longer.
We could go on and on about the bloopers that have appeared in films
because of ignorance, cheapness, or lack of correct available
prototypes. Example:
In "White Christmas" the 4 leads are on their way by train from
Florida to New England. As part of the scene to show the passage of time
they show a train run by a camera. Unfortunately the train is a Santa Fe
streamliner on the surf line in San Clemente, Ca.
--
Rick Jones
Remove the Extra Dot to e-mail me
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed
(and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless
series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
-H. L. Mencken
Lobby Dosser
news:j2rulc$3f2$1...@dont-email.me...
> On 8/21/2011 4:23 PM, damdu...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>> On Sat, 20 Aug 2011 19:34:05 -0700, "Lobby Dosser"
>> <L...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>
>> Snip list of movies.
>>> There have been some Stinkers. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory comes to
>>> mind.
>>
>> I've stuck the two in before any notices.
>> I'm fairly sure that the Movie when shown in the UK still retains the
>> Dark Territory line in the Title.
>> It's a reasonable assumption that hardly anyone outside North America
>> realises what it refers to and just accept the term as a wacky way of
>> making the title longer.
>
> We could go on and on about the bloopers that have appeared in films
> because of ignorance, cheapness, or lack of correct available prototypes.
> Example:
> In "White Christmas" the 4 leads are on their way by train from Florida
> to New England. As part of the scene to show the passage of time they show
> a train run by a camera. Unfortunately the train is a Santa Fe streamliner
> on the surf line in San Clemente, Ca.
>
The bloopers I really love are the anachronisms. Contrails in a western, for
example.
Christopher A. Lee
>On Sat, 20 Aug 2011 19:34:05 -0700, "Lobby Dosser"
><L...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>Snip list of movies.
>
>
>>>
>>
>>There have been some Stinkers. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory comes to mind.
>
>I've stuck the two in before any notices.
>I'm fairly sure that the Movie when shown in the UK still retains the
>Dark Territory line in the Title.
>It's a reasonable assumption that hardly anyone outside North America
>realises what it refers to and just accept the term as a wacky way of
>making the title longer.
So, what does it refer to?
>G.Harman
Roger Traviss
> for example.
The camera crew the camera dolly and the camera operator and director's
shadows as they push the camera dolly up the beach, all seen at bottom of
the screen during the Omaha beach scene in "The Longest Day" as the camera
pans up the beach from the water's edge with the landing going on into the
far distance.
Mike Hughes
Lee <ca...@optonline.net> writes
>>>
>>>There have been some Stinkers. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory comes to mind.
>>
>>I've stuck the two in before any notices.
>>I'm fairly sure that the Movie when shown in the UK still retains the
>>Dark Territory line in the Title.
>>It's a reasonable assumption that hardly anyone outside North America
>>realises what it refers to and just accept the term as a wacky way of
>>making the title longer.
>
>So, what does it refer to?
>
Trains receive their authority to proceed through a section from the
dispatcher(s). These days they receive this authority by radio. The
dispatcher gives a complete description of the authority detailing what
section the train has authority to proceed into including mile post
numbers, etc. The train engineer (=driver for us Brits) then repeats the
whole item back to the dispatcher and it is only when this has been done
(correctly) that the train has authority to proceed.
If a moving train's authority has to be amended, or if the dispatcher
wants to contact the train in case of emergency they will do this by
radio. If there is no radio signal (mountains, etc) then the train is in
'dark territory' and cannot by contacted by normal means.
--
Mike Hughes
A Taxi driver licensed for London and Brighton
at home in Tarring, West Sussex, England
Interested in American trains real and model?
Look here http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikehughes2011/
Roger Traviss
A railway line with no signals where Time-Table and Train Order (TT&TO)
govern the movement of trains.
Christopher A. Lee
<mi...@mikehughes.org.uk> wrote:
>In message <ikpd579hd0eepbpe6...@4ax.com>, Christopher A.
>Lee <ca...@optonline.net> writes
>>>>
>>>>There have been some Stinkers. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory comes to mind.
>>>
>>>I've stuck the two in before any notices.
>>>I'm fairly sure that the Movie when shown in the UK still retains the
>>>Dark Territory line in the Title.
>>>It's a reasonable assumption that hardly anyone outside North America
>>>realises what it refers to and just accept the term as a wacky way of
>>>making the title longer.
>>
>>So, what does it refer to?
>>
>Places where there is no radio signal.
>
>Trains receive their authority to proceed through a section from the
>dispatcher(s). These days they receive this authority by radio. The
>dispatcher gives a complete description of the authority detailing what
>section the train has authority to proceed into including mile post
>numbers, etc. The train engineer (=driver for us Brits) then repeats the
>whole item back to the dispatcher and it is only when this has been done
>(correctly) that the train has authority to proceed.
>
>If a moving train's authority has to be amended, or if the dispatcher
>wants to contact the train in case of emergency they will do this by
>radio. If there is no radio signal (mountains, etc) then the train is in
>'dark territory' and cannot by contacted by normal means.
Interesting.
In the UK they have RETB (Radio Electronic Token Block) for long
single track sections like the Camrian main line the East Suffolk line
and routes in Northern Scotland, But trains are still controlled by
the equivalent of signals - it replaces the physical token which
permitted the train to enter the single track block, and has stop
boards where the stop signals used to be.
The distant signals (yellow) are also fixed boards a convenient
distance before the stop boards. These are protected by traditional
AWS so if the driver doesn't apply the brakes the train is brought to
a less gentle stop,
The driver asks for the token and presses a button to receive it on a
different frequency that doesn't carry speech, after which he is given
permission to pass the stop board and enter the section.
It was introduced after a storm brought down 40 miles of telegraph
line in the North of Scotland and it was easier to use radio between
signal boxes rather than replace the telegraph lines. Initially they
still used a physical token but then it was realised that if they were
using radio then the token could also be sent electronically.
With sprung turnouts at passing points, this was simple, effective and
almost foolproof.
It is currently being phased out and replaced by the Europe-wide ERTMS
in cab signalling system.
Lobby Dosser
news:16WdnYtEEdwkdcvT...@giganews.com...
>> The bloopers I really love are the anachronisms. Contrails in a western,
>> for example.
>
> The camera crew the camera dolly and the camera operator and director's
> shadows as they push the camera dolly up the beach, all seen at bottom of
> the screen during the Omaha beach scene in "The Longest Day" as the camera
> pans up the beach from the water's edge with the landing going on into the
> far distance.
>
Thanks, have to look for that.
DockScience
Very real.
Certainly got the executives right.
I could almost hear them thinking they should leave the railroad business
and sell real estate.
"NICHE541" <oiko...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ec210f86-dc46-46ed...@t7g2000vbv.googlegroups.com...
> Out of curiosity, what was the movie that had the greatest Train
> scenery? Breakheart Pass?
> John in the Indian Nations
Bruce Burden
:
: Certainly got the executives right.
:
Anybody read Carol Bartzs' comments in Fortune magazine
about being fired from her CEO poition at Yahoo?
I am sure the many employees she terminated said the same
thing about her.