Look what showed up on Andy Griffith Show

Guess what showed on the last episode of the Andy Griffith show? The story location was based on Mayberry NC (real life Mount Airy), but on the last episode Andy is at the train station and a F/3 or F/7 pulls up and it is a UP train. I know the show was done in CA but I do not think UP ran threw NC at anytime:-).

  Quoted Text Here  
Union Pacific steam engines have a large yellow UP on the back of the tender. It's so they know which way to put them back on the track.

  Quoted Text Here  
Yes, the show WAS done in the Los Angeles, CA area. The show's lead-in with Andy and Opie walking through the park was done in a canyon park just above Beverly Hills.

In a message on Sat, 08 Jan 2005 00:41:22 -0500, wrote :
CAL> wrote: CAL> CAL> >I guess Hollywood doesn't know much about railroads or geography. In the CAL> >movie White Christmas the train Bing Crosby and Danny Kay take north from CAL> >Florida uses a Santa Fa streamliner for the scene. I don't think that ever CAL> >ran on the east coast. CAL> CAL> One of the worst ones was From Russia With Love which had been both CAL> edited for content and time-expanded to fit the two hour broadcast CAL> slot. CAL> CAL> We all know about the train leaving Istanbul with blue and yellow cars CAL> that mysteriously turn green. CAL> CAL> But the time-expansion consisted of splicing in any shots of green CAL> trains they could get hold of. Including British Railways Southern CAL> Region.
Right. You can generally count on Hollywood on using totally the wrong railway equipment in almost any production. Wrong locomotives, wrong car types, wrong era/vintage, wrong railroad, wrong sort of stations, etc. They might as well be using a randomlly selected 3-year old with a random assortment of Brio or Lionel set(s) to 'design' the RR scenes.
CAL> CAL>
\/ Robert Heller ||InterNet: snipped-for-privacy@cs.umass.edu http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller || snipped-for-privacy@deepsoft.com http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153

  Quoted Text Here  
In the
  Quoted Text Here  
north from
  Quoted Text Here  
that ever
  Quoted Text Here  
Exceptions that prove the rule:
The Wild, Wild West (OK, it's a bit of a cheat - it's a private train) Back to the Future III Tough Guys (Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas steal SP 4449)

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 15:36:45 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@mindspring.com (Joe Ellis) wrote:
  Quoted Text Here  
...and Petticoat Junction!

Joe Ellis wrote:
>> Right. You can generally count on Hollywood on using totally the >> wrong railway equipment in almost any production. > > Exceptions that prove the rule: > > The Wild, Wild West (OK, it's a bit of a cheat - it's a private > train)
> Back to the Future III
I don't know about that - I thought the railroad scenes were a bit wonky. Westinghouse automatic air brake, knuckle couplers, and an oil burning steam loco in 1883? Not to mention the mad professors "high temperature logs" to make more steam to achieve higher speed. Pity he didn't screw the safety valves down first...
> Tough Guys (Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas steal SP 4449)
A good 'un, for sure. Doyle McCormack said that Burt Lancaster knew his way around a steam loco - a legacy of being taught to drive for his role in what is arguably the best rail-themed movie ever made.

Robert Heller wrote:
> Right. You can generally count on Hollywood on using totally the > wrong railway equipment in almost any production. Wrong locomotives, > wrong car types, wrong era/vintage, wrong railroad, wrong sort of > stations, etc. They might as well be using a randomlly selected > 3-year old with a random assortment of Brio or Lionel set(s) to > 'design' the RR scenes.
I think they already do.

snipped-for-privacy@mindspring.com (Joe Ellis), In a message on Sat, 08 Jan 2005 15:36:45 GMT, wrote :
JE>
JE> > In a message on Sat, 08 Jan 2005 00:41:22 -0500, wrote : JE> >
JE> >CAL> wrote: JE> >CAL> JE> >CAL> >I guess Hollywood doesn't know much about railroads or geography. JE> In the JE> >CAL> >movie White Christmas the train Bing Crosby and Danny Kay take JE> north from JE> >CAL> >Florida uses a Santa Fa streamliner for the scene. I don't think JE> that ever JE> >CAL> >ran on the east coast. JE> >CAL> JE> >CAL> One of the worst ones was From Russia With Love which had been both JE> >CAL> edited for content and time-expanded to fit the two hour broadcast JE> >CAL> slot. JE> >CAL> JE> >CAL> We all know about the train leaving Istanbul with blue and yellow cars JE> >CAL> that mysteriously turn green. JE> >CAL> JE> >CAL> But the time-expansion consisted of splicing in any shots of green JE> >CAL> trains they could get hold of. Including British Railways Southern JE> >CAL> Region. JE> > JE> >Right. You can generally count on Hollywood on using totally the wrong JE> >railway equipment in almost any production. Wrong locomotives, wrong JE> >car types, wrong era/vintage, wrong railroad, wrong sort of stations, JE> >etc. They might as well be using a randomlly selected 3-year old with a JE> >random assortment of Brio or Lionel set(s) to 'design' the RR scenes. JE> > JE> JE> Exceptions that prove the rule: JE> JE> The Wild, Wild West (OK, it's a bit of a cheat - it's a private train) JE> Back to the Future III JE> Tough Guys (Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas steal SP 4449)
OK, with *steam* trains, Hollywood does better, generally because they either have to build it from scratch (esp. if they plan on wrecking it ala Back to the Future III) or hire private equipment. Almost always when they are dealing with a 'modern' train (esp. passenger trains), they just go to the nearest Amtrak station, assuming that Amtrak stations and trains are as homogeneous and interchangeable as milk.
JE> JE> -- JE> JE> Joe Ellis JE>
\/ Robert Heller ||InterNet: snipped-for-privacy@cs.umass.edu http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller || snipped-for-privacy@deepsoft.com http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153

The worst that I recall was on the old "Mission Impossible" show. The show was set in a ficticious Blakan nation. A passenger car that was supposed to fool the dictator into thinking he was in a train wreck was being shoved back and forth by a Union Pacific switcher on the edge of a freight yard, with hundreds of U.S. freight cars directly behind it.

On 09 Jan 2005 14:07:25 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Xtrachesse) wrote :
  Quoted Text Here  
There's one even worse.
A recent-years movie "Con Express".
Rent the VHS or DVD at Blockbuster, the jacket shows a Metrolink F59PH (#853) on the cover with the Metrolink lettering removed.
First few scenes of the movie look like some railfan's 8mm camcorder shots up at Summit on Cajon Pass. Then a few of the shots had the film flipped so the lettering was all backwards. And they kept repeating these scenes over and over throughout the movie.
Then it goes to using some, I believe, Bulgarian or Romanian rail equipment!
And then, the final scenes were done on the Heber valley RR in Utah.

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 15:29:30 GMT, Steve Hoskins wrote:
  Quoted Text Here  
Yeah - about like "Tora Tora Tora" with the film of an Essex class carrier (I served on 3 of them, and on detachment from a couple more) flipped to represent that IJN carrier that had the island on the port side.
Of course it was an Essex 27C conversion (as were all of them remaining at the time), which means it had an angled deck, a biiiiiig anachronism.

  Quoted Text Here  
Yeah... there's no dictator of a fictitious Blakan nation that would actually fall for that.

  Quoted Text Here  
How would you rate the movies "Silver Streak" (1976 version starring Gene Wilder) and "Runaway Train" (1985 starring Eric Roberts) for their accuracy?
Martin

Martin Whittaker wrote: \ > How would you rate the movies "Silver Streak" (1976 version starring > Gene Wilder) and "Runaway Train" (1985 starring Eric Roberts) for > their accuracy?
Haven't seen Silver Streak, but Runaway Train was pure Hollywood bullshit. There was nothing remotely accurate in the railroad scenes.

mark_newton wrote:
  Quoted Text Here  
I always thought that Silver streak was made around 1979. If I recall correctly some of Supertramp's music was used in the sound track which I think was Long way home from Breakfast in America ( great album btw).
What stands out for me about silver streak is the scenes of what appears the original Canadian with A-B-A FP7's traveling through the Rockies with dome cars and all.

In a message on Mon, 10 Jan 2005 14:58:23 -0600, wrote :
"W> > OK, with *steam* trains, Hollywood does better, generally because they "W> > either have to build it from scratch (esp. if they plan on wrecking it "W> > ala Back to the Future III) or hire private equipment. Almost always "W> > when they are dealing with a 'modern' train (esp. passenger trains), "W> > they just go to the nearest Amtrak station, assuming that Amtrak "W> > stations and trains are as homogeneous and interchangeable as milk. "W> > "W> > JE> "W> > JE> -- "W> > JE> "W> > JE> Joe Ellis "W> > JE> "W> > "W> > \/
"W> > http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153 "W> > "W> > "W> "W> How would you rate the movies "Silver Streak" (1976 version starring Gene "W> Wilder) and "Runaway Train" (1985 starring Eric Roberts) for their accuracy?
"Silver Streak" is probably accurate WRT the *station* (I understand that they made a model of the Chicago Union station and crashed a model train into it), but might not be WRT the train, but it is hard to say -- if the movie was set in 1976, it would have used Amtrak equipment *BUT* Amtrak was probably still using mix-and-match trains in 1976 and had not completed re-painting everything and might not have totally F40PHed all trains by then (I think the first batch of F40PHs were just being delivered in 1975 or 1976).
With the "Runaway Train", being *freight* locos, things are 'looser', since freights as often as not have all sorts of mixed power consists -- the freight RRs often 'share' each other's locos. Although it is probably unlikely that a F-units will still be in much use in 1985 (of course they needed the F-unit as part of a 'plot complication' -- to make things hard to get to the lead unit because of the nature of the F-unit's front and its lack of a front 'porch').
Of course, both movies involve low-probability events, both involving 'dead man switches'. Even if the brake shoes totally burned off, the dead man system should have cut power to the motors and the engines in "Runaway Train" should have eventually rolled to a stop -- it is not like it is endlessly downhill. Certainly the scene where the runaway plows though the caboose should have derailed or at least slowed the locos down quite a bit.
"W> "W> Martin "W> "W> "W>
\/ Robert Heller ||InterNet: snipped-for-privacy@cs.umass.edu http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller || snipped-for-privacy@deepsoft.com http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153

On 1/10/05 8:27 PM, in article 6f2a8$41e3398d$cb248f0$ snipped-for-privacy@nf1.news-service.com, "Robert Heller"
  Quoted Text Here  
Amtrak refused to have anything to do with a script that called for crashing a passenger train, which is why it was filmed in Canada with CP Rail equipment.

  Quoted Text Here  
Gene
accuracy?
Speaking of plowing through a caboose...the first train wreck scene I can recall seeing at the movies was in "The Greatest Show on Earth". But I don't remember if it was the circus train that was rearended or if it rearended another stopped train... Two other notable 'wrecks' are King Kong vs the commuter train and possibly the most climatic wreck of all in "Bridge on the River Kwai". All pretty good cinematic events, but I suspect just more Hollywood bs if you know what's what around the rr tracks.
Thanks everyone!
Martin

Greatest Show on Earth with Jimmy Stewart and Charlton Heston, can't think of the other actors. The first second was rear ended by the second section when the villains stopped the lead train and knockout the brakeman whose job it was to go back and protect the rear of the train. Second section didn't stop in time, big mess.
  Quoted Text Here