Look what showed up on Andy Griffith Show

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

Reply to
Mark Mathu
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How would you rate the movies "Silver Streak" (1976 version starring Gene Wilder) and "Runaway Train" (1985 starring Eric Roberts) for their accuracy?

Martin

Reply to
Martin Whittaker

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.

Reply to
mark_newton

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.

Reply to
Greg Rudd

"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> > Robert Heller ||InterNet: snipped-for-privacy@cs.umass.edu "W> >

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"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

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Reply to
Robert Heller

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.

Reply to
Brian Paul Ehni

snipped-for-privacy@cs.umass.edu

snipped-for-privacy@deepsoft.com

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

Reply to
Martin Whittaker

An engineer once told me that most engineers put their lunch box in the dead man switch so they don't have to keep a foot on it. Could have been the case in "Runaway Train".

Reply to
Rick Jones

It was certainly what the bad guy did in Silver Streak (tool box). Most dead man switches, though are not simple buttons that must be held down anymore, for just this reason.

Current dead man switches require the operator to make some adjustment to the controls from time to time so the locomotive knows he's still awake/alive. This can mean moving the throttle, or touching the dashboard (inductive contact).

Reply to
Brian Paul Ehni

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.

Reply to
mike

for movie info

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search by title, people, characters, etc...

Yes, Jimmy Stewart (as a clown) and Charlton Heston, 1952. Quite a cast including Dorothy Lamour and Emmett Kelly. I'm going to have to find out if the video store has that one.

Thanks!

Martin

Reply to
Martin Whittaker

For a few moments I was trying to recall any scenes with Stewart or Heston. I remembered Red Buttons being it. Now I remember that the movie I'm thinking of is "The Big Circus", which also had a train wreck.

Reply to
Rick Jones

I think it is both 1 AND 2 and that you hit the nail on the head with your paragraph. What you stated about railfans can be stated about any hobbiest or historian or whatever when it comes to picking out "goofs" in movies.

Hollywood doesn't care and know most viewers probably don't care about RR accuracy.

Having an ATSF diesel rolling southbound along the eastern seaboard from Florida to Vermont is not going to stop viewers from seeing a movie focused on two song and dance guys romancing two sisters while trying to help their old general become a successful innkeeper.

Jim

Reply to
Jim

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