Steam & Excursion > Terror Train

The other night I watched this 1980 horror flick called "Terror Train".
From the very beginning this medium steam engine (2-6-2) had a very unrealistic whistle. I'm sure the producer didn't care or have access to an American steam engine whistle recording. Instead the whistle sound was a high pitched European type.
Anyway what seemed really weired was the fact that the characters were able to enter the steam engine cab from the baggage car.
How in the world could anyone do this? I just can't imagine climbing over the tender to do this.
Was this purely fiction or was this not an uncommon event that sometimes happend.
Somehow the conductor had no trouble running the steam engine after the engine crew were killed(maybe he used to be an egnineer).
Anyway it was an exciting flick (Fox Movie Clasics) with some fine acting by Jamie Lee Curtis.
Any thoughts on this? Or was it 100% fiction?

Hal

I think the British railway system had locomotive tenders with passageways to allow crew changes without stopping the train (I would presume they had water scoops like New York Central and/or Pennsy used).

I think a CPR pacific was used in the filming of this. Maybe the 1201?

It was #1293 from Steamtown. No corridor tender.

Yes, the locomotive was indeed ex-Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 #1293 from Steamtown, then located at Bellows Falls, Vermont. #1293 and the five car "movie train" moved north to Montreal from Bellows Falls via the Green Mountain Railroad, Vermont Railway, Delaware & Hudson, and Canadian National in late November, 1979. Over the next month or so, the movie company repainted the locomotive and train into a black scheme with silver striping. If you don't know what the equipment is, its rather hard to identify in the movie--because the movie company chose to renumber #1293 to #1881, and to have no lettering on the equipment. Believe it or not, the movie company had a reason for doing that: by using the number 1881 and having no lettering on the equipment, they could "flip" the film to make the train go in whatever direction they wanted it to on screen. Most of the movie was filmed with the train inside a large warehouse in Montreal. To make it look like the train was "in motion" during the warehouse filming, the movie company removed the side bearings from the passenger equipment, placed a sawhorse and long 6x6 alongside the car being used for filming the particular scene, and had a rather large man "rock" the car using the sawhorse and 6x6 while the filming was taking place. A couple of the "running scenes" were filmed with the train coming out of the warehouse in Montreal, but most were on the Green Mountain Railroad between Bellows Falls and Brockways Mills, Vermont after the train returned "home" to Steamtown. The running scenes were originally supposed to be filmed on the Canadian National in the Montreal area, but the movie company determined it would be less costly to bring their film crew to Vermont than pay the charges the CN wanted for filming in Canada. On a personal note, the movie train gave me my one chance to really "highball" aboard a Steamtown locomotive during the 17-1/2 years I worked there: on the return trip to Steamtown, we had a CN "old timer" at the throttle. He obviously was looking forward to the opportunity to run steam again, and he asked Steamtown's engineer if there was any reason #1293 couldn't run at track speed. When he was given the answer "no, not as far as Steamtown was concerned", it all he needed to hear for some high speed running from the yard just east of Montreal to St. Lambert. We were running 70 MPH at times, and the "shotgun exhaust" that I'd heard only in recording before became reality. It was a once in a lifetime experience for me, and definitely one of my favorite Steamtown memories.

As far as climbing over the tender from the baggage to get into the locomotive cab goes, it was a realitively easy thing to do. The tender end beam went all the way across the back on the tender, and there was a handrail above the end beam which allowed anyone traversing the end beam to hang on while doing so. On the right hand side of the tender end, there was a ladder up onto the tank deck. To get from the tank deck into the cab was real easy. There was a walkway with a handrail above along the right side of the coal bunker; at the from end of the tender, a set of steps brought you down to cab level--you simply then grabbed the cab "grab irons" and swung yourself into the cab. Going from the cab to the tender deck was a "routine matter" for the fireman to take on water; going over the back of the tender into a passenger car wasn't standard practice, but I did do it a few times while firing when I had to communicate verbally with the Conductor while "on the road". (Steamtown had no radio communication during the period #1293 was in service.)

Jamie Lee Curtis may have done some fine acting in the film, but she wasn't a very friendly person to be around. She liked to order the production people around whenever she was "on set", and always went directly back to her "trailer" when her acting was over. Van Johnson, on the other hand, was a real nice guy; he was real interested in the train and what Steamtown was all above, and spent a lot of his "between scenes" hanging out with the Steamtown crew when we were around.

Frederick G. Bailey

For your entertainment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnOw-Uvs6w0

I laughed hysterically when I saw the villain trying to kill Jamie Lee Curtis with a claw bar/spike puller at 2:35! And he wasn't even wearing gloves - thats a safety rule violation!

Especially appropriate since 1293's appliance exhausts form "devil horns" in front of the stack. That trailer's pretty awesome: were '80's horror movies ever actually scary, or were they going for campy from the beginning?