Nostalgia & History > Grand Continental 1804 West - Dec. 1994

Plot Summary for Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995)
Casey Ryback (actor Steven Segal) has now retired from the Navy and is now a chef at the Mile High Cafe in Denver, Colorado. Ryback taking his niece Sarah Ryback on a vacation. They board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles. Travis Dane takes the train hostage and starts using the train as a control center in his effort to take control of a top-secret government outer space super-weapon. Dane built the weapon but was fired by the government before it was deployed. He has since hooked up with shadowy Middle Eastern terrorists who have offered him 1 billion dollars to use the satellite to blow up the Eastern seaboard by targeting a nuclear reactor that is located underneath the Pentagon. Dane lets the Pentagon know that he's got control of the weapon by using it to blow up a Chinese chemical plant. Officials can't stop him because they can't locate his headquarters. As long as the train keeps moving, his location can't be fixed. Ryback enlists a porter named Bobby Zachs to help him go after Dane.

The movie’s Grand Continental highballs west out of Leyden headed for Colorado Rockies filming. Train was on SP tracks on Dec. 15, 1994 (yes, a decade has already passed!). I believe Colorado Railcar (then known as Rader Railcar) did the train painting out around Brush, CO. Is anyone able to shed light on film’s preproduction preparation?

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Under Seige 2: Dark Territory was filmed on the Southern Pacific, former Denver & Rio Grande Western RR. The 9-car train had Grand Continental lounge car 4036, Grand Vue II as it highballed west at Leyden Siding, Arvada, CO, on Dec. 15, 1994.

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Don't know too much about the pre-production of the movie...however, those two locomotives (1804 and 1810) were US Army/Alaska units. They ended up in a scrap yard in Klamath Falls, Oregon, by 1988, where they sat partially dis-assembled. The McCloud River purchased the pair in 1988, primarily to test the re-building capabilities of the McCloud shops. The #1804 was made operational and was used sporadically on both the McCloud River and the successor McCloud Railway. The #1804 had a tendancy to spread sparks far and wide when in dynamics, and that by itself cut down on it's use. By 1993 both units were owned by Nevada Industrial Switch. The #1804 left McCloud in the early summer of 1993, while the #1810 was made operational again by a couple of roving mechanics. I happened to be in McCloud the morning that they finally (with the aid of about two dozen cans of ether) got the #1810 to fire up for the first time...it covered nearly everything in the McCloud yard with a layer of carbon.

The #1810 is now on the Oregon Pacific Railroad at Milwaukee, Oregon, while the #1804 is on Pacific Harbor Lines in Los Angeles.

I have pictures of both of these units in the Klamath Falls scrapyard and then on the McCloud on my website. Go to http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails, click on the Locomotive Roster page, then scroll down through the McCloud River Railroad/McCloud Railway Company roster section to a paragraph about these two diesels. There is a link to a photo page on each unit contained in that paragraph.

JDLX
Elko, NV

I believe our own Stan Garner (aka px320) did a lot of the train coordination on this movie. His website is:

http://www.movie-trains.com/

I think you should be able to find out more info on the Under Siege II: Dark Territory shoot on his site.

Wonder if he's back from his adventures on the Surfliners yet?

DaveE

Yea the memborable line is from penn- "assumption is the mother of all bleepups." i use that line many times. but this was a great movie i own the DVD and i watch it when i want to besides owning Under Siege
railfan1 out

Still on the road, but will get back to LA tonite.

Rader Railcar modified the bi level cars for the production company. We then finished the interior of one lounge as a practical set and painted the entire ytain set. The baggage car came from Pacific Rail Salvage in Colton, CA. It is an ex-Santa Fe baggage car. This car is now on the Fillmore & Western Ry, Fillmore, CA.

The locomotives were supposedly in good operating condition when we leased them, but they teally weren't. BN's Mile High Diesel Shop in Denver made all of tghe necessary repairs and installed a number of missing electrical controls. They really saved our bacon.

I guess I need to post the pics for the movie on my website, but I just haven't had time to scan all of them.

Preproduction? They set the foothills on fire from Leyden to Plain with those non spark arrester geeps. Not in the film..

What happened to the passenger cars?