Nostalgia & History > Railroads in Vintage Films

One nice aspect of streaming media is the ability to locate old railroad footage from long ago.  There are countless films from the past, some rather spectacular railroad footage such as Bad Day at Black Rock.  I will have to see if I can download the spectacular opening from that film on the Lone Pine Branch.  As long as we keep the snippets short and discuss the contents about the film we should steer clear of copyright violations.  

This segment is from Fancy Pants with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball.  I recognize the last scene as Santa Susanna Pass on the Coast Line.  What about the others? Where were those filmed.  The handcar shown in the movie is extremely old, pre-1890 and also appeared in the movie Union Pacific.   It is not a Sheffield, Buda, or Kalamazoo car and might be a Roberts Throp car. Extremely rare and I wonder where it ended up.

 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

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How about "Duel" with Dennis Weaver 1971, directed by Steven Spielberg.  I think the SP train portrayed was on the Saugus Line, but not sure.

Kent in CArmel Valley

This will be a very interesting thread if we can keep some clips coming.  Looking forward to everyone's efforts/suggestions.
jb

Opening of Bad Day at Black Rock on the Lone Pine Branch.  Damn credits in the way, but still a beautiful opening entering the Owens Valley beyond Ridgecrest and climbing toward Little Lake.  Hard to believe the tracks are gone.  

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

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Trains magazine had a special issue a few years ago...the 100 best railroad moves.  The hands down winner, as I recall, was Burt Lancaster's "The Train".  Right up there was the hilarious "Silver Streak".

This is a great idea for post.  Maybe I am mistaken but I did any one else notice that the articulated coach behind the locomotives disappear? Fantastic movie opening.
 

Can't forget this scene on the Sierra Railway in Petticoat Junction when Mr Bedloe tried to shutdown the railroad for the first time... a recurring theme in the show.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
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Then there is Buster Keaton's classic silent films often involving railroading.  This memorable scene from Sherlock Jr.

 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

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a737flyer Wrote:
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> Trains magazine had a special issue a few years
> ago...the 100 best railroad moves.  The hands
> down winner, as I recall, was Burt Lancaster's
> "The Train". 

What, not either of the "Runaway Train" movies? I'm shocked, lol...

JG

One more for you.  A clip from Buster Keaton's One Week with an adventure in house moving... a 1920 classic.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
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The movie "Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm" has some really good views near the end of an SP Pacific on a short passenger train (movie train?).  Perhaps around Santa Susana Pass?

Steve

Beyond the film locations, what process did you use to grab these clips? The imagery looks great.
-JH

All here have great railroad footage. Many of the commercial films made in the steam era often used such high quality film, the result was comparable with today's video. In the first film with Bob Hope, that was the SP 2440, a 4-6-2, coming out of the tunnel. The 2440 was a favorite, often used in films shot on the SP.   

Panamerican99 Wrote:
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> Beyond the film locations, what process did you
> use to grab these clips? The imagery looks great.
> -JH

I am tired of renting media only to have them expire before I finish them.  I purchased a program called Keepstream (https://keepstreams.com) that allows for the downloading from Amazon Prime and converts it to mp4 with what appears copy protection stripped off.  I tested several programs before I bought this one, and the others did not work. Buyer beware, test the trial before buying!  Amazon could eventually break the downloader, but so far it is working great.  For a price you can get downloaders for Youtube, Netflix, and others. I just got the one for a lifetime with coupon for about $90. We'll see if it is truly a lifetime as it could break tomorrow.

 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

webmaster Wrote:
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> Then there is Buster Keaton's classic silent films
> often involving railroading.  This memorable
> scene from Sherlock Jr.                                                             It was doing this scene that Keaton broke his neck!
>
>  

Thank you for all of these. As for copying from Amazon it is well against their policies, but some of us still have a way to possibly do it.

Sure you know my name.

That second Buster Keaton clip was really great!  Thanks Todd!
Here's one you don't hear about much;  https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/71104/closely-watched-trains/#overview
Great train movie, but with a dark side at the end.

black rock consist has  some articulated cars, which i  like to see

Here you go, Todd & everyone......... scenes from the 1952 movie that inspired a young Stephen Speilberg to become a film-maker, is the Cecil B. DeMille picture "The Greatest Show On Earth" starring Charlton Heston and Jimmy Stewart.  (Filmed on tour with the REAL Ringling' show of 1951, or the "81st Edition" as measured from 1871, when P.T. Barnum started it all.)

First scene here is from the first 20 minutes of the film, showing them departing Sarasota, Florida. ATLANTIC COAST LINE steam engine 426 leads, with ACL caboose 0447 bringing up the rear.  Up through the last year the real show toured, a local priest would ask The Almighty for a blessing over the Circus Train before departing on the yearly tour.  That is a piece of history that few railfans ever knew:   

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFrvH2bL1y8

Second scene -  The climax of the fictional storylijne (starring the REAL Ringling' cast and crew of 1951) has a Pay Wagon robbery, followed by one of, if not the largest, train wrecks ever flmed until Speilberg's movie "Super-8" .... and this is the scene that inspired young Stephen, in his own words, to go into movie-making:   

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl26Ojtz_Aw

How do you top that - with a cast of over a thousand, and almost that many exotic animals added in - and AUTHENTIC railroad signals by whistle and lantern, and more.....?  There is another large sequence which I cannot find to view onnline, showing the show arriving in Philadelphia's Greenwich Yard (in Spring 1951) behind PRR GG-1 No. 4821, and then proceeding with the elephant walk up from the RR yard to where the TENT CITY was being erected, while DeMille's narration of the sequence describes "....A thousand,strong, hard- working men...." (his own dialogue) setting it all up.  Truly a remarkable movie, and the only film I know where a real-life company of people were depicted in a fictional movie's storyline.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/23 05:02 by rbx551985.

The Fancy Pants scene looks like the high desert of Arizona, maybe New Mexico with cedar trees. Seligman comes to mind, but obviously that's not Santa Fe's main line. Maybe the branch heading south from Ash Fork to Prescott?
The Buster Keaton scene with the house was filmed in the Pasadena area on the Santa Fe. The G. Gandahl Lumber Co. shown in the early part of the clip is still in business in Pasadena