Nostalgia & History > Depot from "Heat of the Night"

Where was this GM&O depot at and is it still in existance?

Whiskers73 Wrote:
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> Where was this GM&O depot at and is it still in
> existance?

The depot and helicopter sequences were shot in and around Sparta, Illinois, which is 50 or 60 south of East St. Louis on what was GM&O's main line to New Orleans.

Most of the line between East St. Louis and Cairo has been abandoned.

Can't speak to the question of the depot's current status.

I believe the sequence with the Missouri Pacific train along the river was shot in the Chester, Illinois, area.

The depot at Sparta was closed shortly before I visited in 1987. Now it is an art gallery, devoted in part to the work of a local artist, Roscoe Misselhorn.
When restoring it, the architects thought they had to "show off" I guess, and they put on a ribbed seam copper roof, something the depot never had!
There is a scene in the movie filmed at what had been a shop of the Missouri-Illinois, according to my mother who came from there. Her father had worked there a bit while a student. I did not realize until that visit that there were two lines through town, M-I (MoPac) as well as GM&O. "The trip on the train to Chester" was a big memory my mother had from the mid 1930s. In 1987 we drove to Chester and found about two dozen MofW trucks-- UNION PACIFIC of course!
Some of the people in Sparta were apparently quite impressed with those Hollywood folks who came to make the movie. Supposedly there was a bit of an increase in the town's population, about nine months later...

Anyone know what Amtrak train they shot during the introuduction of the show? I was thinking it was either 91 or if it was shot in Illinois, it might of been 59!

ProAmtrak Wrote:
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> Anyone know what Amtrak train they shot during the
> introuduction of the show? I was thinking it was
> either 91 or if it was shot in Illinois, it might
> of been 59!


I don't think AMTRAK existed at the time the movie was shot.

The TV series with Carrol O'Connor he is refering to.

MLC Wrote:
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>
>
> I don't think AMTRAK existed at the time the movie
> was shot.

The train in the opening credits of the TV show looked a lot like the pre-Superliner City of New Orleans.

Could have been the Crescent.Since the T.V. series was filmed in
Covington Ga. The NS isn't to far away to have filmed the Crescent however CSX as well as shortline Great Walton serves
Covington.

The train was a Gulf, Mobile & Ohio special run for the movie. It was filmed in 1967, prior to the formation of Amtrak in 1971.