Passenger Trains > Off topic a bit but weird thriller info on Empire Builder

Not really a train subject but I thought I’d share it in case anyone wants a chuckle.

I just finished reading a middling thriller about a hero being pursued by bad guys. He has to escape their superior search and destroy forces so he hops on the Empire Builder in Seattle and heads for Chicago. Enroute the bad guys figure out where he is and they board at Detroit Lakes MN and begin searching the train. Leaving aside the obvious errors in describing the consist, the bad guys decide to stop the train when they realize the hero has jumped off from the roof while the train is moving! So one of them walks forward (I’m not making this up) to the front car, to the engineer’s cab, pounds on the door, and orders the engineer to stop!

Hopelessly inaccurate of course and not even the author’s editors caught it.

Then I read the info about the author: he’s British. Well, maybe that’s how their trains work!

Posted from iPhone

dadonatrain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not really a train subject but I thought I’d
> share it in case anyone wants a chuckle.
>
> I just finished reading a middling thriller about
> a hero being pursued by bad guys. He has to
> escape their superior search and destroy forces so
> he hops on the Empire Builder in Seattle and heads
> for Chicago. Enroute the bad guys figure out
> where he is and they board at Detroit Lakes MN and
> begin searching the train. Leaving aside the
> obvious errors in describing the consist, the bad
> guys decide to stop the train when they realize
> the hero has jumped off from the roof while the
> train is moving! So one of them walks forward
> (I’m not making this up) to the front car, to
> the engineer’s cab, pounds on the door, and
> orders the engineer to stop!
>
> Hopelessly inaccurate of course and not even the
> author’s editors caught it.
>
> Then I read the info about the author: he’s
> British. Well, maybe that’s how their trains
> work!
>
> Posted from iPhone

I'm British and yes, some of them do work that way, especially modern trains. Separate locos and coaches are almost a thing of the past here.

Don’t leave us in suspense! Did the engineer stop the train?

Posted from iPhone

But were the windows clean??

And was the food in the diner edible?

37176 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I'm British and yes, some of them do work that
> way, especially modern trains. Separate locos and
> coaches are almost a thing of the past here.

==========================================================
Do you remember the Metro-Cammell DMUs which had a cab that was completely separate and inaccessible from the passenger area?  The First Class ones had a big window comprising the back wall of the cab.  From the First Class compartment there was a splendid view for videography of the view ahead!

Ok. Followup on some amusing questions.

The hero got food for himself and the reluctant good guy he was forcing to come with him from the numerous selections in the “snack bar” car which has never been in any Amtrak train I’ve ever been on!

The bad guy had an apparently flawless but fake Dept of Homeland Security ID so he did persuade the gal driving the train to stop long enough for all the bad guys to jump off and start trudging through the blizzard back to where they figured the good guy fell off the roof of one coach!

Pbly the most preposterous scene was the running gun battle along the roofs of several coaches while the train was in motion through rural MN in a blizzard. Or maybe it was that the Builder was dead on time the whole time the hero was on it!

And I have no idea if the windows were clean! 😆

Not the most plausible thriller I’ve ever read, but still a bit better than the one where the CIA guy in Moscow rode the Trans Siberian all the way to Vladivostok in ten hours! Last I checked, it takes closer to ten days! Can’t authors do any research?!

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/24 13:27 by dadonatrain.

dadonatrain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not really a train subject but I thought I’d
> share it in case anyone wants a chuckle.
>
> I just finished reading a middling thriller about
> a hero being pursued by bad guys. He has to
> escape their superior search and destroy forces so
> he hops on the Empire Builder in Seattle and heads
> for Chicago. Enroute the bad guys figure out
> where he is and they board at Detroit Lakes MN and
> begin searching the train. Leaving aside the
> obvious errors in describing the consist, the bad
> guys decide to stop the train when they realize
> the hero has jumped off from the roof while the
> train is moving! So one of them walks forward
> (I’m not making this up) to the front car, to
> the engineer’s cab, pounds on the door, and
> orders the engineer to stop!
>
> Hopelessly inaccurate of course and not even the
> author’s editors caught it.
>
> Then I read the info about the author: he’s
> British. Well, maybe that’s how their trains
> work!
>
> Posted from iPhone

Sounds like a scene from The Silver Streak!