Tag Archives: 2-8-2 steam locomotives

Railroad Tigers 2016

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Well Go USA Entertainment

Happy Birthday, Hunny! Yep, this movie review coincides approximately with my wife’s 39th birthday and references tigers, her favorite carnivore and house pet.

The movie itself is rather thin on the tiger side, but chock full of kick railroad scenes pretty much throughout this picture. I had a heck of a time finding out about the locomotives used. After much googling, I came across this vague quote from Wiki: “The film had railway sequences shot in Diaobingshan using steam trains.”

Diaobingshan was the key. I soon discovered the nearby Tiefa Steam Locomotive Museum which has a whole fleet of similar looking locomotives. <– This last link is an absolutely outstanding look at operations from over 20 years ago (Many thanks to David Longman).

One more lick of trivia before we start reviewing. Check out the above back cover from my DVD. How did a U.S. built (Baldwin 1925), narrow gauge, Durango & Silverton K-36 class 2-8-2 #486, make it all the way to Diaobingshan? Slow boat to China? Nope. Cut & paste, and maybe they won’t notice. How about Flying Tigers?

Ding Hao!!

Here’s a REAL railroad tiger, posing with my glass-marbled crossbuck. Mister Tiger is the aforementioned house pet who spends most of his time napping on the living room couch (Lazy ass tiger…).

SY class 2-8-2 #9708 rounds a curve with an eclectic mix of rolling stock. I believe filmmakers were using 2 locomotives and just changing their numbers for different scenes or trains.

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Railroad Town 1956

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National Film Board of Canada

My regular readers know I enjoy reviewing B&W railroad films produced in the 1950’s by the NFB of Canada. In this documentary short, we take a look at the railroad town of Melville, Saskatchewan whose main raison d’etre is Canadian National Railways.

Melville is/was a division point with a two-story depot, a large rail yard with ample steam and diesel servicing facilities. The depot is still there as of 2022 and is being restored.

Steam was still plentiful, but early first generation diesels were on the scene and slowly taking over with full dieselization occurring just four years later. Also, this was pre-1960 “wet-noodle” C N logo and paint scheme.

Check out this gem with CBC host Fred Davis getting no less than 3 cab rides and an open air speeder trip!

This is the mystery locomotive from the documentary. CN #8553 does not appear to match up with any CNR roster I could find online.

It is an end cab switcher, possibly a GMD-built SW-900 that was quickly renumbered to the 7200 series. In one of my books (Rail Canada, Volume 1 by Donald C. Lewis), I have a picture of CN #8555 at Calgary, so this is a distinct possibility.

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Cole Younger and the Black Train 2012

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Forbesfilm

Dreadful. That’s how one IMDb.com reviewer described this 2.5 stars out of 10 stinkeroo. This is undoubtedly the WORST obscure train movie I’ve ever watched, bar none. The cinematography is out-of-focus or ridiculously close-up and the acting is wooden. I only reviewed this movie because it promised 3 former Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge locomotives in shot.

As compensation, dear reader, I will offer clear, nicely-framed pictures and details of the three locomotives and rolling stock. All train scenes were filmed along the Durango & Silverton tourist railroad in Colorado. Since the film is so wretched, I will not bother to I.D. any of the principals involved. As a group, they need a refresher course in filmmaking.

How I suffer for my hobby. OK, Let’s go train spotting!!

Well, there’s ONE guy I WILL identify. I gave this mug the pet name of “Dude”. It helped me get through the movie. Here we see Dude shuffling alongside D&S #486. More about the locomotive later.

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Bound For Glory 1976

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United Artists

Four! Count ’em, FOUR steam locomotives star in today’s movie review. Just to whet your appetite, the four steamers are:

  1. Sierra Railroad #3, an 1891 Rogers-built 4-6-0.
  2. Sierra Railroad #28, a 1922 Baldwin-built 2-8-0.
  3. Sierra Railroad #34, a 1925 Baldwin-built 2-8-2.
  4. McCloud River Railroad #25, a 1925 Alco-built 2-6-2.

Today’s feature is a 1930’s biography of folk singer Woody Guthrie (played by David Carradine). Filmmakers really went all-out, pulling 34 obsolete freight cars out of a scrap line and painting over most railroad identification marks.

Train scenes were filmed along the Western Pacific, Tidewater Southern and Sierra Railroads. Let’s jump right in and enjoy THIS TRAIN-laden bio pic.

Electric traction also made a brief appearance in this flick. Woody/David is about to step off Pacific Electric #1058 in Los Angeles on his way to the studio. With a trolley pole reaching for wires that aren’t there, this Red Car had to rely on an internal-combustion engine of some sort.

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Racing With The Moon 1984

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Paramount Pictures

Spicoli and The Skunk! Yes, Ridgemont High’s favorite pothead is back — walking the tracks of the California Western Railroad in this “coming of age” picture set during World War 2.

Of course, the real star of the show is California Western #45, a Baldwin 2-8-2 class of 1924 originally built for an Oregon lumber company, coming to C.W.R. in 1965. Happily, #45 is still with us in Fort Bragg, CA and at last report is operational.

Let’s watch buddies Henry “Hopper” Nash (played by Sean Penn) and Nicky / Bud (played by Nicolas Cage) hop freights along the C.W.R. and say their goodbyes (finale) at the really cool Fort Bragg depot.

Hey, there might even be a brief interlude between Hopper and Caddie (played by Elizabeth McGovern) somewhere in this review. All in good taste.

Read on and enjoy!

Here comes California Western #44 with a short freight as the picture begins. It was renumbered #44 after a rebuild to operational status specifically for this movie. Later, (movie’s ending), the 2-8-2 would get her #45 back.

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Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid 1969

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20th Century Fox

Having won 4 Oscars, today’s movie is hardly obscure, but the use of three, count ’em THREE steam locomotives makes this a flick worth reviewing. Filmed on the Denver and Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) narrow gauge as well as an obscure Mexican 3-footer, there is a tasty selection of railroad hype to sink our teeth into.

D&RGW K-28 2-8-2 Baldwins 473 and 478 are the big stars along with some studio-constructed baggage cars and D&RGW replica coaches 330, 335, 336 as well as business car B-7.

The main actors? Oh, them. Paul Newman played Butch Cassidy with Robert Redford as The Sundance Kid.

Grateful thanks to Larry Jensen and his magnificent book, “Hollywood’s Railroads – Volume Three – Narrow Gauge Country” for being my go-to source for all-things-railroad in this classic Western.

So grab the dynamite and let’s go rob a baggage car or two. Stick ’em up!

There’s lots of leaping in this movie. Here we see The Kid jumping from car to car in the second hold up and making like a bird, bailing off the cab of #473 in the third robbery.

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