Tag Archives: Alco Locomotive Works

Abbott and Costello meet the Keystone Kops 1955

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Universal – International

HEY, ABBOTT!! Southern Pacific Railroad trotted out at least two different steam locomotives, a short mix of freight cars and an ancient wooden caboose for filmmakers to use in this month’s movie. In addition, there is a brief scene at what MIGHT be Cucamonga, CA (judging by the depot sign) featuring an old heavyweight observation car.

A brief plot outline: It’s 1912. Harry (played by Bud Abbott) and Willie (played by Lou Costello) are swindled into buying the Edison Movie Studio (a la buying the Brooklyn Bridge) from a crooked movie director/con man. Now broke, the boys hobo west to Hollywood, hoping to catch said crook and get their money back.

Lots of harrowing stunts involving moving trains in this one, hopefully employing stunt doubles for A & C. Let’s check it out.

SP X2085 pops out of Chatsworth tunnel. After much squinting at various runbys, I believe this is an SP 2-6-0 “M class” Mogul with all Southern Pacific markings carefully painted out. The number 2085 does not match any steam locomotive on their 2-6-0 roster. More about that later.

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Next Stop, Christmas 2021

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Hallmark Channel

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus… What? Another Hallmark Chick Flick? Well, at least it features a real, live steam locomotive, that I’ve never reviewed before. Connecticut Valley Line Hype!

Kudos to Ben Haas for providing THIS MOST USEFUL LINK describing the origin and travels of this steam engine. In a nutshell, our 2-8-2 locomotive was constructed by Alco in 1920 for the Portland, Astoria & Pacific Railroad (a proposed line that was never built). Valley Railroad #40 spent a good portion of its life on the Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad in North Carolina before moving to Essex, Connecticut.

Time travel is involved (a la “For All Time 2000”), so set your clocks back, err… forward, be flexible, and enjoy the show. Merry Christmas!

ROWF! Look at those eyes! The two protagonists on our time machine train are (left – Lyndsy Fonseca as Angie Reynolds and right – Christopher Lloyd as the enigmatic Train Conductor).

Green with gold flecks on Angie, dontcha think?

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Planes, Trains and Automobiles 1987

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Paramount Pictures

Happy Thanksgiving! My brother recommended this flick to me as an Obscure Train Movie. I hadn’t gotten around to reviewing this movie, (or even watching it previously), because I can’t stand Steve Martin. His whole “Excuuuuse Me” schtick always left me scratching my head. At least John Candy has decent comedy chops and pretty much carries the picture, IMHO.

Anyways, Mark talked this one up so much as a holiday movie, I had to give it a shot. At first blush, the train scene had some very unique motive power and equipment. Second, this picture has a stellar supporting cast, with notable character actors including Ben Stein, Edie McClurg, William Windom and Ferris Bueller’s Dad (Lyman Ward) to name a few.

Having said that, I spent most of this movie on “fast-forward” and concentrated on the railroad bits. I just didn’t enjoy this movie as a whole (Again, Steve Martin rubs me the wrong way). One bright spot is a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA or “the L”) scene near the end. The most fun was researching the upstate New York railroad equipment and locations used — a lot of it is still there — so thanks for the tip, Big Brother!

Our movie train soars above a rushing stream somewhere in upstate New York State. I wasn’t able to pin-point the location, but it is a very high bridge with a supporting tower next to the creek.

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Challenge for Tomorrow 1954

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Santa Fe Railway Safety Department

This one was a lot of fun to research and review. An old Santa Fe safety film in glorious Technicolor from the days of yore. Its formal name was the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) which stretched from Chicago to Los Angeles, The Bay Area (Richmond, California), and down from Kansas City into Texas.

Somehow all the prints I discovered online have the opening credits/title page lopped off. Thus, we’ll use the above safety images instead. The gent in the natty suit and bow tie, (wide lapels must be “IN” this year), has his pointer on San Bernardino’s injury count. He really needs to take a look at Albuquerque.

Just a smattering of steam locomotives are shown segueing into Santa Fe’s colorful, first-generation diesel fleet. And there’s no topping that classic red, silver and gold “Warbonnet” scheme on the passenger engines.

Let’s check it out. Santa Fe, All The Waaaaay!!

Motorcar operator “Skippy” is trundling down the San Joaquin Valley, blissfully unaware of the approaching San Francisco Chief. Should we warn him? “Look around, Skip, look around!” bellows the narrator. This great bit of melodrama will be fleshed out in the upcoming story. Read on.

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Railroadin’ 1941

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Adverti-Films – Hollywood

Filmed in glorious Dunningcolor, today’s feature was sponsored by Alco Locomotives & General Electric, so naturally their railroad equipment was featured front and center. Released just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, America is already gearing up for World War 2.

What sets this movie apart is the absolutely priceless scenes of Pre-war steam and diesel trains in color, no less. There are enough Electro-Motive Diesel passenger locomotives to keep things interesting and I’ll try my best to identify each scene used.

For example, the above picture appears to be in Chicago where an orange & maroon Milwaukee Road “Hiawatha” passenger train is arriving as a CMStP&P commuter train is switched alongside.

Let’s check it out!

How far they’ve come. At first, railroads themselves were shunned as dangerous and foolhardy. Now this nefarious couple contemplate railroad travel on credit…to collect her husband’s double indemnity insurance policy!

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Webs of Steel 1926

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Anchor Film Distributors

Wow! This obscure, little gem is just PACKED with railroad action. While many/most of the early B&W movies I have reviewed (such as Murder in the Private Car 1934 and The Block Signal 1926) were filmed on Southern Pacific or Santa Fe rails, Webs of Steel was filmed mostly, if not entirely on Union Pacific Railroad (UP) in the Los Angeles area.

More specifically, we are treated to a whole slew of oil-burning, beefy 2-8-0 Class C-57’s, lettered for UP subsidiary LA&SL (Los Angeles & Salt Lake).

The heroine of this silent flick is the plucky Helen Webb (played by Helen Holmes). Actress Holmes came from a railroad family and did all of her own stunts in this movie as well as a string of other railroad-related pictures.

Two UP 6000 series 2-8-0’s are blasting along during the elopement scene. Helen and her beau (the engineer) are trying to stay ahead of the second 2-8-0 bearing her father — who does not approve of this joining! Sparks are sure to fly (groan…) when Dad catches up with them.

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Empire on Parade 1957

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Empire Photosound, Inc.

We sing the song of a railroad! Narrator Roger Krupp waxes poetic during this 40 minute film extolling the history and present day operations (circa 1957) of the Great Northern Railway.

Empire on Parade features the westward journey of freight train #401 from Minneapolis to Seattle and the industries and agriculture it serves along the way. We also get many views of the GN’s flagship Empire Builder passenger train.

It’s a festival of first-generation diesel locomotives including representatives from EMD, Alco and Baldwin.  In color.  So let’s take a journey during the hey-day of the post-war Big G.

The Empire Builder is about to drop a semaphore signal somewhere in the Montana Rockies. Note the 3 short Great Dome coaches and 1 large Great Dome lounge car which helps date the film after late 1955.

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Support Your Local Gunfighter 1971

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United Artists

James Garner is riding the narrow gauge rails of the Denver & Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) Railroad in this Western spoof follow-up to 1969’s Support Your Local Sheriff!

Train scenes in this film were brief, but feature 4 different steam locomotives, one of which I’ve not been able to positively identify. A big shout out to Larry Jensen whose “Hollywood’s Railroads, Volume 3” book helped me identify one engine used on the CBS Studio City (CA) lot.

As usual, I’ll concentrate on the railroad scenes in my review, even though the movie itself is great fun to watch — back when Tinseltown knew how to make an enjoyable, entertaining picture.

Let’s take a trip on the 3-feet-between-the-rails Rio Grande railroad. Highball!!

 

D&RGW #478, a narrow gauge K-28 class 2-8-2 Alco class of 1924, leads a short train of “Grande Gold” and silver coaches along the Animas River on the Silverton Line.

Helicopter shots of this train were used at the beginning and ending of today’s reviewed movie.
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Choo Choo Bob 2008

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Birdhouse Holdings / Qubo

It’s The Choo Choo Bob Show!! Roaring out of the Twin Cities of Minnesota comes this fun little (each episode is but 12 minutes long) children’s show — all about trains. There is a great article about the show HERE, which describes how it came to be. The show even has its own clubhouse and store in Saint Paul where episodes where/are filmed.

Each episode features a live action video of real railroading and for the purposes of this review, I have chosen the Milwaukee Road #261 steam engine trip.

Choo Choo Bob (played by Sam Heyn) and Engineer Paul (played by Paul Howe) take a ride down the Mississippi on former CMStP&P (now Canadian Pacific) tracks aboard the beautiful Cedar Rapids Skytop observation car.

Oh, yes. See the show’s logo at the top of this page? That image of a diesel locomotive looks familiar to me. We’ll be revisiting that image later on in this review. All Aboard!

Milwaukee Road S3 class 4-8-4 #261 (built by Alco – Schenectady in July 1944) gallops along at track speed whilst back in the Skytop, Bob and Paul enjoy the view. Friends of 261 operates and maintains this Minneapolis-based locomotive and train.

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Emperor of the North 1973

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20th Century Fox

Filmed along the Oregon, Pacific & Eastern short line, this movie treats us to TWO operational steam locomotives pulling an eclectic mix of rolling stock past the cameras. The train scenes are sublime although the actors employed frequently go way over the top in the overacting department. Shatner-level carpet chewing. Anyway…

The real stars are OP&E #19 (2-8-2 Baldwin-built 1915) and OP&E #5 (2-8-0 Alco-built 1922) and happily, both engines are still with us. #19 is being rebuilt at the Age of Steam Roundhouse and #5 can be found at the Galveston Railroad Museum (renumbered to 555).

Many thanks to James Tiroch’s Cine Trains Project for helping me identify the heritage of these locomotives. The link includes an exhaustive history of both locomotives.

Oh, the actors? Well, filmmakers brought on board three ENORMOUS hams, Borgnine, Marvin and Carradine, but I’ll be ignoring them for the most part. There’s far too much steam locomotive pulchritude to savor instead. Highball!

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OP&E #5 on a passenger train overtakes OP&E #19 in the siding with a freight. In the background, we see a lumber mill featuring one of those cool, old-time wood waste burners. OP&E #5 (appearing here as #27), also was seen as #4 in the movie.

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