Tag Archives: California

Disaster On The Coastliner 1979

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ABC Television / Orion Pictures

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2024!

This is a LONG, but enjoyable review — at least it was for me! ;p

I previously wrote about this ABC Sunday Night Movie ten years ago. My summary of the All-Star Cast, pretty much covers the basics about what happened. Whoever wrote the script for this 97 minute potboiler, obviously had no idea how a railroad operates. The shortcoming of my first review is I only included two pictures!

That just won’t do when you have early-Amtrak equipment on both coasts (ex-Santa Fe Surf Line in California and ex-New Haven Shore Line in Connecticut) with lots of footage inside Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (LAUPT) as well. Thus, this review will be short on plot and long on pictures.

Oh, did I mention? William Shatner has lots of screen time despite being only 7th in the credits (an unforgiveable oversight) and is the hero of the day — as only Captain Kirk could do it. Engines ahead. Warp factor one.

I’m really torn about the ID of this locomotive in the opening credits. It’s too blurry to get the exact unit number (400 something). At first I thought it was an EMD FL9 locomotive, but AFAIK, those engines didn’t have nose lift rings. So this is probably an EMD E9 diesel selected from a private railroad, pre-Amtrak.

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Stand by Me 1986

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Columbia Pictures

Update 1/11/2024: Many thanks to OregonRailfan who corrected me (see his comments below) on a couple of items.

Yeah, yeah. Four boys coming of age and learning about friendship and all that. The REAL star of this production is McCloud River Railroad #25, a 2-6-2 steam locomotive built by Alco Locomotive Works in 1925, new for the railroad. MCRRR #25 is still with us and currently operates on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad.

I was fortunate enough to ride behind her during the SP&S convention at Astoria, Oregon in 2019. I have posted some pictures I took of the 2-6-2 at the end of this review.

What? The film’s main protagonists? Oh, all right. Here’s the boys in no particular order:

#1 Wil Wheaton as Gordie Lachance.

#2 River Phoenix as Chris Chambers.

#3 Corey Feldman as Teddy Duchamp.

#4 Jerry O’Connell as Vern Tessio.

The main menu (seen above) from my DVD, features a locomotive that looks nothing like #25. Any guesses on which engine it might be? Big boiler. A 4-8-4 perhaps?

Singing, “The Ballad of Paladin”, the four Musketeers march down the tracks. This is the ending theme song to the TV series “Have Gun – Will Travel” (1957) starring Richard Boone as Paladin. Songwriter Johnny Western successfully sued Stand by Me’s producers for not securing his permission beforehand.

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Duel 1971

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Universal Television

I want to dedicate this movie review to two people. First, Jim Tiroch, whose Cinetrains blog was a tremendous help researching this movie.

Second, my old roommate at college, John C. Mendenhall, Jr. “Mongo” used to walk around our dorm room in his shorts going, “HONK! HONKHONKHONKHONK! HOOOOOOONNNKKKK! just like the truck in this film.

Duel is an early example of what we now call “road rage”. Our protagonists are:

1 – David Mann (played by Dennis Weaver — MCCLOUD!!) driving his red 1970 Plymouth Valiant 4-door, California License Plate 149 PCE.

2 – “The Truck Driver” (played by Carey Loftin) driving a 1955 Peterbilt 285 with oil tanker trailer who is never actually seen clearly. The entire plot of the thing is the truck driver suddenly goes bonkers after being passed by the little red car.

Okay, you get the idea. Now, lets examine the train stuff. Southern Pacific Railroad provides the motive power, rolling stock and location (I believe the train scenes were filmed on SP’s line from roughly Saugus to Palmdale, California.). There are 3 separate encounters between combatants with Espee freight which we’ll examine.

Yaaarrrrgh! Dennis Weaver makes a great face inside his car as an SP freight train rolls by in the background. How about that triangular vent window to the left of McCloud’s snarling countenance? You don’t see those anymore…

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The Twisted Track 1956

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ABC Television

Hi-Yo, Silver…Away! Yes, the Lone Ranger rides again, this time on the small screen, in full color, no less! It’s Clayton Moore as “that masked man”, along with his faithful Indian sidekick, Tonto (played by Jay Silverheels), fighting for truth, justice and the American Way!

To quote from my book, “Hollywood’s Railroads: Volume Two”, by Larry Jensen: “It (The Lone Ranger) was the first TV series to shoot on the Sierra Railroad. The Twisted Track episode used No. 3 and cars that were still brightly painted from a recent appearance in the Alan Ladd movie, The Big Land.” Hmmm…I might have to check that movie out…

In this installment (season 5, episode 12), two ex-Confederate brothers have a grudge against the DamnYankee owner of a railroad. Mostly, their revenge consists of train robbery. Filmed along the aforementioned Sierra Railroad, we are treated to two separate attacks, and famous Sierra 4-6-0 #3 (1891 Rogers) pulling a motley assortment of rolling stock. Let’s check it out.

Pow! With an impressive puff of smoke, a bad guy offs the engineer who drops to the deck, giving us a good look at the consist and cab interior.

Behind #3 is a shorty baggage/combine (possibly #5), flat car, another baggage/combine, full coach and caboose.

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit 1988

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Touchstone Pictures

I love cartoons. When this big budget movie collaboration between Lucasfilm and Disney came out back in the 1980’s, I was first in line to see it in the theatre. Looking back now, I realize a major plot point was the demise of Los Angeles’ legendary Pacific Electric railroad system. At the time, many thought the disappearance of the “Red Cars” was a conspiracy by General Motors and the bus companies. The truth was much simpler. People preferred the convenience of their own private cars.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a perfect fit for my obscure train movie blog as the train part is mostly in the background, but comes to the front as the film reaches its climax. The more I researched this movie from a Pacific Electric Red Car standpoint, the more I understood what really happened…and how well filmmakers did reproducing the environment for the time period (late 1940’s).

Replica PE #721 rolls along with some non-paying passengers riding the rear bumper. #721 represents a “Hollywood Car” (600 class, #600-759). Notice its trolley pole is reaching for overhead wires that are not there.

At least one Hollywood Car (PE #655) was saved from the scrap heap and is in the collection of the Southern California Railway Museum.

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The Texas Rangers 1951

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Columbia Pictures

Sierra Railroad #18 is the star of today’s feature film. This 1906 product of Baldwin Locomotive Works is painted up in a pleasing maroon and gold “Texas Central” scheme. Numbered #44, the little 2-8-0 was back dated with a box headlight and cabbage smokestack. Sierra #18 is still with us having recently (2021) been purchased with the Fred Kepner collection by the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad.

The real train action doesn’t get started until the last 10 minutes of the movie. It’s a little fuzzy (free on YouTube dontcha know), but packed with action including a big fight in the cab of the locomotive. Train robbery? Check. The payroll on board? Yep. Posse of lawmen waiting in ambush? You betcha. Innocent women and children blown to bits? Well….no. That’s Blazing Saddles.

Can a reformed outlaw find true love alongside a steam locomotive at the depot? Let’s find out!

Undercover Texas Ranger Johnny Carver (played by George Montgomery) makes his way along the tender for the final showdown with the bad guys. All that wood is just for show as I’m pretty sure #18 was an oil-burner.

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Coal Miner’s Daughter 1980

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Universal Studios

This movie review was inspired by one of my favorite monthly publications. Kalmbach’s Trains Magazine (October 2021, page 28) published an article about the steam locomotive used in 1980’s, “Coal Miner’s Daughter”. I picked up a DVD of this excellent movie, but WAS disappointed in the lack of train screen time in the actual film.

Fortunately, the Trains article and a little web-searching revealed a bounty of pictures and information on our locomotive d’jour: Canadian Pacific Railway 4-6-4 Class H1c #2839 “Royal Hudson” built by Montreal Locomotive Works in 1937. At the time of filming, the #2839 had been restored to operation and was used in the Southern Railway’s steam locomotive program. In addition, Southern provided a series of 3 bay coal hoppers and passenger cars for use in the picture.

Railroad filming locations included Pardee, Virginia and Blackey, Kentucky. Moviemakers even built an authentic depot to represent Van Lear, KY. This station was later moved to Duffield, VA where it exists today in private ownership.

Let’s visit deepest, darkest Appalachia and watch Southern #2839 star in a pivotal scene of Coal Miner’s Daughter.

Southern #2839 is briefly seen during the opening credits as Loretta Lynn (played by Sissy Spacek) canters along on horseback.

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Incident on the Road Back 1961

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CBS Television

Rawhide! “Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’…” Who can forget Frankie Laine howling those opening and closing lyrics…especially after the Blues Brothers reintroduced the show to a newer generation (me) in 1980?

According to my research (Hat tip to Larry Jensen – Hollywood’s Railroads, Volume 2), the production company of Rawhide spent a month in Tuolumne County filming bits of various shows for Season 3. Today’s review features Sierra Railroad #3, “shorty” passenger cars #5 & #6 as well as several stock cars borrowed from Southern Pacific Railroad.

In addition to the iconic 1891 Rogers 4-6-0, feast your eyes on one of the screens most recognized actors, Clint Eastwood, in his breakthrough role of Rowdy Yates. Two classics in one. Let’s get started…

Clint Eastwood (Rowdy) poses with co-stars Paul Brinegar (as Wishbone) and Eric Fleming (as Gil Favor) alongside Sierra #3.

Do ya feel lucky? Well do ya, punk? Rowdy waits for the train, sporting his now-famous annoyed grimace. Note the stock car on the siding and water tower in the background.

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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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Railroadin’ 1929

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Hal Roach Studios

Whilst grazing around on YouTube, I came upon this absolute gem of an early black and white talkie. Railroadin’ features the Little Rascals / Our Gang kids on location at Santa Fe Railway’s Redondo Junction roundhouse in Los Angeles.

The star of the show is AT&SF #1373, a 4-6-2 built by Baldwin in 1913 and scrapped in 1949. In addition, we catch glimpses of a whole bevy of steam locomotives at the roundhouse which I’ll try to sort out later in this review.

Many thanks to “chrisbungostudios” on YouTube for putting together a most useful “Filming Locations” video, which will be linked to further down in my write up.

It’s iron horses galore in the last golden days of the Roaring Twenties! Let’s check it out.

Santa Fe Railway #1373 belches copious amounts of black smoke skyward (sanding the flues) as it runs along a side track. Notice the string of boonie old “outside braced” wooden box cars in the background.

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