Tag Archives: dome car

Last Clear Chance 1959

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Union Pacific Railroad

This railroad safety film has the dubious honor of being mocked by Mystery Science Theater 3000 in one of their episodes, “Radar Secret Service”. A YouTube link to the MST3K version is provided below.

Basically the message is, don’t try to beat the train to the crossing – sound advice – but there’s a whole plethora of neat, old ’59 Fords and Chevys being driven, rather ineptly, by my fellow Idahoans, sometimes with disastrous results. (Thanks for the car ID’s, Mark!)

Beside the blurred streamliner images, trackside views include EMD F units, GP9s, switchers and even an Alco-GE gas turbine-electric locomotive.

Will the Idaho State Police get the word about railroad safety through people’s thick skulls? Let’s find out.

UP owned a fleet of EMD E8’s and E9’s seen here flashing past the camera in southern Idaho. Passenger trains of the era included #105/#106 City of Portland, #17/#18 Portland Rose and Mail and Express #11/#12. Portland Rose was the only train that traversed the Boise area in daylight.

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At This Moment 1954

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The Jam Handy Organization for
Westinghouse Air Brake Company
(Jim Handy to the rescue!)

Inspector Luger! Yep, I actually recognize someone in this industry featurette. Good old James Gregory appears in this corny, railroad worker documentary. Corny yes, but great scenes of first generation diesels and passenger/freight trains from the post-World War 2 heyday of American Railroads.

Long before the days of FedEx, UPS and Amazon, practically EVERYTHING used in the American home and business got there by rail. This message is beaten into the viewer continuously. Our story takes place in a railroad beanery called “Scotty’s”, just up the street from the depot. A stranger has arrived and is pumping the locals for information, about just what it is, that makes a railroad go.

I plan to overlook most of the hyperbole and just concentrate on the kick color views of trains. Sound good, Inspector?

Mr. Gregory was a great character actor “curmudgeon” from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Here we see him as Inspector Frank Luger in Barney Miller and the diabolical Doctor Tristan Adams in Star Trek’s “Dagger of the Mind“. Is that a great, smirking countenance, or what?

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Holiday Affair 1996

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USA Network
RKO Pictures

Merry Christmas! Thanks to a 2016 challenge by good friend Carl Swanson, I am reviewing the 1996 USA Network remake of Holiday Affair 1949. The story line is just about the same, freshened up with 1990’s accoutrements.

Once again, Lionel model trains are the real star and major plot point for this movie. It appears filmmakers whomped up a custom-made trainset painted a very shiny shade of silver, with a red/white/blue stripe high along the sides of the cars and locomotive. The consist used is an EMD F3A unit, coach, baggage/coach, full baggage car and dome observation car, in that order (a somewhat unusual arrangement). A brief search turned up little about the particular cars used. Perhaps modelers out there can enlighten me in the comments?

Filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, we are also treated to quick glimpses of the city’s subway system and a real, live peek at VIA Rail’s Canadian in Union Station. Pour yourself a cocoa or glass of wine and enjoy this holiday story of a boy and his trains.

A Lionel train set by the fireplace, Christmas morn. What red-blooded American (or Canadian) kid wouldn’t wish for something like that?

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The Addams Family 1964

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Filmways Television

When Classic Toy Trains magazine (May 2020 issue) arrived in the mail, a single photograph (see above) on page 12 caught my eye. A fellow by the name of Larry Osterhoudt had created a replica of the Lionel layout seen in the 1960’s TV series, The Addams Family. I was intrigued.

Doing some research on the show and its use of model trains yielded a plethora of videos and a wealth of information about the subject. It turns out there were TWO layouts used as filmmakers had to reconstruct after the um, explosions, during the train wreck scenes. The train board itself is chock full of Lionel operating accessories.

Let’s take a peek at some fascinating Lionel “hardware” as it goes through its paces.

As a Lionel Lines steamer flashes by in the background, a Minneapolis & St. Louis EMD GP7 is approaching the camera pulling a single passenger car.

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Superman 1978

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Warner Brothers

“More powerful than a locomotive!” I remember watching Superman in the theatre when it first came out. Great, fun film and quite a few train scenes to boot. It was a pleasure to get a copy on DVD then go back and research all the locomotive and train sets seen.

The movie would feature a GMD FP7, an EMD FL9 and 3 EMD SPD40F locomotives as well as a studio mockup of villain Lex Luthor’s (played by Gene Hackman) underground lair — done up as a flooded section of Grand Central Terminal in New York! It’s the late 1970’s, so there is plenty of pre-Superliner, “heritage” equipment to be seen.

Let’s take a trip on the Canadian Pacific, the New Haven and Santa Fe railroads, shall we? All Aboard!

The Kansas Star hurtles past the camera under a magnificent sky. This FP7-led passenger train would soon encounter a young Clark Kent racing alongside.

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Narrow Margin 1990

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TriStar Pictures

Gene Hackman and Anne Archer star in this 90’s remake of the classic B film noir, The Narrow Margin from 1952.

Well, it’s not an EXACT remake. Let’s just say it takes its SHAPE from the original. Filmmakers spared no expense in obtaining a string of streamlined passenger cars from the now-defunct Roaring Fork Railroad in Colorado, then painting up a BC Rail SD40-2 in a pleasing VIA Rail paint scheme.

Add to that the stunning scenery of British Columbia along BC Rail’s North Vancouver to Prince George line and you’ve got a winner of a movie. The plot? Oh, just a whole slew of bad guys after our heroes, Gene and Anne as Via’s “Canadian” rolls towards Vancouver. Let’s check it out.

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This is probably the best photograph of the entire consist with the lake reflection as a bonus.

Location: Alta Lake, BC near Whistler Resort perhaps? I’m sure SOMEONE out there recognizes this spot.

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