Tag Archives: heavyweight passenger car

The Long Chase 1973

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Universal Studios

Alias Smith and Jones! Season Three, Episode 1 found our paroled boys with a new steam locomotive to play with. Posing grandly for the cameras was Great Western Railroad #75, a 2-8-0 Consolidation built by Baldwin in 1907. Four years after filming wrapped on this show, GWR #75 would again star in the movie, “Breakheart Pass“.

As the end titles briefly state, “Portions of this program were filmed at the Manti-La Sal National Forest in Utah“. Which I had to go look up. Never heard of the place before. Ah! Somewhere down near Arches National Park. We visited Arches back in the mid-1970s on our way to Expo ’74 in Spokane.

Cast changes from the Season One episode I previously reviewed, include Roger Davis replacing Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes.

Seen here rolling along a scenic D&RGW branch line in Utah, GWR #75 is still with us, although not operational. Her current home is the Heber Valley Railroad where she is approximately 70% through her restoration.

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Berth Marks 1929

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Metro Goldwyn Mayer

The famous vaudeville comedy act, Laurel & Hardy starred in this early talkie short (19 minutes). Early scenes are filmed at Santa Fe Railway’s La Grande Station in Los Angeles.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play, well, themselves with a series of sight gags at the depot and onboard a heavyweight passenger train (partially filmed in the studio). They have tickets for a Pullman “section” set up for night time use (even though it’s broad daylight for the entire trip to “Pottsville”).

Motive power for the train is ATSF #1373, a 1337 class, Baldwin-built (1913), 4-6-2 Pacific. Santa Fe #1373 even has its own locomotive.fandom.com web page!

Will the boys make it to their destination in one piece? Let’s take a peek and see.

The majority of the plot consists of the duo attempting to get into their upper berth, well-illustrated in this movie poster; Not seen in the movie, but in this publicity shot is Stan & Oliver between a pair of outside-braced box cars. The car behind them is lettered “P.E.” for Pacific Electric, a subsidiary of Southern Pacific Railroad.

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The Gambler 1980

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Time-Life
Columbia Broadcasting System

Today’s feature is a tale of two steam locomotives — mostly filmed at the Old Tucson Studios whose star attraction was ex-Virginia & Truckee #11, “Reno”. According to Larry Jensen’s “Hollywood’s Railroads, Volume One”, ex-Dardanelle & Russellville #8, also appeared in this made-for-TV movie and therein lies my quandary.

I can’t tell the engines apart. Both are 4-4-0’s. Both burn oil. V&T #11 was built by Baldwin in 1872. D&R #8 was built by Alco (Cooke) in 1888. From all the screen caps and pictures I’ve seen, these two could be twins.

SO. For identification purposes throughout my review, I will refer to the locomotive as it is painted — Southern Pacific Railroad #8.

Update: Many Thanks to blog reader Caldwell Butler, who has identified the locomotive below as D&R #8.

The entire 94 minute movie takes place in or around a train, so let’s explore Kenny Rogers’ journey “On a train bound to nowhere” (or in this case, to Yuma). At the bottom of this review, is a 3 1/2 minute video of “The Gambler” song on which this movie is based.

SP #8 is at full gallop with its passenger train on a nice, flat stretch of track. How about that MOD S.P.R.R. lettering on the tender? Is that a funky font or what?

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Two Smart People 1946

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Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Many Thanks to Tony Wilson for recommending this flick. Today’s feature is a post-war film noir taking place on a Southern Pacific Railroad train from Los Angeles to New Orleans.

John Hodiak (as Ace Connors) and Lucille Ball (as Ricki Woodner) star alongside Lloyd Nolan as NYC Policeman Bob Simms. You see, Ace is a bond swindler/con artist and Ricki is a flashy redhead with a jaded past. Officer Bob is on their tail looking for those fake bonds. To further complicate this triangle, Ace and Bob are old friends — just on opposite sides of the law.

Now. Where do you suppose Ace is HIDING those bonds? Well, you’ll just have to read this review and find out.

How about a nice, hot cup of tea? Most Noir pictures are loaded with symbolism. Case in point: Notice all the stripes (simulating prison bars). These two are definitely up to no good!

It’s probably on a studio set, but very nice-looking railroad lounge car interior.

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The West~Bound Limited 1923

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Film Booking Offices of America (FBO)

“An Amazing Photodrama of Flesh and Steel” is the tempting come-on of one lobby card (seen above). Today’s feature from the silent era was filmed in the Los Angeles area at both Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroad locations.

My review pretty much just skips over the plot and concentrates on the train and locomotive goodness. Considering the movie is 100 years old, it’s a reasonably crisp print. A link to this movie can be found at the end of my narrative. Enjoy!

Southern Pacific Lines #2420 gets a fair amount of screen time and is seen here at full gallop. The 4-6-2 is from Espee’s P-1 Class and was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1906. This was robust, speedy passenger power for its day including 77″ drivers, 200psi boiler pressure and just under 30,000lbs of tractive effort.

Sister locomotive #2423 is shown here for comparison, in this well-lit view from 1940.

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A Woman of Distinction 1950

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Columbia Pictures

As movies go, this one is kinda thin on railroads. I’m pretty sure all train exteriors and interiors were done on studio sets. Although a few heavyweight passenger cars labeled “New Haven” parade up and down the platform at the “Benton, Connecticut” railroad depot – motive power is only heard, not seen. At least they got the branding correct as New Haven Railroad monopolized passenger service between Boston and New York City via New Haven, CT.

Still, I found a complete copy of this picture online, (link at bottom), so cost was $0 and a couple Hollywood Star cameos made it fun to watch. Let’s tune in.

Professor Alexander “Alec” Stevenson (played by Ray Milland) and Ice Queen Professor Susan Manning Middlecott (played by Rosalind Russell) have many questions for the Benton station clerk. For 10 points, which actor is playing the clerk? (cameo #2).

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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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Station Master 1954

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National Film Board of Canada

This film was recommended to me by Pete! It’s the third National Film Board of Canada movie I have reviewed on my blogs and the first to mainly feature Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). This is the story of CP station master Dalton Henry and his crew in little Finch, Ontario. The Canadian Pacific had a crossing here with a New York Central (NYC) branch line to Ottawa.

Steam was still active in Eastern Canada at the time and there is a nice mix of trains on both railroads. The CP rails still exist through Finch, but the NYC branch was abandoned shortly thereafter in February 1957.

This black & white short packs a lot of railroad action into its 15 minutes and is a poignant look at the way things used to be on the railway. Highball!

Out in front of the depot, a section gang is busily shoveling snow from switches and the crossing diamond. Up in the interlocking tower, Charlie lights up a Player’s and checks his pocket watch. Note the nearby telegraph key and dispatcher’s phone on a scissors arm.

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Murder is my Beat 1955

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Allied Artists Productions

I first heard about this B noir picture from reader Tony Wilson. As I researched, I discovered a good copy on both archive.org and YouTube. The film features at least 3 different Southern Pacific Railroad steam locomotives pulling various heavyweight and streamlined passenger equipment.

It’s a relatively short flick at just 77 minutes, but there are two train sequences at the 31 minute and 70 minute marks packed full of onboard and train exterior goodness. I had a great time discovering the equipment used — made harder by B&W night-time footage. And there might just be a little cheesecake in there for our more mature readers.

Let’s go ride “The Friendly” Southern Pacific!

Churning, spoked drivers roll along an impeccably-groomed roadbed…which segues into this shot of a steamer pulling a 5 car passenger train down a weed-choked right-of-way.

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