Tag Archives: railway crossbuck

Last Clear Chance 1959

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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Superman 1978

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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