Tag Archives: semaphore signal

Play Safe 1936

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Paramount Pictures

Hey, how about a Max Fleischer Color Classic (Cartoon) to start things off for March…filmed in Technicolor, no less?! I found a copy on YouTube (see below) in remarkably good condition to review.

It’s basically a railroad safety film for kiddies back in the day with everyone from the narrator to anthropomorphic model trains to the gauges in the locomotive cab yelling at the boy to, “PLAY SAFE”… mostly to no avail.

In a bit of serendipity, I found this cartoon short whilst looking for the movie Play Safe 1927 (starring Monty Banks) as suggested by John Davies. I couldn’t find a decent version of that 1927 flick online, but found a great copy of what I review here. Enjoy.

Our short feature opens as a little boy (we’ll call him “Phil”), is reading in the backyard whilst straddling his electric train set, as his faithful dog (we’ll call him “Boots”) sleeps nearby. “The Ballad of Casey Jones” is playing in the background.

Phil’s house is right next to a double track main line featuring lower quadrant semaphores. The details in this frame alone are outstanding — fenced yard, back porch, train set complete with tunnel and water tower. How about that magnificent tree behind Boots?

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Loves Labor Won 1948

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20th Century Fox
Terrytoons Studios

Here I come, to save the daaaay! Yes, it’s Mighty Mouse once more battling Oil Can Harry for the affections of lovely Pearl Pureheart.

This train-laced, Terrytoons animated short, is done in a wonderful, fake-opera, melodramatic style with MM (our hero) belting out tenor, OCH (our villian) singing bass/baritone and PP (our damsel in distress) warbling soprano.

The art work is right up there with Warner Brothers for quality and the animators did a great job with backgrounds and interiors. Lots of action and enough asides and adult-gags to keep it interesting.

On with the show!

Wonderfully-detailed coach interior right down to the red-plush seats and pot-bellied stove; Standard old-fashioned steam locomotive about to change into an anthropomorphic object at the hands of Oil Can Harry.

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Loaded For War 1944

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Santa Fe Telefilm Recording

Wow, early first generation diesels star alongside Santa Fe Railway’s magnificent fleet of steam locomotives in this color film showing the AT&SF was doing its bit to help win World War 2.

As a vital link to the Pacific Theater, Santa Fe received the lion’s share of EMD FT diesel locomotives built before and during the war.

Let’s take a look at how one railroad hauled military, freight and passengers along with all the facilities needed to keep the system going. Santa Fe, All the Way!

An EMC E6 locomotive gets its slant nose scrubbed down as a Baldwin 4-6-4 backs up alongside; a 4 unit set of EMD FT’s pulls past a very smoky iron horse.

GM’s Electro-Motive Division designed the famous red and silver “Warbonnet” paint scheme as well as the more somber, but still classy blue and yellow for the freight FT’s.

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