Favorite Rail Movie

Ok so we've had favorite railroad song, but how about your favorite railroad movie? The movei does not have to be based on riding trains, but just features trains in it. Mine is "Silver Streak" with Gene Wilder.

Mine too. The worst train movie is that Steven Segal one several years ago, can't remember the name of it either.

I have to add a vote for "Silver Streak". It was cleverly made, even in those early days of Amtrak. The railroad was called Amroad. I can recall there were some pretty funny scenes.

Remember that in "Rainman", Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman crossed the country by rail because Hoffman's character would not fly, he knew exactly how many crashes each airline had. He also wore size 32 underwear purchased in K-Mart. I think Amtrak was Amtrak in that movie.

My favorite scene in Silver Streak is when Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor are in the bathroom in the station in Kansas City trying to get back on the train. When Richard Pryor started putting the shoe polish on Wilder's face to make him look black cracked me up.

Never Seen it or any rr movie, but it looks like I should judging by the rave reviews you guys give it.

tp49 said:

Mine too.  The worst train movie is that Steven Segal one several years ago, can't remember the name of it either.

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Under Siege II, the movie sucked. One because it had Steven Segal and two the whole railroad them real did not fit into the plot of the movie.

Viewliner, you haven't seen Silver Streak . It's a must see. Be sure to rent it next weekend. B)

Maybe Not this weekend, but soon. B)

They show it enough on cable that it's not too hard to find on the tube one weekend.

I suppose none of you would remember a movie that was broadcast on what is now the WB network, called "Disaster On The Coastliner" about a man who hijacks a tarin and rigs the control center before they both leave their respective stations to crash into each other? No? Well? C'mon, think. Your not thinking hard enough!

Well, anyways, it starred Lloyd Bridges and William Shatner (ya know, the guy from them "Star Trek" films and Rescue 911, and a host of other garbage, i.e. the ads for priceline.com when he plays the guitar and actually sings something dumb, i donno :lol: )

I think it was a TV movie. It used to be aired like 10 years ago, once every year. I remember them days, ah yes. When the sun was high in the sky, and the birds floated... ...oopps anyways, I wrote to the network asking when it would be aired again, and they used to tell me way in advance when it would be aired and i'd write it down on our calendar we had and then on the Saturday afternoon on '56' it would air and I taped it. It must have been a made for TV movie, err something :unsure:

That movie is my favorite tarin video. I also like my hundreds of cab ride vids too. But I need one of the LSL!

It's my favorite train video, sorry. I donno what I tarin video is. eeekkk :lol: :lol: :lol:

I have also seen a Murder She Wrote movie where she was traveling aboard and Amtrak Superliner train across country. Then there was a movie that I remember seeing last year where two guys who escaped jail and are hiding on a train keeping a woman hostage. The movie ends up being about seperating the locomotives so the don't run into the chemical plant. Finally, in "Me, Myself, and Irene" a Viewliner sleeper is featured in the train scene along with an Amfleet coach.

Silver Streak is a favorite. They actually used equipment from the Canadian. Even though they slapped Amroad name plates on the engine and cars, you can still recognize the CP colors.

Never been as lucky as Gene Wilder was with Jill Clayburg on the Silver Streak. A betcha that sleeper had flat wheels after that action sequence in the bedroom suite. Other favorties scence, Wilder "leaving" the train between stop on different occassions.

North by Northwest is another excellent RR picture. In this movie, Cary Grant escapes from the cops by stowing away on the Century. He sits with Eve Marie Sants in the diner. The views out the window as they flirt with each other are obviously the hudson river and the NYC main line. Later, there are great shots of the train racing along the 4-track NYC main line into the sunset. Damn! dont get any better than that. Never saw any women like Eve Marie Saints in the amflleet snack car on the Lake Shore Limited. If I shared a room with her though, the Scanner might not get turned on. LOL.

"North by Northwest"(mentioned just above) is my favorite train movie also. I like the authenticity of the rail shots. It features the former great "20th Century Limited", an overnight streamliner which went from New York to Chicago in 16 hours.

Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman didn't travel by train in "Rain Man". They drove from Cincinnati to Los Angeles in an old Buick Roadaster. Remember Dustin Hoffman's character Raymond being allowed to drive it on the Caesar's Palace driveway in Las Vegas? "I'm a good driver. Yeah. Time for Wapner. Yeah."

At the end of the movie, when Raymond was going back to Cincinnati with his doctor, they boarded a train at Union Station in Los Angeles. That is perhaps what you're thinking of.

"Silver Streak" is a great train movie. Maybe my favorite. But, I also love the scenes aboard the 20th Century Limited in "North By Northwest". I'm sure this is one of the reason this is my favorite Hitchcock film.

seajay

Seajay, I see we agree on "North by Northwest". As to" Rainman", I recall on that train scene at the end of the movie. it was supposedly Amtrak but I think they actually used straight backed commuter train coaches in the shot.....that is one of the things about North by Northwest---it is so much more authentic that other train movies.

I like the one set at Chicago it was a old black and white film, can't remember the name

Here is a web site wth a list of movies which has been filmed on the railways

http://www.davros.org/rail/movies.html

Guy

Don't forget 'Strangers On A Train' the Alfred Hitchcock thriller.

Another Hitchcock suspence film 'The Lady Vanishes'

Sherlock Holmes' Terror By Night

Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis in 'Some Like It Hot'

And finally the hilarious scene from The Marx Brothers At The Circus.

Great Movies.

Union Station (USA, 1950) B80m, William Holden, Nancy Olsen

I believe there was quite an extensive write-up earlier this year about this movie in CLASSIC TRAINS magazine.

Many times I have stood near the information booth where Nancy Olsen related to a railroad policeman that she had overheard a murder plot being discussed on board her train.

And the next time I'm at Los Angeles Union Station, I'll take a picture of a hot babe standing near the information booth and post it on this website.

What year was "North by Northwest"? I forget, but my mind keeps uttering 1947??

I loved Silver Streak, but also love all the old 40's and 50's movies with trains, even Strangers on a Train, by Hitchcock. Or the English movies that how a lot of European trains with those cute compartments. I have traveled on a lot of trains like that all over Europe. I've never seen the old version of Murder on the Orient Express. That would be good.

"North By Northwest" is from 1959.

A version of "Murder On the Orient Express" came out in 1974. Was there an earlier one? I believe I've seen it once and remember it being pretty good. It features an "All-Star" cast including Lauren Bacall and Ingrid Bergman.

seajay