There's an ex-ATSF baggage car on the Fillmore and Western in Fillmore, CA that was used in the movie. I believe one of the "fight" scenes was filmed inside the car.
Some of the cars look like they were ex El Cap cars. The external doors clearly look like the access panel to the ATSF cars' generator sets. Interesting in that the train appears to be longer in the movie but acording to the directors commentary only six cars were used.
One of the GP7s #1801? the second unit in the movie, ended up in Oregon on one of Dick Samuels RRs. He has since sold it and I am not sure where it is now. According to the article I read is that the loco was repairable when it arrived in Oregon. So was the lead loco not repairable and has been scrapped? One thing I find interesting is that in the scene where the train is "taken over" it was clearly shot in at least different times. Take a look at the location of the lead loco and the switch for the passing siding the next time you watch the movie.
I stand corrected. The loco ### was 1810. Here is a link to its history on the OPRR. http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/locomotive1810.html
I just found this link with pictures of the #1804, which was the lead loco in the movie. It apparently survived after the movie. http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails/LocoImages/Loco-1804.html
The scene where the SP tank train and the movie train crash head on was done in I want to say 1/4 scale models, about same size as live steam. The trains where pulled by cables, was on a Discovery show "Movie Magic" back in the late 90s.
Both locomotives were not GP-7s. Only one was. The other was much newer. Don't recall if it's a GP-35, a GP-38, or what, but it has the angular 35-line cab. Now I'll have to dig out the VHS and spool it up... Which ain't so bad... You sure about that? They sure looked like El Cap cars. Surely the SP never ran a lounge with windows that big in commuter service..?
Interesting. No wonder I had trouble identifying the one. They definitely varied quite a bit in detail, and one had the airtight carbody.
I wonder if one took a spill somewhere, which required a rebuilding that had the result you were seeing?
Watched the movie last night. They definitely look like former ATSF El Capitan cars to me. As far as the locos. I noticed a couple differences between the 2 locos. They both look like GP7s for sure. The first unit has a 35 line cab where the second one does not. The first loco #1804 has 2 stacks w/spark arrestors and dynamic brakes. The second loco #1810 has 4 stacks with spark arrestors and NO dynamic brakes.
Yeah, that. Surely a GP-7 with a 35-Line cab is unique enough that we could stand some chance of identifying it for certain. I remember seeing that flick the first time. Why is that train being hauled by two locomotives that obviously don't have steam generators?! No wonder mundanes never take us railfans to the movies...
Yeah, I have found at least a couple areas where it is obvioslly foobied somewhere in the movie. Like in the "take over" scene, look at where the train stops the first time and where it is at the end of the scene. It is fouling the switch to the passing siding in the begging of the scene. At the end of the scene it is way back from the switch. Also, in the scene towards the end of the movie, when they go through the "ghost town" it is daylight. But yet the next scene, which is supposed to be a couple minutes later, it is pitch black outside. Obviouslly another oops from the editing dept. My Dad and I also picked apart the movie "Pearl Harbor" during the Doolittle Raid. We were in the theatre saying things lik "Wait a minute! Hurricane bows on aircraft carriers didn't come out until the 1950s" Sometimes you just gotta love Hollywood!
Just checked on hurricane bows on American carriers. It was not until the end of the war that "Most American Carriers were starting to be equipped with them". So it seems that some had them retrofitted on some time during the war. So now you need to see if the USS Hornet (CV-8) had a hurricane bow at that time. Oh, just to give this a train slant, were any carrier planes used in a major raid on rail facilities by any side during WWII?
Didn't even go. My friend, who was in the Navy in the seventies, wanted me to, and I said there was no point because they'd get the history wrong and then I wouldn't be able to do the 'willing suspension of disbelief' and get into the movie. He said I was being silly and too picky, and went and spent his money. The next time I saw him, he was complaining about the Perry class frigates in the harbor during the raid, and what a waste of money it was...
