Trains, Trains, Trains

[W. Gray]

I love to see a train, any train, in a movie.

Trains magazine just recently produced a special offshoot issue titled "100 Greatest Train Movies."

My favorites would have been:
Number one, The General
Number two, The Train
Number three, Runaway Train
Number four, Silver Streak
Number five, Union Pacific


Here is Train magazines top ten train movies:

1.   The Train, 1964, Burt Lancaster, Jeanne Moreau
2.   North by Northwest, 1959, Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint
3.   Twentieth Century, 1934, John Barrymore, Carole Lombard
4.   The Lady Vanishes, 1937, Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave
5.   La Bete Humaine, 1938, Jean Gabin, Simone Simon
6.   High Noon, 1952, Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly
7.   Brief Encounter, 1945, Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard
8.   The General, 1925, Buster Keaton, Marion Mack
9.   Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969, Paul Newman, Robert Redford
10.   Murder on the Orient Express, 1974, Albert Finney, Richard Widmark


100th,  Fried Green Tomatoes
99th, Picnic (Filmed in Sterling and Hutchinson, KS)
98th, Charade
97th, The Dinner Game
96th, I Know Where I'm Going

[W. Gray]

Silver Streak, released in 1976 with Gen Wilder and Richard Pryor, was rated 52nd.

The climax of this movie features a runaway diesel passenger stream liner train rushing into the Chicago train depot. The lead engine jumps the end of track buffer and crashes into the waiting room. People scatter from coffee shops and waiting room seats as the engine trashes the kiosks and ticket booths and destroys pilasters holding the roof up.

This was a dramatic scene for the times and probably cost the producers a lot money to film even though they cut costs by filming in Canada.

In real life, something like this actually happened.

In January 1953, a diesel from the 16-car, Federal Express passenger train, jumped the end of the track buffer, crashed into the Washington, DC, Union Station waiting room with two cars behind it and promptly fell into the basement.

About 90 people were injured but no one was killed.

Since, it was close to the inauguration, the damage had to be repaired quickly as everyone, but everyone, traveled by train in those days.

The two trailing cars were removed from the basement but the locomotive was left in place and covered over with a temporary floor. Twenty-four hours later, people were walking over that temporary floor headed to the presidential inauguration.

I believe the backdrop for the daily Fox News All Star Panel on Special Report with Brent Baier, is that of the same Washington DC Union Station. That station now sees 32 million people, including commuters, arrive and depart by train each year. The station is also the headquarters for Amtrak.