He boards the Chief in Chicago and spends the night heading cross-country in a sleeping car -- only to mysteriously arrive in Lamy the next day aboard a completely different train. . . the Super Chief.

The best thing, though, is that the film shows that the long-distance rail travel experience hasn't changed during the past 50-odd years. Anyone who has overnighted on Amtrak (particularly aboard the Southwest Chief) will feel right at home watching the film.

You'll find it here:

www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=prelinger&collectionid=14296

Where else in the space of two hours, can one be exposed to such a pack of absurdity, Rules violations, a completely a "nothing" plot, and continual scenes in which "Don't try this home" should be a subtitle. For God sakes, don't try it on the railroad.

One of the wisest decisions Amtrak ever made was to decline providing any production assistance to that piece of tripe.

Then of course the entire movie "Atomic Train" would qualify on this thread.

quote:

---

Originally posted by mr williams:
Two nominations:
1. At the end of "Rainman" Dustin Hoffman catches the late lamented Desert Wind from LAUS and boards a train consisting of only single level Viewliner coaches and
2. In an episode of "S/e/x in the City" Carrie and Samantha travel on Amtrak from New York to San Francisco all the way in a Viewliner without having to change at either Chicago or Emeryville. The train also went through Oklahoma (!) and served dinner west of Pittsberg in brilliant sunshine when it would have been the middle of the night.

---

And the third season of Twelve O'Clock High had jet sounds for prop fighter planes.

Here's another one: "To Wong Foo, thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar" with Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo (sp?) and others. At one point they are driving alongside a train. The passengers are dressed up like business commuters, but the train is the Fremont & Western tourist line in Nebraska (according to the movie credits). Commuters in rural Nebraska?

I am waiting for the day that somewhere there is to be a movie or TV series let's say, entitled "The Accountants...". I have a feeling that Enron et magna alia would provide much fooder for a flick or TV series. My biggest sport would be to watch and "tear apart" the "goofs" and inaccuracies, such as I do, having spent eleven of my 36 working years in the railroad industry, the tripe in that excuse for a flick called "Silver Streak".

There was another TV movie I once saw, with a runaway passenger train with no brakes (can't remember if the crew was killed or if it was a malfunction). Anyway an engineer in a separate engine goes after the train to try to couple onto the last car and then try to stop it.

>> Off-topic (sort of): As for accountants in movies, check out "Look Who's talking". The main adult characters are accountants (portrayed sarcastically) and in one scene the father is shown reading the Journal of Accountancy and busting up at something funny in the magazine (huh?). There's also a "different" take on bathroom, uh, humor.

>>back on topic.

In "Disaster on the Shore Line Express", a madman has hacked into the control center computer and sent two passenger trains hurtling toward each other on the same track (for some reason, the field relay logic allows this). The only way to save the president of the US (who is on one train) is for trackworkers to do a "cut and throw" to get the presidential train onto the other track. There's a hysterical scene where the trackworkers hold the not-yet-spiked rail in place with their claw bars while the train roars through at full speed (for some reason, the engineer doesn't reduce speed).

quote:

---

Originally posted by MPALMER:
How about that swiveling signal?

---