Amtrak in the Movies

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There are some excellent shots of amtrak and los angeles union station in the movie Nick of Time starring Johnnie Depp and Christopher Walken. The shots come at the very beginning of the movie. The movie Chain Reaction also has a shot of an amfleet I car sitting in chicago union station waiting to depart.
 
Los Angeles Union Station is the number one spot for on-location movies being filmed in downtown LA. The entire station has been totally refurbished, but the front portion of the interior (the ticket agents' windows, the main rest rooms, the waiting area, and the lobby) are off-limits to the general public and are used exclusively for the purpose of filming movies. To the best of my knowledge, this portion of the station is remain this way forever. What a waste!
 
The movie that comes to mind first is "BASEketball." however, it portrays Amtrak in an unflattering light, as a sort of low-class way to travel. I think this fits in with many movie writer's impressions of travel to start with - IOW, if they don't get the exclusive, chartered jet, then it must be low-class. :( An inaccurate, incorrect impressions of train travel in general, IMNSHO. :angry:

Then there is also "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," and "Throw Momma From The Train." Billy Crystal was is one, and Danny DeVito was in at least one of them. Both were funny.
 
OK, how could I forget this one? :eek: "Only The Lonely" with the late great John Candy(one of my all time favorites!). Great scene at the very end that was shot in Niles, MI! It was also the first and last time I ever saw steam heated Amfleet coaches. :D :lol: :lol:
 
Amtrak was also in "Trading Places" with Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy.

It also appears an Amtrak F40PH and baggage car slipped into the Movie "Grease".

Plus I have seen Amtrak a few times on some earlier "ER" episodes.

:D
 
Don't forget "Throw Mama from the Train" with Billy Crystal and Danny Devito, which contain extensive seens aboard an Amtrak Superliner train.

There is a Nourish commercial, while not an Amtrak train, that features a commuter train with an F59PHI on the head end arriving at a station. Then the scene changes to inside the train. There is a yellow and blue strip I can see on the locomotive but no other information as to road name. However, the opening shot of the arriving train gets my attention.

"Outrageous Fortune" with Shelly Long and Bette Midler shows an Amtrak Superliner train--with the GE P30s in the lead--speeding by in the background while the two ladies are in New Mexico. I have always thought of that as the Sunset Limited.
 
It's funny I saw that Nourish commercial just today, and was going to post about it, but forgot. :lol: It looks sorta like Sounder colors, but the yellow stripe blows that theory. The coaches though were Bombardier Bi-Levels, and the commercial was shot inside one of the coaches.
 
About the train in the Nourish commercial: the closest paint scheme I can find that matches what is seen in the commercial is the West Coast Express, which is a commuter operation in the Vancouver, BC, area. Quite a few commercials (especially car commercials) are being filmed in Canada, especially in and around Vancouver and Toronto. Apparently it is still cheaper to film there than in the USA. Of course, the commercial "people" could have had their own train painted in their own livery.

Oh, and about the "Titanic": I liked the movie; it was a way for me to get a look into history--the design and features of the ship, the people, the fashions, the ways of life of the time. The two young lovers (though fictional) helped to bring faces to the tragedy, which before I had only read about in history books. There is only so much information you can get by reading names and events. Also, there are new discoveries as to hows the ship sank and in what order events happened that the movie was able to show that earlier efforts did not. People are certainly welcome to their tastes and opinions, but I liked the movie.
 
gswager Posted on Thu, Jan 22, 2004, 12:28 PM

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QUOTE (CREW-DORM#2524 @ Thu, Jan 22, 2004, 10:45 AM)

"The Recruit" with Al Pacino was shot in Union Station Washington...

Ummm, must be in wrong place. Thought that it was in abandoned building.

I think you were referring to one of the newbie was shot by his classmate which he didn't know until over the dead body.

Yes the abandoned building was not Union Station. But when he is running thru the train station in the middle of the movie, that WAS Union Station.

Ryan
 
Well instead of starting the same topic, I decided I would bring one back to life. I was watching the movie "Under Siege 2" (1995) in which a bunch of guys hi-jack a train. The entirety of the movie is filmed on a train. It is interesting though, the cars are 2 deckers and do very closely resemble superliners. However, I noticed quite a few things. First off, the wall is covered to look like wood, which wouldnt be hard for hollywood to do. The chairs are full arm chairs, and the windows open, also things that wouldnt be hard to fake. The windows all also appear to be slightly smaller then those on a superliner. The doors are also slightly differently in that they are slimmer. All the cars are painted in this brownish-goldish color and have the name "Grand Continental” I was able to tell through the numerous outside shots and the points of film out the window that they are traveling on the California Zephyr Moffat tunnel line. One scene is filmed as the train travels through Gore Canyon. The train appears to be pulled by 2 Gp40-2's, though im not entirely positive.

Does anyone have any idea what this equipment could be? Like I said, I can imagine some things hollywood could do, but others wouldnt be possible. To be completely honest, most of the cars resemble the ex-santafe fleet (the same fleet which has brought us the parlor car on the starlate).
 
They actually filmed the Denver-Union Station scene in the movie at Denver-Union Station... kind of rare for Hollywood since they usually always try to pass off Los Angeles-Union Station as a rail station somewhere else. Remember the train station scene in the movies Garfield and Cheaper By The Dozen? Those were both filmed at Los Angeles-Union Station and they tried to pass them off as being somewhere else.
 
A scene from "American Splendor" was filmed at the Amtrak station in Cleveland, Ohio.
 
I do believe that I recall seeing an episode of "Family Matters" where steve and his dad are traveling on a train, I forget where they were going, it was a single level train and the interior looked like Amtrak. They were in a bedroom sleeping accomodation.

I also remember an episode of "The mystery files of Shelby Woo" where the episode begins at the Cocoa Beach Amtrak station, the are traveling on a bus, but it is clearly an amtrak station. They even refer to it as "the amtrak station"

Jon P
 

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