amtrak portrayals in tv/film

[Roots]

Watched Michael Palins Around The World in 80 Days last night, is that the California Zephyr he is on?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vFvFmxL2aA about 5.5 mins in.

 

[iggy]

An episode of the new series Horseplayers on Esquire Network - handicapper Matt Bernier is shown boarding an Amtrak train. I couldn't make out which one - but I'd assume it was an east coast route do to where he lives and was heading.

 

[tim49424]

Just discovered that in "Close Encounters of a Third Kind" when the lead character played by Richard Dreyfuss is attempting to help his son with a math problem, he uses his model train set to demonstrate a way to figure out the question which has to do with fractions. He ends up using, as part of the demonstration, an Amtrak model engine.

 

[Trainmans daughter]

Has anyone mentioned Superman 1? (I read most of the posts and scanned others and didn't see it) Train Web's route guide for the SWC says this about an area between Lamy and Albuquerque:

Oritz Mountains: Look in the distance to your right, and you can see these mountains, site of one of the country's first gold mines, opened in 1830. The whitish tailings from the mines are still visible. Scenes from the movie Superman featuring Amtrak® were shot along this stretch of rail line.

 

[Dan O]

An episode of the new series Horseplayers on Esquire Network - handicapper Matt Bernier is shown boarding an Amtrak train. I couldn't make out which one - but I'd assume it was an east coast route do to where he lives and was heading.

I thought he got on the Desert Wind in LA and it hooked up with the Calif Zephyr. That was pretty good in that over 20 mins was about his trip on Amtrak. Seems like he crossed Cajon Pass, not the Sierra Nevada mtns.

 

[FormerOBS]

The Steven Segal movie was "Dark Territory", and it had some really fun gaffes. Of course it wasn't called an Amtrak train, but it used Superliners, and who else uses those? Segal had to get from one car to another without going through the sliding end doors, so he used some nonexistent passageway to access the ventilation system and squeezed through some passages that, in reality, are big enough for air to get through, but not a man. Maybe a rabbit could get through. To me, the highlight was the look of dread on one actor's face when he said he was afraid all the gasoline in the diesel locomotives might explode. That was just too precious!

 

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

The Steven Segal movie was "Dark Territory", and it had some really fun gaffes. Of course it wasn't called an Amtrak train, but it used Superliners, and who else uses those? Segal had to get from one car to another without going through the sliding end doors, so he used some nonexistent passageway to access the ventilation system and squeezed through some passages that, in reality, are big enough for air to get through, but not a man. Maybe a rabbit could get through. To me, the highlight was the look of dread on one actor's face when he said he was afraid all the gasoline in the diesel locomotives might explode. That was just too precious!

The cars were actually rebuilt from SP commuter cars by Colorado Rail Car specifically for the movie.

 

[FormerOBS]

No kidding? To tell the truth I didn't look at them that closely & assumed most of the interior shots were done on a sound stage anyway. The film is a hoot!

 

[jimhudson]

Hey,the Hero can always do impossible things in Movies! LOL And if there was gas in the diesel tanks the train was probably serviced by the Chicago Yard Crew!

 

[SarahZ]

Murder She Wrote: "South By Southwest"

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CD8QtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dp8SCqr5tjDM&ei=9-nvUuWsA8XroASV6YEQ&usg=AFQjCNGp1m4Jyo0YMwAUADBxVbjuQh1Z7g

I just started watching it on Netflix. I watched the first two episodes (an extended pilot), and I was surprised/pleased at just how much they featured Amtrak. Part of me wonders if that was Angela Lansbury, the writers, or a bit of both. In a couple of scenes, someone offers to book a flight or car for her, and she waves them off and says, "Oh, no. I'm perfectly fine on the train," and, "Nonsense. I'll take a train." You get a sense it's her favorite way to travel.

The logo was clearly visible on the side of the train in almost every shot, and there was a scene on the train in which it appeared Jessica was sitting in BC (the seats were leather). You could see the seat numbers, seat checks, etc.

I'm not sure which train she was on. The cars looked like Amcans, and she was supposedly leaving NYC, but the tracks were above-ground. She's from Maine, but she told the conductor to just "check her bags through to Boston and [she'd] pick them up there," when she had to run off of that train and catch a different one (to solve the murder, of course!)

 

[Cina]

The hilarious movie "Away We Go" includes train travel, someone more experienced will have to answer whether it's Amtrak equipment; I'd think given the setting it'd have to be!

 

[SarahZ]

The hilarious movie "Away We Go" includes train travel, someone more experienced will have to answer whether it's Amtrak equipment; I'd think given the setting it'd have to be!

ImageUploadedByAmtrak Forum1397961333.593074.jpg

According to the movie synopsis, they had to take a train from Tucson, AZ to Madison, WI. That would be Superliner equipment, and that doesn't look like a current Superliner.

They may have used a different train car, though, perhaps one leased/purchased for the movie? The bunks they sleep in don't look anything like a roomette I'm familiar with.

 

[Cina]

Good point; the outside shot of the cars definitely don't look like superliner cars.

 

[JayPea]

According to what I could dig up on IMDB, the car they boarded was an Amfleet car.

 

[TraneMan]

Murder She Wrote: "South By Southwest"

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CD8QtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dp8SCqr5tjDM&ei=9-nvUuWsA8XroASV6YEQ&usg=AFQjCNGp1m4Jyo0YMwAUADBxVbjuQh1Z7g

I just started watching it on Netflix. I watched the first two episodes (an extended pilot), and I was surprised/pleased at just how much they featured Amtrak. Part of me wonders if that was Angela Lansbury, the writers, or a bit of both. In a couple of scenes, someone offers to book a flight or car for her, and she waves them off and says, "Oh, no. I'm perfectly fine on the train," and, "Nonsense. I'll take a train." You get a sense it's her favorite way to travel.

The logo was clearly visible on the side of the train in almost every shot, and there was a scene on the train in which it appeared Jessica was sitting in BC (the seats were leather). You could see the seat numbers, seat checks, etc.

I'm not sure which train she was on. The cars looked like Amcans, and she was supposedly leaving NYC, but the tracks were above-ground. She's from Maine, but she told the conductor to just "check her bags through to Boston and [she'd] pick them up there," when she had to run off of that train and catch a different one (to solve the murder, of course!)

I will have to check this out.

 

[bobnjulie]

The train is deceased but you see the Amtrak logo in the third Transformers - Dark Side of the Moon.... when they are trying to get to Chicago.

 

[Anderson]

Chugging through more Fringe, Pacific Central also got to stand in for two Newark Penn Stations (paralell universes). In the alternate universe, they even mimiced the font/color of the neon "Pacific Central" to say "Springsteen Station"...which was a nifty easter egg for me. It was done both outside and inside (I think the capuccino bar in the show is either in the same place as or next to the sushi bar there IRL). There were all sorts of hilarious giveaways (bilingual signs on the bathrooms, for example)...but due to the nature of the show a surprising amount actually fit (Skytrain tracks standing in for PATH, for example).

 

[tim49424]

I just watched an old episode of "Forensic Files" where they featured the Sunset Limited tragedy.

 

[white rabbitt]

here is the opening scene of valley of the dolls

what train is this

 

[the_traveler]

It looks like a Penn Central train, but i could not recognize any of the sites.

 

[FormerOBS]

Yes, Penn Central, but it appears to be from an earlier year, before New York Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad. I don't know the date of the release of the movie. The paint schemes indicate NYC. The locomotive is probably an RS model from American Locomotive Works (ALCO). NYC had locos of similar shape, built by Baldwin and Lima, but I don't think it's either of those due to the exhaust stack location and the lack of Lima number boards. The cars appear to be older New York Central System heavyweight cars, probably built before WWII and rebuilt. This is a commuter train --- not a long distance through train. Locations unknown to me.

That's all I got.

Tom

 

[white rabbitt]

Valley Of The Dolls was filmed in febuary 1967

 

[MikefromCrete]

New York Central commuter train, perhaps the Harlem Line.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Valley Of The Dolls was filmed in febuary 1967

If you stay in for the whole movie after the train gets to NYC, it is actually pretty good and gives a scary portrail of what happens if you let the Booze and Pills take over your life.