For those not familiar ... that's the Denver and Rio Grande Western's paint scheme on the F7 (1:45). The Arid Plains RR logo (4:20) appears to be based on the Southern Pacific logo. I know our patron loves nerd detail ... the "X6151" in on the F's nose looks like Southern Pacific practice, too - SP would put the train's number there. If the train was an "extra" meaning not on the timetable, they would use an X followed by the lead locomotive's road number. I don't know if the DRG&W did the same. Another nerd note - when GM built the first Fs in the 1930s (google up EMD FT) the intent was always to provide the railways with modular power units (1350 HP at first) so that the RR could match the power to the train's needs. Vendor and customer alike were concerned that the engineer's and firemen's unions would demand both positions be filled on each of those modules as if they were independent locomotives despite "multiple unit" controls allowing them all to be controlled by one engineer. GM's response was to put drawbars between units instead of knuckle couplers on the demonstrators and early production so that 4 units were "one locomotive" and also to provide cabless "boosters" or B units as seen in the display. A nice A-B-B-B-A set of Fs sure looked purty pulling a post WW-2 streamlined passenger train ... (GM also came up with many of the colorful paint schemes for their customers as well)
The D&RGW didn’t put X before the road number on most of their diesel locomotives, but during world war 2 X’s were added by the USRA on the standard gauge D&RGW steam locomotives.
Mr H, to be honest I don't care a button if you venture away from your usual offerings. I'd happily listen to you do the history of the telephone directory because you always make things interesting with a good sprinkling of wry humour. As ever, thank you for an entertaining vignette and the "Cheerio" was much appreciated too.
Telephone directories are pretty fascinating! My father used to work for one of the companies that made the paper they were printed on, which was unexpectedly highly specialized stuff.
@@ZGryphonThat sounds really cool! In my homecity we have this museum of telephony that unfortunately is privately owned and almost inaccessible...however I've been there and they have this absolutely amazing collection of old phone books, starting from the early 1900's ❤
Disoriented is predominantly the US spelling, with disorientated being the preferred British spelling. The US version has seeped across the Atlantic to some extent, due to Hollywood, the Internet and such. I'm just glad Jago pronounced nuclear properly.
I think the one train that got me interested in all things Locomotive, was the one from the 1976 movie 'Silver Streak' - a disguised Canadian Pacific with an Observation Car. Loved that film growing up.
The 39 Steps with Robert Donat (?) was a good example. I understand that the LNER of the time were no happy about the how the train was portrayed; i.e. dangerous fighting on the footplate tec.
Silver Streak was the first thing I thought of. I grew up in Toronto, and the audiences were chuckling at the fact that the Silver Streak both departed from and crashed into the easily recognizable Toronto Union Station 😂
@billsinkins361 funny thing is the movie people had originally planned to film just outside Chicago on the old Rock Island getting as far as actually doing helicopter scouting of the rural locations outside Chicago ( rural being a lot closer in 75ish than now I might add) but if you know anything about the financial condition of the Rock Island circa 1975 once they landed the chopper and got a look at the physical conditions of a railroad 5 years away from bankruptcy and disillusion it was determined to be to dangerous for stunt people to be running around on moving trains and relocated to Canada. While Toronto is used in the majority of the shots one tiny bit of Chicago remains in the film in that quick POV shot of the Silver Streak entering the train shed before smashing through the bumper ( on it's way to Marshall Fields) is actually the old Chicago & Northwestern station.
I love that the nuclear missile has markings on it stating the exact yield of the warhead and warning the observer, "DO NOT DETONATE". Important safety tip, thanks very much, Egon! It reminds me pleasantly of the way things are always way-too-explicitly labeled in Gerry Anderson productions.
Truth is stranger than fiction, they say. NASA used to move the old space shuttle orbiters around on the back of a Boeing 747. The anchor point had a label which read "Attach Orbiter here (dark side down)". Easy mistake, I suppose...
@@lordmuntague Had a colleague some years ago who was once a signwriter and worked for a company that reliveried aircraft, he was painting the logos and warnings on an Aer Lingus aircraft and could not resist painting an arrow and 'This way up' in Irish and English on the upper fuselage, both sides, quite small but noticeable when cleaned or de-iced, needless to say they did not get the joke. He was given the sack by his employer.
The EMD F7A and F7B models look like they're in a Denver & Rio Grande Western-inspired livery, similar to the preserved F9A No. 5771 at the Colorado Railroad Museum.
I was about to make a comment very similar to yours about the resemblance to the D&RGW. Good thing I checked first to avoid making myself redundant in a comment thread. 😆
@@ModMokkaMattiI came to the comment section to do the same, but thanks to the two of you, there is no need for me to express my appreciation of the Rio Grande's iconic designs in general and the four stripe design in particular.
A surprise video, but a very interesting one. I'd absolutely like to hear more of your thoughts on trains in films, a topic near and dear to my own heart as well. That includes both more esoteric musings like this on trains as motifs in certain films; one that springs to my mind was the transition in Mel Brook's magnum opus "Young Frankenstein" in which the titular doctor is first shown on a modern (for the 1930's) American train and then in the exact same setting, right down to the conversation of his fellow passengers, on an older Transylvanian express, the two sets made to look identical yet setting specific; I might be misremembering, but I feel like I heard somewhere the Brooks even used the same train set for both scenes, merely changing the set dressing. I'd also love to hear any specific train-based film production stories you might stumble across and find worth the telling. One that's caught my fancy lately has been the production of Walt Disney's 1956 film "The Great Locomotive Chase"; not to give too much of the story away, but it ended with Walt almost buying the actual railroad used for filming in Georgia (the state) and turning it into a 30-mile living Civil War museum.
Once Upon a Time in the West is probably the most classic train opening scene. I made one of my daughters sit down and watch it just to learn about theatre and film making.
The tension being wound up in the opening scene ... the fly caught in the barrel of the revolver...the drip drip of water from the water tower onto one of the protagonist's hat😎
I can’t remember the film very well, but the productions of Cabaret which I saw introduced the main character and world of the musical with a train in and out of the city. “There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies, and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany”.
A story? Asteroid City had a story? I missed that. Its a sweet little WA movie but I do wish he would be a little less whimsical. There are films entirely about about trains (The General, The Train, Unstoppable, Runaway Train, Silver Streak, Orient Express etc) and there's there are films with notable train sequences (Once Upon a Time in the West, North by Northwest, couple of Bonds, Railway Children, even Man Who Fell to Earth). Happy to see Jago cover any of them.
Really interesting video, thanks Jago 🙂. Personally, having loved trains since I was a kid I've always had a thing about movies which feature trains too. "The Train" (1964) about the French resistance trying to stop a train-load of plundered artworks from being transported to Nazi Germany was always one of my favourites. Anyway, I haven't found a single video from you which I haven't found very interesting so keep up the good work 👍
Interesting video and thanks for the tip about the exhibition and Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt is a great example where at the start of the film an important person to the films plot arrives by train
Or _North by Northwest_ where the train (New York Central's _Twentieth Century Ltd_ ) takes Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint from the wilds of New York City (and Long Island) to the wilds of the Upper (US) Midwest.
@@fjkelley4774 And, of course, there's Strangers on a Train, where the liminal space of a train carriage allows the film's protagonist to idly entertain a morally obscene idea, then dismiss it when he leaves the train. Of course his double/nemesis, who posited the idea, takes the protagonist's humouring stance as a green light to action.
Most relieved to realise you were analysing the symbolism and not, as I feared, finding fault with the degree of realism of the model - thanks for sharing your thoughts \m/
Thanks Jago. It would be easy to do a series of videos around the use of trains in films, however, getting the rights to show small snippets of each would be a challenge. The early scene in 'Get Carter' where Jack transitions from London to his home city (a very grim looking Newcastle) by intercity train, overlaid with Roy Budd's amazing music score, is key to the whole film. He is unwittingly sharing the 6 person compartment with his killer which puts a whole twist upon the final scene in one of the greatest crime films.
I like looking for continuity gaffs in films. It really grates when the train morphs from (for instance) a GWR Castle to a SR King Arthur in the next shot. Film makers even get it wrong when using Heritage Railways.
Under fair use provisions, it is possible in theory to show brief clips of movies, but my experience of obtaining music rights from film companies is that they are extremely loathe to allow those provisions and very heavy handed in the ensuring that all their rights are observed.
I have always loved those F7 engines. We usually saw them on the passenger routes headed west. Didn't know they were headed to Asteroid City. Cucamonga maybe, but not A-City. The Santa Fe Super Chief was dazzling in the desert sun. Keep 'em comin', Jim--a person can never have too many rail videos.
There were a lot of Australian built, licensed copies. There are a few still around and for a couple of months after harvest every year, these 70 year old veterans are pulled out of storage to haul wheat and barley trains to the docks in my state of Victoria.
recently bought the 'super chief' album by Van Dyke Parks, and it does feature that very train on the front. But I don't know if that's F7 as I'm not into trains, even though I do subscribe to this channel.
@@spookydirt It's likely to be an F-3 or F-7. I cannot discern the difference in most photos. Most of the F series was used for freight service, but the F-3 and F-7 units used on the Santa Fe passenger service were upgraded with steam boilers and a beautiful livery.
How fascinating! Thanks for this, I don't think I would have ever known about it without you having covered it. I love trains, and models, and movie props. So this one hit all the nice spots.
There are a couple of great old ‘train songs’ in the movie that I’d not heard in years… decades even! . ‘Freight Train’ by The Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group, Nancy Whiskey & ‘Last Train to San Fernando’ played by Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass Boys.
Lovely video, it was really cool hearing your thoughts about the symbolism of trains in film! A film I think takes full advantage of being set on a train is ‘Train to Busan’. It’s a fun zombie movie with great character moments, and it also uses the interior space in clever ways - seats, overhead luggage compartments, electric doors between carriages, and train toilets all become either tools for survival or obstacles for the characters. This combined with the available space becoming gradually more and more constrained adds to the suffocating tension.
I'd watch anything you make because I find your voice soothing and it helps me understand the British accent (I'm not a native English speaker) and I love trains in general, so
Back in the late 80's I was a Copilot on a DC-6 Airtanker out of Winslow AZ. The Santa Fe railyard was across from the tanker base. It's partially closed now but, it was fun train spotting while waiting for a fire call. Miss that.
Really like your analysis of why it's in the movie, I have vaguely different ideas of how it being a model is fairly obvious in the movie and so introduces the stage nature of the story in that setting
Huge, detailed and wonderfully weathered as it is, I don't think Anderson particularly minds that it would be recognized as a model (think of the "Grand Budapest Hotel" -- although there apparently really was a building used, there was also a model).
"Asteroid City" reminds me a Polish city Krzyż, which is a small settlement with huge railway station. It's a place one's visit not as a final destination, but as a point of changing between trains. You stay for a short time there, unless there's some disruption en route. You're a B Unit to my avocado freight cars.
The British equivalent would probably be Crewe, which was a hamlet of 70 people until the railway arrived, although Krzyż - originally Kreuz (Ostbahn), to make the railway connection even more blatantly obvious - looks rather more attractive than Crewe!
The EMD locomotives of that era, my own early years, are permanently inscribed in my mind and soul as the ultimate look and design of a diesel locomotive. This model is absolutely incredible and I can only thank you for lingering over it and bringing it to our attention. This is a fulfillment of design fantasy that I didn't even know I craved, until now. Thank you so very much.
The train reminds me a lot of the one from Cars (named Trev Diesel, presumably after Richard Trevithick). He also has a backup loco, and I’m only now learning why.
Bad Day At Black Rock has opening/ending with F series locos of the Southern Pacific in Black Widow livery. Two different ones appear as the same in the title sequence. F3 6151 is being used for the head on shots and other aerials. F7 6386 goes across a girder bridge. 6386 arrives at the end for Spencer Tracy to board where it's 5 horn set is visible. 6151 has the former 2 air horns on the cab roof.
The thing I noticed about the train is the way it moved when the level between the two rails changed. A real train would slowly roll from side to side and settle down, but this once "twitched" like a small scale model or a toy. On such a large model achieving the right rolling motion wouldn't be hard to achieve with the right springs and some weight in the right places, but I think what the filmmakers were trying to tell us is "Nothing about this is at all real!". (We'll give 'em credit for building a model at all: they can do so much with CGI these days!)
This has reminded me that I wanted to see this film and I can see they’ve stopped showing it now… oh well! Really good to see some proper props that aren’t all CGI!
The opening sequence of "In the Heat of the Night" with the locomotive's headlamp getting larger as the train approaches - the film is also memorable for fantastic performances by Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger.
@@roderickjoyce6716 no, youtube's gone mental and decided we all need obscure usernames to hide who we really are. And there's no way to change them. It's part of Google finally allowing us to have different identities on each of their services, but it's terribly implemented and completely ignores the custom usernames we've already set.
@@roderickjoyce6716 You can't. The Google database holds two different pieces of information. One is the user name you chose, which used to be displayed in the comments, the other is the 'internal' user name generated automatically by Google, which is what is now displayed. I believe that the change has been made in order to avoid using your email address as the piece of information which uniquely identifies your account. I am not at all impressed that Google decides how I should be known.
5 minutes later, you've earned a subscription! as an amateur film nerd and train lover, i immensely enjoyed your 'amateur' take on train in film. I'm excited to watch more of your videos soon
I loved the tunnel that the train disappeared into in the opening sequence. It was a typical train-set tunnel - a tiny, precipitous rock that the railroad engineers would have had no trouble avoiding, but they chose to bore through it. The landscape was pure Wile E. Coyote, and frankly I was disappointed that Wes Anderson didn't go with the cartoon theme. It would have been a lot more entertaining than the meta-theatrical navel-gazing that the film indulged in. Thanks for this video, though - if I lived anywhere near London I would see the exhibition, but I don't, so your images are the next best thing.
If I had known about your theatre interest when I first found your channel I would have suggested a video about the old stage lifts at the theatre royal Drury lane before they were removed in the recent refurbishment
This Is asking for a countdown of the top train movies of all time (maybe not counting BTF documentaries and the like). The General, The 39 Steps, Strangers on a Train, Closely Observed Trains, Brief Encounter, Silver Streak, Mahler .... And maybe an obscure British comedy from the 1930s called The Last Journey, which Is about an engine driver on the GWR who goes insane.
As self described train nerd, I have to point out on the otherwise superb model of the F7A, it is missing the pilot or cowcatcher on the cab end. This is the curved plate under the anti-climber to keep assorted things such as cows, automobiles various extra terrestrials from going under the engine and derailing it. And thank you again Mr Hazzard for a neat episode. Now another movie to my watch list.
Fun fact: invented by Charles Babbage (of Analytical Engine fame)! Although probably also by a bunch of other people, it's one of those things that kind of suggests itself.
@@ZGryphon You drove me to check Wikipedia. Thank you. Noted that his design was not used but is similar to those that were. Another close but no cigar for CB.
Prototypical hero arrives by train at film start and leaves by train at end: 'Bad Day at Black Rock'. In between he is stuck in the town and by the end he has turned the town's social order upside down.
I love this! I'd like to add to your list of movies with trains: Strangers on a Train. A classic Hitchcock film that starts and ends on a train. Oh! And two classics with Glen Ford - 3:10 to Yuma and Of Human Desire.
I always wondered why the Americans use 7½" gauge for their 1:8 scale trains. In the UK and pretty much the rest of the world it's 7¼". There are a number of 'behind the scenes" videos of Asteroid City on RUclips and they show the versatility of the gauge when used as a movie prop (and in the hands of gifted professional modelmakers).
It's because there was a typo when the hobby was brought across the pond, the gauge was supposedly written as "7. 5" and the 2 was omitted for some reason, perhaps low ink? Anyways, this looks more like ¼ scale to me but that's beside the point haha.
I like the idea of trains in film sometimes symbolising a transition between worlds. I vaguely recall there was some old-timey British film where everyone on the train turns out to be dead? (Of course they can't have been going to hell though, because if you're going to hell you're going on a replacement bus service.)
The livery on the F-units was a very good fictionalization of the real-life Denver & Rio Grand Western (D&RGW) passenger livery of the era. i.e. That scheme wouldn't have been used on a freight train's engines. But, since it's a fictional railroad, it's not really an issue.
Interesting. The other day, I saw a video about miniatures in film-making, and it included this film and this train as well. It turns out that some thing simply don't work with models (fire, water, etc, because it doesn't scale), but that models still have a place in modern cinematography.
A nice change of pace, Jago. I find you have to be mentally prepared for a Wes Anderson movie. It is real surrealism. You just sense that something is just off. The coloring, the quirks of the characters. It taxes your thought processes.
As you say, the detail and weathering is absolutely superb. I find a lot of modellers sometimes take things too far- tanks in particular. I prefer a more subtle approach, such as shown here.
That is a really cool point of view on an American movie from a foreign national. Being French Canadian, I sometimes have a similar point of view of American culture. Americans often disagree with my interpretation of their culture because they are to ingrained in it. A sort of not being able to see the forest from the trees type of thing.
My memory got shook up,so add another train movie! The Great Race,with Tony Curtis,as there is a sequence with a D&RGW narrow Guage train,and of course,Jago's other love- antique cars! Very funny and enjoyable movie 🎬! Thanks Jago,for another jaunt into esoteric realms!! Thank you 😇 😊!
A "trains in films" that could be worth doing is the Tube scene from Darkest Hour. I understand the interior of the tube train was a modified 1959 DM at Mangapps as the e LT Museum 1938 stock was unavailable.
Trains in films - and since there are only three types of film, Stranger comes into town, Man goes on a Journey and surreal, a train as a character fits neatly into the first two with little to no effort. For surreal then the movement between carriages would lend itself to that style although I can't immediately think of an example.. But the one film I can think of that encompasses all three themes and a train is 'Dougal and the Blue Cat' (Eric Thompson version)
Yeah you should do a "Jago Hazzard's top 10 train movies" video. I'm sure it would engender lots of good (hopefully not too heated) discussion of what constitutes a train movie and what the top ones are.
About the warhead on the open train car - One thing I think it does, at least for me and other viewers, is it takes us back to a time when some of us had a similar (probably Lionel) toy train, and their models of missiles and other space/military rockets are incredibly memorable. So in several ways, the train helps us identify a time period for the movie.
I'm not hugely into films but the two appearances of trains in films which immediately spring to mind for me are the train scenes in James Bond, and the train crash in The Fugitive. Of course there are underground train scenes in quite a few films as well, including in Bond and The Fugitive. It's a good place for a chase, though catching or missing the tube train is also the main theme to the film Sliding Doors.
I'm gonna nail my film-nerd colours to the wall and nominate 'Monday Morning' by Otar Iosseliani - the train journey symbolises an extremely gentle transition between workaday mundanity and artistic self-fulfilment, but is no less moving for that. Sort of a Mike Leigh-meets-Jaques Tati vibe. P.S Lucky I've got the day off today or I would have missed this!
In any story, it is necessary to get the character into the fantasy world. The problem with a lot of stories, is that once you have put the character into the fantasy world, then it is hard to get them out without a very expensive special effect. For example in, "The Wizard of Oz", they have to make it that Dorothy has dreamt it all to avoid the special effect of returning by balloon that is in the book. That's where the train comes in. It can be used to deliver the character to the fantasy word, and it can be used to take them back to reality. The writer of Babylon 5 describes, "moments of transition, and moments of revelation". A train ride demonstrates that time is space, and that space is time. Thanks for uploading.
This is presumably why both _Half-Life_ and _Half-Life 2_ also start with train rides. "You have chosen, or been chosen, to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers..."
I reckon Gerry Anderson would have been the man to have made a film about Asteroid City and its (no doubt) supersonic monorail train service, which would go disastrously wrong...
As you appear genuinely disappointed that the miniature miniature train was not on display, but just the miniature model, however, if you wish to experience the miniature miniature then simply take several paces backward and take a good look. Hey presto, the miniature has just become the miniature miniature! 😊
By far, Wes Anderson's great ode to railways is with the film is "Come Together" (2016)... which is just a long Christmas commercial for H&M, and can be found on RUclips. It doesn't sound like much, but he accomplishes does more in four minutes than most directors do these days in an hour. And if you DO want Freudian trains, I recommend Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" (1959). It brilliantly captures the late iconic 20th Century Limited (the New York Central's overnight sleeper express from NYC to Chicago) in its diesel halcyon days, just before its twilight years.
Strangers on a Train did some filming in my home town, which of course is another train movie. There is also The Taking of Pelham 123 which is both a book and several movies. It has the added fun of being a subway train.
Very interesting analysis! Trains definitely serve an important role in a lot of westerns as symbols of civilisation and progress, with all their positive and negative connotations - one that you didn't mention that springs to mind would be Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in the West', where the expanding rail network is central to the plot (and symbolism) of the story. I had the feeling Anderson was making use of that same sort of theme with the train in Asteroid City. That said, of all modern film makers Wes Anderson would perhaps be the most likely to include a pretty old train for no other reason than because he likes how it looks!
I watched a YT video by an architect who deconstructed the sets from The Grand Budapest Hotel written and directed by Wes Anderson . Fascinating to see.
As a minor piece of US railroad trivia, the locomotives paint scheme is based on the one the Denver & Rio Grande Western used for their passenger locomotives.
Very interesting video Mr Hazzard. Trains in films that come to my mind. The (France) station scene at the beginnng of the film, real not models, in Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953). The unintelligible station announcements complete with howling feedback for the arrival of the holidaymakers train and the platform confusion caused. Classic comedy by Jaques Tatti. The scene is on RUclips. The other, once again featuring French railways featuring real old steam locos is that of the crash scene as the French resistance action in WW2 in the film “The Train” (1964) featuring Bert Lancaster. A sad end for the old wrecked locos. Both films are in monochrome. (This scene is on RUclips). I do like films from other countries and UK too. Model trains, yes I have German N-gauge, British OO gauge and live (real) steam 1:19 16mm and 1:13.7 7/8 inch scales. These are my “Tales from The Tracks”
The great unanswered question: is that a static model or does the train actually move under its own power? Interesting video as I'm sure the film will be.
In one of the many 'behind the scenes" videos of Asteroid City there is a brief close-up shot of one of the power trucks showing a chain and sprocket drive, so I think they would be capable of moving under their own power.
More 'speciality' videos about trains in movies?, That is a great idea. You already summed up a number of films that feature trains, and we can all add to that list. Looking forward to the mix of trains, model trains and movies. [edited for typo]
That locomotive is missing the pilot and plow, cutbars, and air brake hose in the front (not to be confused with the MU synchro hoses that are present). That locomotive and her slave B unit are painted in the D&RGW livery (Denver & Rio Grande Western) Santa Fe converted several F units into CF units and KCS still maintains and operates FP9 A-B units on their OCS train. The freight cars trucks are correct with the sleeve journal bearings though most cars of this era would also have pole pockets.
The Box of Delights often springs to mind when I think of trains - as do Agatha Christie and Quadrophenia. Should really get round to properly organizing my thoughts someday, all a bit of a jumble.
Perhaps a trip to Carnforth Railway Station, kind of on the WCML, is needed to explore the making of Brief Encounter? There is an interesting railway heritage museum on the platform together with a quaint pub. West Coast sidings are also there for their charter trains, they occasionally have open days which perhaps would make a trip from the south more worthwhile.
Those EMD "Covered Wagons" models are beautiful! The A-Unit should have a wrap around skirting below the coupler and pneumatic lines and possibly a cattle catcher. I enjoy practical effects and believe that add more realism to a scene than CGI. There is more of a physical reality compared to CGI.
Yep, train rides as introduction are a classic, but I'm thinking of the two Half-Life games where in the first one it is the Black Mesa Lab monorail and in the second the player arriving by train in the station of the eastern European looking city 17. Very movieesque. This is a very nice model train. Why do the hopper cars have "gravel" written on them? Looked up the movie and I should probably watch it.
For those not familiar ... that's the Denver and Rio Grande Western's paint scheme on the F7 (1:45). The Arid Plains RR logo (4:20) appears to be based on the Southern Pacific logo.
I know our patron loves nerd detail ... the "X6151" in on the F's nose looks like Southern Pacific practice, too - SP would put the train's number there. If the train was an "extra" meaning not on the timetable, they would use an X followed by the lead locomotive's road number. I don't know if the DRG&W did the same.
Another nerd note - when GM built the first Fs in the 1930s (google up EMD FT) the intent was always to provide the railways with modular power units (1350 HP at first) so that the RR could match the power to the train's needs. Vendor and customer alike were concerned that the engineer's and firemen's unions would demand both positions be filled on each of those modules as if they were independent locomotives despite "multiple unit" controls allowing them all to be controlled by one engineer. GM's response was to put drawbars between units instead of knuckle couplers on the demonstrators and early production so that 4 units were "one locomotive" and also to provide cabless "boosters" or B units as seen in the display.
A nice A-B-B-B-A set of Fs sure looked purty pulling a post WW-2 streamlined passenger train ... (GM also came up with many of the colorful paint schemes for their customers as well)
The D&RGW didn’t put X before the road number on most of their diesel locomotives, but during world war 2 X’s were added by the USRA on the standard gauge D&RGW steam locomotives.
@@LMR78 Kinda weird ... did it indicate a national defense extra or something?
@@plaws0 I believe so, the USRA had some weird rules and locomotives indications during WW1 & 2.
@@LMR78 More so in the first war, I would think, given that the USRA ran alllll the railways during that war! Interesting.
its also missing its pilot^^
Mr H, to be honest I don't care a button if you venture away from your usual offerings. I'd happily listen to you do the history of the telephone directory because you always make things interesting with a good sprinkling of wry humour. As ever, thank you for an entertaining vignette and the "Cheerio" was much appreciated too.
Telephone directories are pretty fascinating! My father used to work for one of the companies that made the paper they were printed on, which was unexpectedly highly specialized stuff.
@@ZGryphonI immediately thought "Oooh, what an interesting topic that is!" 😅 I _might_ just be a tiny bit nerdy
Tales from the phone book when???
@@ZGryphonThat sounds really cool! In my homecity we have this museum of telephony that unfortunately is privately owned and almost inaccessible...however I've been there and they have this absolutely amazing collection of old phone books, starting from the early 1900's ❤
One of the most famous and visually beautiful train arrivals is in "A Bad Day at Black Rock".
Heck of a film. Very tight story. Nothing unnecessary, nothing missing.
Quote of the Day: “Be careful. I’m about to get hard core pretentious.”
That is what I said some years ago.. I have never said ito again.. But then again I never stopped being hard core pretentious either.
I also like "Sometimes a train is just a train"
- Sigmund Hazzard
Be careful, I'm about to get hardcore Jago
Pretentious? Moi?
I must say it was nice to hear someone on the internet say disoriented correctly. Also as a model railroad enthusiast that weathering is insanely good
Where do you hear "disoriented"? I found "detail-oriented" in the transcript, but that's about it.
Disoriented is predominantly the US spelling, with disorientated being the preferred British spelling. The US version has seeped across the Atlantic to some extent, due to Hollywood, the Internet and such. I'm just glad Jago pronounced nuclear properly.
@@johnm2012 Yes, but my point is, I cannot find where disoriented or disorientated is supposedly said.
@@SeverityOne I was replying to the OP.
K I’ve been enlightened ty
I think the one train that got me interested in all things Locomotive, was the one from the 1976 movie 'Silver Streak' - a disguised Canadian Pacific with an Observation Car.
Loved that film growing up.
The 39 Steps with Robert Donat (?) was a good example. I understand that the LNER of the time were no happy about the how the train was portrayed; i.e. dangerous fighting on the footplate tec.
Silver Streak was the first thing I thought of. I grew up in Toronto, and the audiences were chuckling at the fact that the Silver Streak both departed from and crashed into the easily recognizable Toronto Union Station 😂
@billsinkins361 funny thing is the movie people had originally planned to film just outside Chicago on the old Rock Island getting as far as actually doing helicopter scouting of the rural locations outside Chicago ( rural being a lot closer in 75ish than now I might add) but if you know anything about the financial condition of the Rock Island circa 1975 once they landed the chopper and got a look at the physical conditions of a railroad 5 years away from bankruptcy and disillusion it was determined to be to dangerous for stunt people to be running around on moving trains and relocated to Canada. While Toronto is used in the majority of the shots one tiny bit of Chicago remains in the film in that quick POV shot of the Silver Streak entering the train shed before smashing through the bumper ( on it's way to Marshall Fields) is actually the old Chicago & Northwestern station.
the whole train was CP, filmed in Canada
I love that the nuclear missile has markings on it stating the exact yield of the warhead and warning the observer, "DO NOT DETONATE". Important safety tip, thanks very much, Egon! It reminds me pleasantly of the way things are always way-too-explicitly labeled in Gerry Anderson productions.
Truth is stranger than fiction, they say. NASA used to move the old space shuttle orbiters around on the back of a Boeing 747. The anchor point had a label which read "Attach Orbiter here (dark side down)".
Easy mistake, I suppose...
You could technically detonate it by pointing a shotgun at it and firing. Though you do have to press the barrel right up against the missile.
@@RichardWatt Well, it is American....!
I gave this a like because you mentioned Gerry Anderson stuff.
@@lordmuntague Had a colleague some years ago who was once a signwriter and worked for a company that reliveried aircraft, he was painting the logos and warnings on an Aer Lingus aircraft and could not resist painting an arrow and 'This way up' in Irish and English on the upper fuselage, both sides, quite small but noticeable when cleaned or de-iced, needless to say they did not get the joke. He was given the sack by his employer.
The enigma Jago Hazzard has surpassed himself again with this fantastic upload.
0:32 Not sure about the train, but that's every vending machine you could ever want.
I note that, presumably in deference to modern sensibilities, there isn't one that sells cigarettes, which _would_ have been authentic for the era.
@@Tevildo Very good point. No fun in having alcohol and firearms if you don't also have access to tobacco.
Love the 1:8 scale train as well, I for one have a train this scale around my home. As you mentioned, the detail on this is amazing!
The EMD F7A and F7B models look like they're in a Denver & Rio Grande Western-inspired livery, similar to the preserved F9A No. 5771 at the Colorado Railroad Museum.
I was about to make a comment very similar to yours about the resemblance to the D&RGW. Good thing I checked first to avoid making myself redundant in a comment thread. 😆
@@ModMokkaMattiI came to the comment section to do the same, but thanks to the two of you, there is no need for me to express my appreciation of the Rio Grande's iconic designs in general and the four stripe design in particular.
A surprise video, but a very interesting one. I'd absolutely like to hear more of your thoughts on trains in films, a topic near and dear to my own heart as well. That includes both more esoteric musings like this on trains as motifs in certain films; one that springs to my mind was the transition in Mel Brook's magnum opus "Young Frankenstein" in which the titular doctor is first shown on a modern (for the 1930's) American train and then in the exact same setting, right down to the conversation of his fellow passengers, on an older Transylvanian express, the two sets made to look identical yet setting specific; I might be misremembering, but I feel like I heard somewhere the Brooks even used the same train set for both scenes, merely changing the set dressing.
I'd also love to hear any specific train-based film production stories you might stumble across and find worth the telling. One that's caught my fancy lately has been the production of Walt Disney's 1956 film "The Great Locomotive Chase"; not to give too much of the story away, but it ended with Walt almost buying the actual railroad used for filming in Georgia (the state) and turning it into a 30-mile living Civil War museum.
Bad Day at Black Road is another excellent movie featuring trains as a means of introducing a character.
Once Upon a Time in the West is probably the most classic train opening scene. I made one of my daughters sit down and watch it just to learn about theatre and film making.
The genius of Sergio Leone was that he could make minutes of nothing happening into one of the best scenes in movie history.
The tension being wound up in the opening scene ... the fly caught in the barrel of the revolver...the drip drip of water from the water tower onto one of the protagonist's hat😎
I can’t remember the film very well, but the productions of Cabaret which I saw introduced the main character and world of the musical with a train in and out of the city.
“There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies, and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany”.
A story? Asteroid City had a story? I missed that. Its a sweet little WA movie but I do wish he would be a little less whimsical.
There are films entirely about about trains (The General, The Train, Unstoppable, Runaway Train, Silver Streak, Orient Express etc) and there's there are films with notable train sequences (Once Upon a Time in the West, North by Northwest, couple of Bonds, Railway Children, even Man Who Fell to Earth). Happy to see Jago cover any of them.
Stepping out of your cab with this video! Deep dive into movie themes and a model train review. Love it.
He builds theatre sets and models, so it isn't entirely out of his ken.
@@Desmaad ture, I haven't notice Jago (that's not my name) review them before.
@@Diptera_Larvae There is a sometimes "Jagos Trains" ... which I came upon by accident.
Your theatre experience really shows in your dissectiin of the use of trains in movies in general and Asteroid City in particular
Really interesting video, thanks Jago 🙂. Personally, having loved trains since I was a kid I've always had a thing about movies which feature trains too. "The Train" (1964) about the French resistance trying to stop a train-load of plundered artworks from being transported to Nazi Germany was always one of my favourites. Anyway, I haven't found a single video from you which I haven't found very interesting so keep up the good work 👍
I saw The Train, dubbed into German with English subtitles, in a cinema on a Canadian air base in Germany!
Interesting video and thanks for the tip about the exhibition and Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt is a great example where at the start of the film an important person to the films plot arrives by train
Or _North by Northwest_ where the train (New York Central's _Twentieth Century Ltd_ ) takes Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint from the wilds of New York City (and Long Island) to the wilds of the Upper (US) Midwest.
@@fjkelley4774 You could say that moved the plot of North by Northwest the but in Shadow of a Doubt Joseph Cotton is the plot
@@fjkelley4774 And, of course, there's Strangers on a Train, where the liminal space of a train carriage allows the film's protagonist to idly entertain a morally obscene idea, then dismiss it when he leaves the train. Of course his double/nemesis, who posited the idea, takes the protagonist's humouring stance as a green light to action.
Most relieved to realise you were analysing the symbolism and not, as I feared, finding fault with the degree of realism of the model - thanks for sharing your thoughts \m/
Thanks Jago. It would be easy to do a series of videos around the use of trains in films, however, getting the rights to show small snippets of each would be a challenge.
The early scene in 'Get Carter' where Jack transitions from London to his home city (a very grim looking Newcastle) by intercity train, overlaid with Roy Budd's amazing music score, is key to the whole film. He is unwittingly sharing the 6 person compartment with his killer which puts a whole twist upon the final scene in one of the greatest crime films.
I like looking for continuity gaffs in films. It really grates when the train morphs from (for instance) a GWR Castle to a SR King Arthur in the next shot. Film makers even get it wrong when using Heritage Railways.
Under fair use provisions, it is possible in theory to show brief clips of movies, but my experience of obtaining music rights from film companies is that they are extremely loathe to allow those provisions and very heavy handed in the ensuring that all their rights are observed.
I have always loved those F7 engines. We usually saw them on the passenger routes headed west. Didn't know they were headed to Asteroid City. Cucamonga maybe, but not A-City. The Santa Fe Super Chief was dazzling in the desert sun. Keep 'em comin', Jim--a person can never have too many rail videos.
There were a lot of Australian built, licensed copies. There are a few still around and for a couple of months after harvest every year, these 70 year old veterans are pulled out of storage to haul wheat and barley trains to the docks in my state of Victoria.
recently bought the 'super chief' album by Van Dyke Parks, and it does feature that very train on the front. But I don't know if that's F7 as I'm not into trains, even though I do subscribe to this channel.
@@spookydirt It's likely to be an F-3 or F-7. I cannot discern the difference in most photos. Most of the F series was used for freight service, but the F-3 and F-7 units used on the Santa Fe passenger service were upgraded with steam boilers and a beautiful livery.
I’ve always had a thing for the Santa Fe Super Chief. My late Dad left a collection, and that’s my keeper .
@@Dave_Sisson One of them in Victoria was just recently restored for heritage services.
How fascinating! Thanks for this, I don't think I would have ever known about it without you having covered it.
I love trains, and models, and movie props. So this one hit all the nice spots.
There are a couple of great old ‘train songs’ in the movie that I’d not heard in years… decades even! . ‘Freight Train’ by The Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group, Nancy Whiskey & ‘Last Train to San Fernando’ played by Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass Boys.
Lovely video, it was really cool hearing your thoughts about the symbolism of trains in film! A film I think takes full advantage of being set on a train is ‘Train to Busan’. It’s a fun zombie movie with great character moments, and it also uses the interior space in clever ways - seats, overhead luggage compartments, electric doors between carriages, and train toilets all become either tools for survival or obstacles for the characters. This combined with the available space becoming gradually more and more constrained adds to the suffocating tension.
One of the best action films never mind Zombie films of all time! I've seen it dozens of times by now!
I'd watch anything you make because I find your voice soothing and it helps me understand the British accent (I'm not a native English speaker) and I love trains in general, so
Back in the late 80's I was a Copilot on a DC-6 Airtanker out of Winslow AZ. The Santa Fe railyard was across from the tanker base. It's partially closed now but, it was fun train spotting while waiting for a fire call. Miss that.
Buster Keaton's The General and The Titfield Thunderbolt are largely about the trains. But you have train theft and crashes in those stories.
Really like your analysis of why it's in the movie, I have vaguely different ideas of how it being a model is fairly obvious in the movie and so introduces the stage nature of the story in that setting
Huge, detailed and wonderfully weathered as it is, I don't think Anderson particularly minds that it would be recognized as a model (think of the "Grand Budapest Hotel" -- although there apparently really was a building used, there was also a model).
"Asteroid City" reminds me a Polish city Krzyż, which is a small settlement with huge railway station. It's a place one's visit not as a final destination, but as a point of changing between trains. You stay for a short time there, unless there's some disruption en route.
You're a B Unit to my avocado freight cars.
The British equivalent would probably be Crewe, which was a hamlet of 70 people until the railway arrived, although Krzyż - originally Kreuz (Ostbahn), to make the railway connection even more blatantly obvious - looks rather more attractive than Crewe!
This is exactly the type of content I accidentally stumbled across this channel for!
I love the mention, if brief, about B units. So much a design idea that came from not understanding how technology had changed the industry.
The EMD locomotives of that era, my own early years, are permanently inscribed in my mind and soul as the ultimate look and design of a diesel locomotive. This model is absolutely incredible and I can only thank you for lingering over it and bringing it to our attention. This is a fulfillment of design fantasy that I didn't even know I craved, until now. Thank you so very much.
The train reminds me a lot of the one from Cars (named Trev Diesel, presumably after Richard Trevithick). He also has a backup loco, and I’m only now learning why.
The opening scene from "Out of Africa" is also of a model train crossing the countryside.
Bad Day At Black Rock has opening/ending with F series locos of the Southern Pacific in Black Widow livery. Two different ones appear as the same in the title sequence. F3 6151 is being used for the head on shots and other aerials. F7 6386 goes across a girder bridge. 6386 arrives at the end for Spencer Tracy to board where it's 5 horn set is visible. 6151 has the former 2 air horns on the cab roof.
The enigma being that trains never stop there...except today!
The thing I noticed about the train is the way it moved when the level between the two rails changed. A real train would slowly roll from side to side and settle down, but this once "twitched" like a small scale model or a toy.
On such a large model achieving the right rolling motion wouldn't be hard to achieve with the right springs and some weight in the right places, but I think what the filmmakers were trying to tell us is "Nothing about this is at all real!".
(We'll give 'em credit for building a model at all: they can do so much with CGI these days!)
This has reminded me that I wanted to see this film and I can see they’ve stopped showing it now… oh well!
Really good to see some proper props that aren’t all CGI!
The opening sequence of "In the Heat of the Night" with the locomotive's headlamp getting larger as the train approaches - the film is also memorable for fantastic performances by Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger.
PS Does anybody know how to get rid of the numbers which RUclips has inexplicably attached to my name?
@@roderickjoyce6716 no, youtube's gone mental and decided we all need obscure usernames to hide who we really are. And there's no way to change them. It's part of Google finally allowing us to have different identities on each of their services, but it's terribly implemented and completely ignores the custom usernames we've already set.
@@roderickjoyce6716 You should have picked a number you liked in the first place.
@@PMA65537 Can I pick a number encoded in base 62?
@@roderickjoyce6716 You can't. The Google database holds two different pieces of information. One is the user name you chose, which used to be displayed in the comments, the other is the 'internal' user name generated automatically by Google, which is what is now displayed. I believe that the change has been made in order to avoid using your email address as the piece of information which uniquely identifies your account. I am not at all impressed that Google decides how I should be known.
5 minutes later, you've earned a subscription! as an amateur film nerd and train lover, i immensely enjoyed your 'amateur' take on train in film. I'm excited to watch more of your videos soon
I loved the tunnel that the train disappeared into in the opening sequence. It was a typical train-set tunnel - a tiny, precipitous rock that the railroad engineers would have had no trouble avoiding, but they chose to bore through it. The landscape was pure Wile E. Coyote, and frankly I was disappointed that Wes Anderson didn't go with the cartoon theme. It would have been a lot more entertaining than the meta-theatrical navel-gazing that the film indulged in.
Thanks for this video, though - if I lived anywhere near London I would see the exhibition, but I don't, so your images are the next best thing.
If I had known about your theatre interest when I first found your channel I would have suggested a video about the old stage lifts at the theatre royal Drury lane before they were removed in the recent refurbishment
Jago, this was satisfactorily poetic, I enjoyed the video!
Spooky, both you and Geoff M have US centric content this week. A refreshing change.
A subject that's off the beaten track for your videos. But I really enjoyed that. Thank you.
So an American Train in London. Makes a change from An American Train Entrepreneur in London.
This Is asking for a countdown of the top train movies of all time (maybe not counting BTF documentaries and the like). The General, The 39 Steps, Strangers on a Train, Closely Observed Trains, Brief Encounter, Silver Streak, Mahler .... And maybe an obscure British comedy from the 1930s called The Last Journey, which Is about an engine driver on the GWR who goes insane.
In 'Brief Encounter' you could probably say that the trains serve as a metaphor for which path/track the characters are going to take.
As self described train nerd, I have to point out on the otherwise superb model of the F7A, it is missing the pilot or cowcatcher on the cab end. This is the curved plate under the anti-climber to keep assorted things such as cows, automobiles various extra terrestrials from going under the engine and derailing it.
And thank you again Mr Hazzard for a neat episode. Now another movie to my watch list.
Fun fact: invented by Charles Babbage (of Analytical Engine fame)! Although probably also by a bunch of other people, it's one of those things that kind of suggests itself.
@@ZGryphon You drove me to check Wikipedia. Thank you. Noted that his design was not used but is similar to those that were. Another close but no cigar for CB.
Prototypical hero arrives by train at film start and leaves by train at end: 'Bad Day at Black Rock'. In between he is stuck in the town and by the end he has turned the town's social order upside down.
'Trains in Fiction' sounds like an excellent occasional topic for the channel!
My nomination for the most transformative train celluloid train journey ever is that made by Johnny Depp's character in Jarmusch's Dead Man.
I love this! I'd like to add to your list of movies with trains: Strangers on a Train. A classic Hitchcock film that starts and ends on a train.
Oh! And two classics with Glen Ford - 3:10 to Yuma and Of Human Desire.
I always wondered why the Americans use 7½" gauge for their 1:8 scale trains. In the UK and pretty much the rest of the world it's 7¼". There are a number of 'behind the scenes" videos of Asteroid City on RUclips and they show the versatility of the gauge when used as a movie prop (and in the hands of gifted professional modelmakers).
It's because there was a typo when the hobby was brought across the pond, the gauge was supposedly written as "7. 5" and the 2 was omitted for some reason, perhaps low ink? Anyways, this looks more like ¼ scale to me but that's beside the point haha.
Nice to see you being articulate about your love for model trains.
I like the idea of trains in film sometimes symbolising a transition between worlds. I vaguely recall there was some old-timey British film where everyone on the train turns out to be dead? (Of course they can't have been going to hell though, because if you're going to hell you're going on a replacement bus service.)
The livery on the F-units was a very good fictionalization of the real-life Denver & Rio Grand Western (D&RGW) passenger livery of the era. i.e. That scheme wouldn't have been used on a freight train's engines. But, since it's a fictional railroad, it's not really an issue.
Interesting. The other day, I saw a video about miniatures in film-making, and it included this film and this train as well. It turns out that some thing simply don't work with models (fire, water, etc, because it doesn't scale), but that models still have a place in modern cinematography.
This one: ruclips.net/video/Xj65jTCq1Rs/видео.html
I knew it was worth staying up late!
Well worth a visit and thanks for taking us along for the ride
A nice change of pace, Jago. I find you have to be mentally prepared for a Wes Anderson movie. It is real surrealism. You just sense that something is just off. The coloring, the quirks of the characters. It taxes your thought processes.
As you say, the detail and weathering is absolutely superb. I find a lot of modellers sometimes take things too far- tanks in particular. I prefer a more subtle approach, such as shown here.
seeing how he uses Stop motion for all his animated characters, like the Road Runner is really adorable
That is a really cool point of view on an American movie from a foreign national. Being French Canadian, I sometimes have a similar point of view of American culture. Americans often disagree with my interpretation of their culture because they are to ingrained in it. A sort of not being able to see the forest from the trees type of thing.
My memory got shook up,so add another train movie! The Great Race,with Tony Curtis,as there is a sequence with a D&RGW narrow Guage train,and of course,Jago's other love- antique cars! Very funny and enjoyable movie 🎬! Thanks Jago,for another jaunt into esoteric realms!! Thank you 😇 😊!
A "trains in films" that could be worth doing is the Tube scene from Darkest Hour. I understand the interior of the tube train was a modified 1959 DM at Mangapps as the e LT Museum 1938 stock was unavailable.
Trains in films - and since there are only three types of film, Stranger comes into town, Man goes on a Journey and surreal, a train as a character fits neatly into the first two with little to no effort.
For surreal then the movement between carriages would lend itself to that style although I can't immediately think of an example.. But the one film I can think of that encompasses all three themes and a train is 'Dougal and the Blue Cat' (Eric Thompson version)
Yeah you should do a "Jago Hazzard's top 10 train movies" video. I'm sure it would engender lots of good (hopefully not too heated) discussion of what constitutes a train movie and what the top ones are.
About the warhead on the open train car - One thing I think it does, at least for me and other viewers, is it takes us back to a time when some of us had a similar (probably Lionel) toy train, and their models of missiles and other space/military rockets are incredibly memorable. So in several ways, the train helps us identify a time period for the movie.
I'm not hugely into films but the two appearances of trains in films which immediately spring to mind for me are the train scenes in James Bond, and the train crash in The Fugitive.
Of course there are underground train scenes in quite a few films as well, including in Bond and The Fugitive. It's a good place for a chase, though catching or missing the tube train is also the main theme to the film Sliding Doors.
I'm gonna nail my film-nerd colours to the wall and nominate 'Monday Morning' by Otar Iosseliani - the train journey symbolises an extremely gentle transition between workaday mundanity and artistic self-fulfilment, but is no less moving for that. Sort of a Mike Leigh-meets-Jaques Tati vibe.
P.S Lucky I've got the day off today or I would have missed this!
In any story, it is necessary to get the character into the fantasy world. The problem with a lot of stories, is that once you have put the character into the fantasy world, then it is hard to get them out without a very expensive special effect. For example in, "The Wizard of Oz", they have to make it that Dorothy has dreamt it all to avoid the special effect of returning by balloon that is in the book. That's where the train comes in. It can be used to deliver the character to the fantasy word, and it can be used to take them back to reality. The writer of Babylon 5 describes, "moments of transition, and moments of revelation". A train ride demonstrates that time is space, and that space is time. Thanks for uploading.
This is presumably why both _Half-Life_ and _Half-Life 2_ also start with train rides.
"You have chosen, or been chosen, to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers..."
I reckon Gerry Anderson would have been the man to have made a film about Asteroid City and its (no doubt) supersonic monorail train service, which would go disastrously wrong...
Fascinating sidetrack Jago, with a wonderful model train.
I don't think we mind you branching out. You spin an excellent yarn.
Thanks for the heads up about the exhibition that ties in with the film, which I enjoyed for it's surreal take on America's atomic age.
As you appear genuinely disappointed that the miniature miniature train was not on display, but just the miniature model, however, if you wish to experience the miniature miniature then simply take several paces backward and take a good look. Hey presto, the miniature has just become the miniature miniature! 😊
Nice surprise on a Friday morning. Thinking about Andersons use of trains, the ones in fantastic Mr Fox are, well, fantastic.
By far, Wes Anderson's great ode to railways is with the film is "Come Together" (2016)... which is just a long Christmas commercial for H&M, and can be found on RUclips. It doesn't sound like much, but he accomplishes does more in four minutes than most directors do these days in an hour.
And if you DO want Freudian trains, I recommend Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" (1959). It brilliantly captures the late iconic 20th Century Limited (the New York Central's overnight sleeper express from NYC to Chicago) in its diesel halcyon days, just before its twilight years.
Strangers on a Train did some filming in my home town, which of course is another train movie.
There is also The Taking of Pelham 123 which is both a book and several movies. It has the added fun of being a subway train.
Tombstone is another “step off the train into a new life” movie.
Very interesting analysis! Trains definitely serve an important role in a lot of westerns as symbols of civilisation and progress, with all their positive and negative connotations - one that you didn't mention that springs to mind would be Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in the West', where the expanding rail network is central to the plot (and symbolism) of the story. I had the feeling Anderson was making use of that same sort of theme with the train in Asteroid City.
That said, of all modern film makers Wes Anderson would perhaps be the most likely to include a pretty old train for no other reason than because he likes how it looks!
I watched a YT video by an architect who deconstructed the sets from The Grand Budapest Hotel written and directed by Wes Anderson . Fascinating to see.
Can you post a link please?
@@AtheistOrphanSearch for....
Architect Breaks Down Details of Wes Anderson's “The Grand Budapest Hotel" | Architectural Digest
@@prudencepineapple9448 - Thank you 😊. Will do.
"Once Upon a Time in The West" starts with a train and the coolest gun fight, ever!
As a minor piece of US railroad trivia, the locomotives paint scheme is based on the one the Denver & Rio Grande Western used for their passenger locomotives.
You make a better film critic than many I have read!
Very interesting video Mr Hazzard.
Trains in films that come to my mind.
The (France) station scene at the beginnng of the film, real not models, in Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953). The unintelligible station announcements complete with howling feedback for the arrival of the holidaymakers train and the platform confusion caused. Classic comedy by Jaques Tatti. The scene is on RUclips. The other, once again featuring French railways featuring real old steam locos is that of the crash scene as the French resistance action in WW2 in the film “The Train” (1964) featuring Bert Lancaster. A sad end for the old wrecked locos. Both films are in monochrome. (This scene is on RUclips).
I do like films from other countries and UK too. Model trains, yes I have German N-gauge, British OO gauge and live (real) steam 1:19 16mm and 1:13.7 7/8 inch scales. These are my “Tales from The Tracks”
The great unanswered question: is that a static model or does the train actually move under its own power?
Interesting video as I'm sure the film will be.
In one of the many 'behind the scenes" videos of Asteroid City there is a brief close-up shot of one of the power trucks showing a chain and sprocket drive, so I think they would be capable of moving under their own power.
Amazing model my good friend Kelvin Hendry used make models for films back in the 1990s he's going to love this
More 'speciality' videos about trains in movies?, That is a great idea. You already summed up a number of films that feature trains, and we can all add to that list. Looking forward to the mix of trains, model trains and movies. [edited for typo]
Who would have thought it - a RUclips video that is far more enjoyable than the film it's about.
That locomotive is missing the pilot and plow, cutbars, and air brake hose in the front (not to be confused with the MU synchro hoses that are present).
That locomotive and her slave B unit are painted in the D&RGW livery (Denver & Rio Grande Western)
Santa Fe converted several F units into CF units and KCS still maintains and operates FP9 A-B units on their OCS train.
The freight cars trucks are correct with the sleeve journal bearings though most cars of this era would also have pole pockets.
Westworld Season 1 makes big use of a train to transistion people.
The Box of Delights often springs to mind when I think of trains - as do Agatha Christie and Quadrophenia. Should really get round to properly organizing my thoughts someday, all a bit of a jumble.
Agatha Christie's 5:50 From Paddington (hope I got the time correct there) began with a rather disturbing scenario on a train.
"Bad Day at Black Rock" is also another great use of a train to introduce the main character
Perhaps a trip to Carnforth Railway Station, kind of on the WCML, is needed to explore the making of Brief Encounter? There is an interesting railway heritage museum on the platform together with a quaint pub. West Coast sidings are also there for their charter trains, they occasionally have open days which perhaps would make a trip from the south more worthwhile.
Those EMD "Covered Wagons" models are beautiful! The A-Unit should have a wrap around skirting below the coupler and pneumatic lines and possibly a cattle catcher. I enjoy practical effects and believe that add more realism to a scene than CGI. There is more of a physical reality compared to CGI.
Nothing says the 1950s more than an EMD F7A+B consist in Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad's "Aspen Gold with Four Pinstripes" livery.
Yep, train rides as introduction are a classic, but I'm thinking of the two Half-Life games where in the first one it is the Black Mesa Lab monorail and in the second the player arriving by train in the station of the eastern European looking city 17. Very movieesque. This is a very nice model train. Why do the hopper cars have "gravel" written on them? Looked up the movie and I should probably watch it.
“You can’t wake up if you don’t go to sleep”
I really enjoyed asteroid city 👍
I'd absolutely love a reoccurring segment on trains in fiction. In particular the Netflix version of Snowpiercer.