Trains on "The Good Wife"

superheater · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:54 pm **Posts:** 2605

This is about a TV show, not a tolerant spouse.

The premise of the show is an attorney returning to the practice of law when her high-powered politico husband gets caught with his pants down and convicted of law-breaking and is sent to prison. That's your first clue; Spitzer, Sanford and company walk around free.

Tonight's show was a premise that a fictitious trainwreck. The RR supposedly caused the wreck buy overworking the employees (like there's no hours of service laws) but the law firm couldn't prove it. (no duty rosters; no recorded radio transmissions, or other readily available evidence of time on duty) but in a trip to "Cross National Freight"'s shop the intrepid attorney discusses the effect of the "load regulator sensor" or LRS and its effect on the "pressure sensor".

Seriously, people make enormous big bucks for dreamin' this stuff up.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:51 pm

Betcha can't wait for that movie about a runaway train they've been filming with Denzel Washington in central Pennsylvania for the past month...............

superheater · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:54 pm **Posts:** 2605

I can, even if its better than "The Atomic Train". I still think if I'm paying for it, I should get a piece of the action.

How much you wanna make a bet at some point the train separates and both sections remain blissfully ignorant of the operation of them new fangled brakes with the emergency application.

Frisco1522 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:26 pm

Brakes? Is that something new? Every train I've ever seen in the movies just blows the horn or whistle if something is in the way, never a brake application.

PaulWWoodring · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:03 am

The movie being filmed in Ohio is based on the CSX runaway out of Toledo about 7-8 years ago, with SD40-2 #8888, now affectionately known by crews as "Crazy 8's", or "Lil' Runaway". I'm sure they're going to really mess things up with some nonsensical mechanical stuff.

I still think the best movie done with a runaway train in it has to be Silver Streak. Even then, they didn't get at least one major thing right - when Gene Wilder cut the front of the train away from the cars they were in, the whole thing should have gone into emergency. Of course, then we wouldn't have had the spectacular crash scene, based on the "Federal Express" wreck at Washington Union Station in 1953.

Ray Reter · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:10 am

Do you remember that made-for-TV movie many years ago where a "ski train" loses its brakes and has to be "caught" by a new, more powerful locomotive before it runs off the track at the station? I think the fictitious railroad was "Sierra Pacific."

Randy Gustafson · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2009 8:25 am

We've had buzz even right around here in NW PA with the movie support crew getting interviewed in the local paper.

I'm still not sure if this is using the Ohio incident, the Keating Summit runaway, or a fictitious blend of the two. All I can confirm is that they are out in the PA woods, reportedly on the WNYP for some of it.

Either one could actually make a good drama without having to resort to inflated BS on the technology side. I have my fingers crossed that the railroads actually involved for filming will have the ability to provide some 'consultancy services' for accuracy.

It would be nice to just pooh-pooh the entire movie scenario. actually, but the truth is that they even have two rather spectacular runaways, both involving either hazmat or the potential of hazmat release, to work with as raw meat here.

Well, when they are done with this they can resume production of a movie made on mid-air collisions with birds that shut down multiple-engine planes and force water landings inside metro areas. That happens every day, too.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:50 am

The following website I discovered last week (via Instapundit) explains just how sci-fi TV has long been written, and I believe it also applies just about equally to anything having to do with railroading and movies/TV:

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-st ... _trek.html

Quote:

At his recent keynote speech at the New York Television Festival, former Star Trek writer and creator of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica Ron Moore revealed the secret formula to writing for Trek.

He described how the writers would just insert "tech" into the scripts whenever they needed to resolve a story or plot line, then they'd have consultants fill in the appropriate words (aka technobabble) later.

"It became the solution to so many plot lines and so many stories," Moore said. "It was so mechanical that we had science consultants who would just come up with the words for us and we'd just write 'tech' in the script. You know, Picard would say 'Commander La Forge, tech the tech to the warp drive.' I'm serious. If you look at those scripts, you'll see that."

Moore then went on to describe how a typical script might read before the science consultants did their thing:

La Forge: "Captain, the tech is overteching."

Picard: "Well, route the auxiliary tech to the tech, Mr. La Forge."

La Forge: "No, Captain. Captain, I've tried to tech the tech, and it won't work."

Picard: "Well, then we're doomed."

"And then Data pops up and says, 'Captain, there is a theory that if you tech the other tech ... '" Moore said. "It's a rhythm and it's a structure, and the words are meaningless. It's not about anything except just sort of going through this dance of how they tech their way out of it."

Alternately, as written by my sci-fi engineering friend:

Quote:

“Try teching the tech through the other tech”…
“I have tried re-teching the tech through several techs.”
“Have you tried unteching that tech and cross-teching with this tech?”
“I have tried teching every teching thing I know to tech…”
“Try again”.
“I did. It doesn’t teching work”…
“What kind of teching engineer are you, anyway?”
“Tech you.”
“Tech off.”

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:14 pm

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

Betcha can't wait for that movie about a runaway train they've been filming with Denzel Washington in central Pennsylvania for the past month...............

Supposedly they're actually getting it pretty right. I think the only obvious issue I've heard of is that they have an SD40-2 with multiple brake wheels.

I know someone doing some consulting on it, and he's said they've actually done a pretty good job.

Oh, other than this... http://thecrhs.org/CRHSForums?c=showthr ... eadID=1427

robertmacdowell · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:04 pm

"Teching the tech" - Ron Moore was trying to say "And Galactica won't be like that." And it's not. Damn, that was good TV.

I've pretty much given up on technical accuracy in filmed entertainment about trains. "Good safety systems" and "opportunities for drama" are incompatible by design. Professional TV writers are not railroad geeks; and even if they were, they're just not willing to work that hard to create drama. Though I must say I was VERY impressed with the remake of "The taking of Pelham 123".

Stephen Hussar · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:21 pm

Some interesting paint schemes... http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=295947

The working title is "Unstoppable" and stars Chris Pine (of new Star Trek fame) and Denzel Washington...and is being directed by Tony Scott -who also directed the remake of The Taking of Pelham 123...

The premise of the movie is centered around an unmanned runaway train carrying a cargo of chemicals. An engineer and conductor are chasing the train in a separate locomotive, trying to stop it before it derails...

Stephen

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

Stephen Hussar wrote:

Some interesting paint schemes... http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=295947

The working title is "Unstoppable" and stars Chris Pine (of new Star Trek fame) and Denzel Washington...and is being directed by Tony Scott -who also directed the remake of The Taking of Pelham 123...

The premise of the movie is centered around an unmanned runaway train carrying a cargo of chemicals. An engineer and conductor are chasing the train in a separate locomotive, trying to stop it before it derails...

Stephen

Stephen -

Didn't they already do this movie? Wasn't it called "The Great Locomotive Chase?"

Les

YeOldeEnjine · **Joined:** Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:31 pm **Posts:** 329

http://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/For ... hp?t=14601

This link has lots of photos concerning the derailment scene from the new movie...

Tim W.

Howard P. · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:19 pm

Would the same writers attempt a script about an airliner that discussed "hamsters in cages" or "rubber bands" or "bad spark plugs" as a reason that plane's engine(s) died???

Obviously, the average TV watcher cares/knows little or nothing about ANY thing technical, and certainly nothing about railroads, except for this sort of tripe.

Perhaps something the AAR could address with the entertainment industry, kind of like how "smoking is no longer cool" in films? It does impact the public perception of the industry. Yes, I know, it's not "preservation"....

Howard P.

PaulWWoodring · **Posted:** Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:09 pm

Ray Reter wrote:

Do you remember that made-for-TV movie many years ago where a "ski train" loses its brakes and has to be "caught" by a new, more powerful locomotive before it runs off the track at the station? I think the fictitious railroad was "Sierra Pacific."

That's one of the movies I was thinking about when I wrote my original comment. I can't remember the name of it, but it was (I think) an ABC Movie of the Week from 1973, starring Martin Milner of Adam-12. I think the engineer of the runaway train was Ben Johnson. I believe it was filmed on the Rio Grande, and the big, new more powerful locomotive that chased it down and saved the day was a SD-40. Really stupid, stupid movie. Even I at 16 could tell that much.