http://www.amctv.com/hell-on-wheels/vid ... -the-train

Interesting set/art direction, bit of a bummer that it's fabricated.

They can get away with more if its fabricated and they own it. The drivers are the first give away its fabricated though. Hollywood has a bad reputation for not taking care of things they rent or borrow. If you owned a period engine or coach, would you trust it to people who don't have same interest in it as you do? I'll still probably watch it though.

Oh wow, so that much-discussed replica NYC J-1 is going to be foam? There's some irony in that, just sayin'

It looks very impressive and realistic. Also, they appear to have some video shots of another locomotive that is real, a mogul. Source, anyone?

Not quite as fancy as the work for this series, but worthy of a return visit:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31253&p=157333&hilit=dutch+wagon#p157333

I later got to see this B&O reproduction, and it is interesting. Wooden rods, a boiler made from a tank of some sort, wheels that appeared to be cut of plywood (they didn't feel like metal), and the flanges simulated with rubber hose around the perimeter! Couldn't use it on tracks like the TV engine, but good enough for the parade-reenactment that it was built for.

I found the comments about "not finding an appropriate locomotive" interesting in light of the Baltimore & Ohio's No. 25 (the William Mason) being made operational for a movie, and used in at least one other one as well since the recent rebuilding at Strasburg.

Also of interest was the comment about having rods and wheels "fighting" each other; I can't help but wonder if the use of automotive axles resulted in wheels that turn independently on the axles, with resulting problems in quartering. Those guys should have talked to some real steam men!

I think it does look good, with correct proportions; it would take a real eagle-eyed steam man to spot those fabricated wheels on the screen. I do think the locomotive is too dirty and drab for the period! As recently discussed in the Park Trains thread, locomotives in that time were quite ornate and colorful, and were likely well cared for by their assigned crews, too--another reason the producers should have talked to some of the preservationists here.

Now, if only some of us, particularly one of us, particularly (cough) me, could get paid for this sort of thing. . .might take a bit of the sting out of not getting that TV series I tried to write on the air, the one I couldn't sell to save my soul. . .

Now, we still have a minor mystery mentioned by Softwerks Lex (is that how that name should really look?), and that is the 2-6-0 that appears in some shots. Which engine is that?

If you owned a period engine or coach, would you trust it to people who don't have same interest in it as you do?

No, but who would ever turn it over to anyone ever (other than to another highly experienced steam crew perhaps)? You or your crew would run it as the movie crew directs.

I wonder why they didn't hire Leviathan.

Steve

Art department: "mind if we paint it black?"

For the time period they are representing, (just after the Civil War, late 1860's) its not supposed to be black..very colorful locomotives were the norm up into the late 1800's..
for the 1860's and 1870's, they were very colorful..

actually its quite unfortunate (to me) that they chose to paint it (mostly) black..
that is quite historically inaccurate!
In their research, they must have seen the replica locomotives at the Golden Spike National Historic Site, those locomotives are painted in accurate period colors:

http://www.nps.gov/gosp/photosmultimedi ... allery.htm

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 37&nseq=17

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 18&nseq=20

They gave it *some* color..but overall its still far too dull and drab for the time period..
Perhaps the producers of the "Hell on Wheels" show felt an accurately colorful locomotive for their show might not be "gritty" enough or something..thats too bad,
another unnecessary re-write of history..getting it wrong on purpose.

Scot

I find it interesting that the majority of replies on this topic come up around the time the season premiere of "The Walking Dead" was airing.

I'm surprised that they didn't use a computer to insert the train in any scene they wanted. However they may have felt that having talent react to physical presence of the train was important.

A plywood Baltimore PCC car replica that operated on rubber tires was used in a movie to put a car onto several streets where cars were long gone. I believe the Baltimore Streetcar Museum has it now.

In San Francisco cable car tracks were painted onto several streets for a movie. Then a motorized cable car was driven on these tracks.

Guilty.

I have seen a couple of movies featuring the painted SF cable track trick. I have also seen shots with a motor-cable on the real tracks. I can tell the difference, but my wife can not.

Some of the footage does look to be computer generated.



And preservationists sometimes forget how to protecting their interests. Railroad coordinators/train wranglers exist for this reason alone. Contractual obligations to return equipment to their prior states after production has saved many hides.

Not any more. The movie was Barry Levinson's "Avalon", and as I was told, the "replica" barely had enough construction quality and horsepower to survive the filming. The parts that were used were reclaimed, but the replica itself is no more. (Now, oddly, there's another PCC derelict body on the property that some Hollywood outfit would probably be welcome to buy, repaint and wreck........)

The technique apparently isn't too new; thanks to dinwitty for sharing this on the NYC 3001 thread:

http://talesofthejerseyshore.blogspot.c ... magic.html

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kTgwdZwhJew/S ... Engine.jpg

NYC Hudson, here we come. . .