Doug Bailey of www.steamlocomotive.info told me about this message board when I inquired about this.

I've discovered the Wynoochee River wreck site Washington, where to make a long story short a movie company blew up an old logging bridge and locomotive in 1960. I visited the site and verified and indeed both rail cars and locomotive still exist and are at the bottom of the ravine. The locomotive is submerged in the river, but still barely visible.

What I'm trying to find is any pictures of this locomotive when it was actively in service. Or at least a picture of a similier type locomotive that I can put on my website. I'm also trying to track down any information I possibly can about it, such as what type it is, when it was built, etc.

All I know is that it was owned by Georgia-Pacific and used for their Siletz, Oregon logging operations until it was used for the movie in 1960. It was apparently a 2-6-2T (Baldwin maybe?) and was numbered no. 9.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. Also, does anyone know where I can track down a copy of the movie that it used to film, "Ring of Fire" opened in 1960.

Here's a link to my write up of the whole trip that involved exploring the wreck site:

http://www.brian894x4.com/SimpsonTimberRailroad.html

To jump right to the page where I photographed the wreck site, go here:

http://www.brian894x4.com/SimpsonTimber ... part3.html

Thanks,

Brian McCamish
Gresham, Oregon
brianmccamish@msn.com

My Abandoned Railroad Mainpage
brianmccamish@msn.com

Brian, excellent site -thanks for posting.

It doesn't appear that "Ring of Fire" was ever released on home video. Any copies floating around out there were likely taped on a home VCR during the occasional television broadcast of the movie. The Internet Movie Database shows the film was distributed by MGM, and not much more. Looks like a good one though!

Undoubtedly other RyPN posters know more details surrounding the trains used in the film.



http://www.brian894x4.com/SimpsonTimberRailroadpart3.html

SJHussar@aol.com

The locomotive was available from Georgia Pacific, and steam locomotives had not yet become "antiques". The tender was borrowed from another locomotive and was supposed to be saved as the explosions went off. A Caterpillar tractor was attached to it with instructions to pull the tender back off the trestle as soon as the action began. Evidently, that didn't happen. When the collapse took place the saddle tank was literally torn off the locomotive and fell seperately into the drink. The two coaches were ex-Southern Pacific, and purchased specifically for destruction. At the time of the movie they were still painted in Espee colors, but the name painted out. This is my recollection. Trains Mag. had a short panel sequence showing the moments we are talking about.
The movie was a turkey, as the poster shown in another reponse testifies to. It was made simply to use the poularity of June Cater Cash's song, "Ring of Fire", as rendered by her husband, Johnny Cash. The plot is basically a Forest Service guy falls in love with a buxom girl whose family is ignorant of the dangerous fire dangers in the area, and when the fire comes, everybody on the train must be evacuated, but the fire is too fast and the trestle burns, and the train falls, and the Forest guy is a hero that is begrudgingly acknowledged, and he gets the girl, and the town apologises, and nobody will ever be that stupid again, and golly! There. You just saved yourself a rental fee.
Off and on, there have been groups talking about salvaging the loco, but as you point out, the site is way remote, and 50 years of rumbling water, highly oxygenated water to boot, has it's effects.


glueck@maine.edu

> Doug Bailey of www.steamlocomotive.info told
> me about this message board when I inquired
> about this.

> I've discovered the Wynoochee River wreck
> site Washington, where to make a long story
> short a movie company blew up an old logging
> bridge and locomotive in 1960. I visited the
> site and verified and indeed both rail cars
> and locomotive still exist and are at the
> bottom of the ravine. The locomotive is
> submerged in the river, but still barely
> visible.

> What I'm trying to find is any pictures of
> this locomotive when it was actively in
> service. Or at least a picture of a similier
> type locomotive that I can put on my
> website. I'm also trying to track down any
> information I possibly can about it, such as
> what type it is, when it was built, etc.

> All I know is that it was owned by
> Georgia-Pacific and used for their Siletz,
> Oregon logging operations until it was used
> for the movie in 1960. It was apparently a
> 2-6-2T (Baldwin maybe?) and was numbered no.
> 9.

> Any information would be greatly
> appreciated. Also, does anyone know where I
> can track down a copy of the movie that it
> used to film, "Ring of Fire"
> opened in 1960.

> Here's a link to my write up of the whole
> trip that involved exploring the wreck site:

>
> http://www.brian894x4.com/SimpsonTimberRailroad.html

> To jump right to the page where I
> photographed the wreck site, go here:

>
> http://www.brian894x4.com/SimpsonTimber ... part3.html

> Thanks,

> Brian McCamish
> Gresham, Oregon
> brianmccamish@msn.com


TerryGookin@aol.com

Brian, Excellent report and photos on the Wynoochee Trestle Wreck Site. I also visited the site in the late Fall and would like to return for a better look in the Summer during lower river levels. I was there alone on a rainy late afternoon and it was a very steep , slippery climb that I was not properly prepared for. I was able to get a good look at the remains of the equipment and will verify that it is all still there but strongly advise anyone anxious to visit the site to do so during warm dry weather and go well prepared with not less than two people , some rope , hiking boots, and other appropriate climbing equipment. This is NOT a trip for the faint of heart. This is a thrilling find since there are so many lost in the woods locomotive stories but this one is really there. You will find some more photographs of engine #9 in use as an Oregon logging engine and builder`s info in the book "Steam Towards The Sunset" by Lloyd Palmer and also a couple of pictures of the engine next to the burning sawmill at Vernonia in the book "The Oregon-American Lumber Company" by Kamholz, Blain, and Kamholz.

TerryGookin@aol.com

Great site! I would imagine Simpson left the bridges in place partly for the possibility of logging the area again someday.
mw

> I've discovered the Wynoochee River wreck
> site Washington, where to make a long story
> short a movie company blew up an old logging
> bridge and locomotive in 1960. I visited the
> site and verified and indeed both rail cars
> and locomotive still exist and are at the
> bottom of the ravine. The locomotive is
> submerged in the river, but still barely
> visible.

> What I'm trying to find is any pictures of
> this locomotive when it was actively in
> service. Or at least a picture of a similier
> type locomotive that I can put on my
> website. I'm also trying to track down any
> information I possibly can about it, such as
> what type it is, when it was built, etc.

> All I know is that it was owned by
> Georgia-Pacific and used for their Siletz,
> Oregon logging operations until it was used
> for the movie in 1960. It was apparently a
> 2-6-2T (Baldwin maybe?) and was numbered no.
> 9.

> Any information would be greatly
> appreciated. Also, does anyone know where I
> can track down a copy of the movie that it
> used to film, "Ring of Fire"
> opened in 1960.

> Here's a link to my write up of the whole
> trip that involved exploring the wreck site:

>
> http://www.brian894x4.com/SimpsonTimberRailroad.html

> To jump right to the page where I
> photographed the wreck site, go here:

>
> http://www.brian894x4.com/SimpsonTimber ... part3.html

> Thanks,

> Brian McCamish
> Gresham, Oregon
> brianmccamish@msn.com


p_michael_warren@yahoo.com

Great website! A very minor point, but there were two songs with the title Ring of Fire. The first, about 1960-61 was an instrumental by Duane Eddy. The Johnny Cash vocal version (completely different from the other) came out a couple of years later. I never saw the movie, so don't know if either version was used in it.

ryarger@rypn.org

Locomotive was Georgia Pacific #9, and it was a 2-6-2T, which was a fairly common type of locomotive in logging railroad service. The #9 operated in regular service until 1959, when the railroad was closed and the locomotive was sold to MGM for use in the film.

There is a picture of the locomotive with an empty log train on page 239 of Railroads in the Woods by John Labbe and Vernon Goe, currently available from Oso Publishing (www.osorail.com).

At the time of the filming the Long-Bell (ex-Oregon American) sawmill in Vernonia, OR had just closed, and a portion of the sawmill was burned as part of the movie. As mentioned, there is a photo in the very recent Oregon American-Ain't No More book that shows the movie train sitting next to the burning sawmill.

Lastly, get ahold of a copy of Logging to the Salt Chuck by Pete Replinger and John Labbe...complete history of the Simpson Timber Railroad and it's predecessors up until 1989, when the book was published. The book is also still available through Oso. There is a one or two page spread towards the back of the book that shows the movie train sitting on top of the trestle, and another shot taken right after the trestle blew up (you can barely see the wrecked train through all the jumbled wood).

Hope this helps.

JD Moore
Elko, NV

jamoore@elko.net

Although some movies could be considered "train wrecks" themselves, I'm wondering if Ring of Fire was the LAST time in movie history when an actual train was sent into a canyon, having had its trestle blown out from under it. Movie special effects were coming of age in the 60's (i.e. 2001:A Space Odyssey) and the public's acceptance of them as being 'reasonably realistc' blossomed as well.



SJHussar@aol.com

I was just thinking about that- There was "Silver Streak", in which an F-7 cab was sent hurtling through a restaurant window; "Tough Guys", in which what appeared to be #4449 is sent plowing through a dirt mound (turned out to be a damn nice mockup!); and a awful thing about a virus on a train, starring Richard Harris and Sophia Lauren, which featured two really bad Rivarossi H-O gauge Alco RS-2's and plastic coaches hurtling off a trestle (all this in Europe). "Back to the Future 3", used a mockup of a heavily altered Sierra #3 in a similar ending. There have to be others. I'm sure some European steamers have met their ends in similar manners as in "Ring of Fire". There could very well be other silent movie wreck artifacts out there, at least in some parts. I think the key is how cheaply the movie was made, or how low-tech the effects were at the time of the picture's shooting. Somebody could get a doctoral degree on this investigation.

glueck@maine.edu

On the subject of locomotives wrecked in movie work, I have seen numerous reports that the locomotive that was wrecked in the filming of Buster Keaton's The General is still in the stream bed where it came to rest after a trestle was pulled out from underneath it in the climax of that movie. Location was up the Rowe River east of Cottage Grove, OR on the Oregon Pacific & Eastern.

JD Moore
Elko, NV

jamoore@elko.net

> ... I'm sure some European steamers
> have met their ends in similar manners as in
> "Ring of Fire". There could very
> well be other silent movie wreck artifacts
> out there, at least in some parts. I think
> the key is how cheaply the movie was made,
> or how low-tech the effects were at the time
> of the picture's shooting. Somebody could
> get a doctoral degree on this investigation.

It is my understanding that when the movie "The Train" was filmed, some obsolete SNCF steam locomotives were destroyed for the movie.

It was about a trainload of artwork trying to escape from the advancing Germans. I understand some of the other scenes in it were pretty realistic as well; though I have not seen it for myself.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a


Surviving World Steam Project
james@survivingworldsteam.com

> It is my understanding that when the movie
> "The Train" was filmed, some
> obsolete SNCF steam locomotives were
> destroyed for the movie...

The producers of "The Train" managed to damage or destroy quite a bit of French railway property in the film, including a couple of locos. One scene where a derailed train plows along the ground toward the camera pit is already scary on film, and more so when you realize that the camera was manned, not remotely controlled! =8-0

It's well worth renting.

tr2manz@frontiernet.net

In "Silver Streak" a mockup of a CPR FP-7 crashed thru the Cara Shop in Toronto Union Station (actually a studio in Burbank) Movie was filmed on CPR in the Okanogan Valley BC using "Canadian" equipment. No trains were harmed in the making of the movie.

A number of movies that involve the real destruction of equipment occurred as a generation of RR equipment was being retired and the movie people could buy it for scrap, crash it, then scrap it (or leave it there if it was cheaper)

Wasn't Denver and Rio Grande filmed just as D&RGW was retiring the 2-8-0's?

Electric City Trolley Museum Association

> It is my understanding that when the movie
> "The Train" was filmed, some
> obsolete SNCF steam locomotives were
> destroyed for the movie.

> It was about a trainload of artwork trying
> to escape from the advancing Germans. I
> understand some of the other scenes in it
> were pretty realistic as well; though I have
> not seen it for myself.

> -James Hefner
> Hebrews 10:20a

An absolute classic movie. A MUST SEE if you haven't. I bought a copy a couple of years ago and watch it more often than any other video I have. Not only are the railroad scenes terrific but the plot is believable and it is action packed from beginning to end.

G

greg@nospamskittercreek.com