Just saw the Lone Ranger movie and was sadly dissapointed. Basically another one of those movies where all the good parts are already included in the trailer because thats the only good parts there are. Other than the fact that it's just not that good a movie theres the fact that the railroad scenes are at best laughable.

For those of you that have heard about the tv trope "Just Train Wrong" this movie has it in spades. I know that historical accuracy is never a concern for these shorts of things but this thing was like watching a cartoon.

Some of the better nuggets are:

1. A boiler will appearently just keep producing steam while running under high speed/heavy load conditions without anybody stoking the fire or adding water for long periods of time.

2. Promentory Point (Summit) is now in Texas.

3. The Transcontinental Railroad was built by something called the "Transcontinental Railroad Company" who built it in both directions.

4. Bachmann was selling n-scale electric trains in 1865.

5. The joining of railroad at Promentory was attended by American 4-4-0 #60 the "Jupiter" and 1920's era 4-6-0 #148 the "Constitution".

6. General Custer attended the ceremony BTW.

7. The Jupiter could also haul 15+ loaded passenger coaches and out run a 4-6-0 with drivers twice as big pushing only 6 cars going UP GRADE.

8. Cars of the era had male/female receptical couplers. (Meaning cars can only be pointed one way)

9. 15-20% grades on a mainline are normal.

Thats what I can think of at the moment.

I haven't seen the movie (yet) but one from the previews was obvious to me...

Not only were rooftop chases common in those days (we already knew that, from all of the other westerns...) but apparently they sometimes involved people ON HORSEBACK!

Do they have special horseshoes for that? Also, is it hard on the coach roofs?

That's why we went to EPDM roof material. The canvas simply wouldn't hold up. The horses.

Howard P.
Hi-Yo Silverado, CT

Wonder if they used any left over "logs" from Back to the Future for fuel....

It was quite a kick to see the Back to the Future III "locomotive" on a recent visit to Universal Studios, Florida. Pretty neat contraption.

Whooee!! That one's a goodie!!

(Interestingly, I think Bachmann somehow traces its roots back as far as 1835. What they were like then, or what they made or sold or did, I have no idea.)

The producer was quoted somewhere (I didn't buy the magazine) that the railroad sequences burned up $115 million of the $215 million or more that he spent. If this movie tanks, or even just doesn't make the money it needs to make I wonder what it will mean for the producer, the director, and for the portrayal of railroads on film.

More thoughts--Westerns used to be low-budget pictures for the most part; I'm thinking right now of the films John Wayne did in the 1930s for "Lone Star Pictures," and also of the Gene Autrey-Roy Rogers singing cowboy flicks (which have their own period charms, believe it or not). The classic "Lone Ranger" TV series was also modest in cost.

It seems to me there should be some sort of middle ground for a good railroad themed film or series of films, somewhere between a shoestring like "The Station Agent" (estimated at $500,000) and the super-inflated material like "The Lone Ranger" ($215 million plus) and "Unstoppable" (about $100 million).

Hmm, what would an American variation of of "The Titfield Thunderbolt" run for a budget? Possible storyline--narrow gauge road in, say Colorado, is threatened with abandonment but becomes a tourist attraction in the 1950s. Wouldn't even have to be narrow gauge, could be a 4 1/2 mile weed patch in Pennsylvania, something like that. . .shouldn't have to spend too much on it. . .

I don't think it would mean anything, as I don't think anyone is saying the movie tanked due to the railroad content or lack of authenticity in the valve gear. In fact, the reviews I've read only mention the trains briefly in passing, if at all.

No, the movies problems aren't related to trains.



Gee, if you looked hard enough, maybe you could find a 4-1/2 mile long narrow gauge weed patch in Pennsylvania, give or take a mile, and one that could use some revenue too.

this is exactly the same reason I cant watch military movies or movies with UH-60 blackhawks in them. Like the movie "Salt" where the main characters are whispering in the back of the Blackhawk, Last time I checked I had to yell really loud to the person next to me that we were indeed landing in the next 60 seconds. Or the part where the female lead pulls the emergency door handle and the whole cargo door comes off...must be one of those "new" models Sikorsky came out with. And don't even get me started on "Olympus has fallen" or "Blackhawk down"

Well played, sir. Well played indeed.

Just saw it at the theater today. If you're able to get past the obvious errors, I must admit I enjoyed the film overall. The big thing about it mostly was how the Lone Ranger is easily ID'd by several people and he takes off the mask in the middle of the film. That seemed to bug me more than anything with the trains.
The funny thing was my wife and I went to Promontory in September, and even she mentioned how the movie really didn't represent the area where the last spike got put in...

In all fairness, that character (played by Barry Pepper, the same guy who played the left-handed sniper in Saving Private Ryan was a Captain, and they never said he was anything other than a random Cavalry Captain (with a look which was pretty popular in that timeframe).I hear you there. As a former US Army Captain and military historian, my wife enforces a 'cone of silence' when I'm watching any movie or TV show with her in the room. I can't watch shows like NCIS as anything resembling current US military anything is purely coincidental.

I haven't seen this one yet (and likely won't for other reasons, like no time or money or other things), but this flick was made by the same people who did the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. That series was a hoot to watch, but I don't think one would say it was of documentary accuracy, either!

Having said that, it still seems strange to me that we haven't had a really good railroad-themed film since, what, "Danger Lights" back in 1930? Or "Other Men's Women" in about the same time? Or maybe "Denver & Rio Grande" or "Carson City" from 1950? "The Train" from 1964? How come nobody ever made a film version of "One Way to Eldorodo?"

Do the Hollywood types really think that poorly of us?

Surfing the satellite last night and came across a film called "The Professionals".
Oddly, the menu listed it as a kung-fu flick with Hu Wang or some such "star"!
But it turned out to be a western with a heck of a cast including Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster! Quite a few steam rail scenes but not sure where they were taken?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE7MSE0bDe8

The railroad in that movie was actually relatively new--Kaiser Steel's Eagle Mountain line, built in the postwar era and always diesel-operated:

(Note: First link requires a second click on the film, for some reason doesn't go directly to the principle entry, may have something to do with the closure parenthesis being absent.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Profes ... (1966_film)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Mountain_Railroad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i13Xkq29uQ0

The locomotive is former Great Western No. 75, now on the Heber Valley. And am I the only one to notice that the freight equipment mostly looked appropriate in that clip, with equally appropriate arch bar and Andrews type trucks?

There were some nice rail scenes near the start of the film that caught my attention so I watched it through. Yes, they did a fairly good job of matching equipment for the time period, after the turn of the century. Not sure about Robert Ryan blacksmithing horseshoes in the firebox though :)
Thank you for the information J3a-614.

Judging by promos I have seen for The Lone Ranger flick on You Tube, it looks like they rehashed the Golden Spike stuff from Mild Mild Zest ... I mean Wild, Wild, West, to a degree.