I'm doing a Movie Train Wrecks and Crashes series on Youtube. The videos will be reworked with about 5-8 wrecks per video with information regarding how the wreck was staged and other various information spread throughout the videos.

Episode 1: This one is slightly rough as I was trying to figure out how to rework the format and features Disaster on the Coastliner, Breakheart Pass, Broken Arrow, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, and Back to the Future III.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PCtAgmiqqA

Episode 2: This one came out much smoother and has alot more information to go along with the examples. Features Under Siege 2, The Bullet Train, The Train Killer, Horror Express, The General, and The Lone Ranger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBFqdrcaOYg

Hopefully I can get one of these out once a week or biweekly.

Just saw this one not too long ago, and it has a "train crash" in it, at the very end (about 6:30):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw-gozxocWU

As to what to expect, the movie is "Fancy Pants," from 1950, and stars Bob Hope and Lucille Ball.

I'll let the rest comment on how this one was done, and the change in railroads from Santa Fe to Southern Pacific!

I have posted Episode 3 of the series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YIyGEM0yG0

Features:
"The Train"
"The Fugitive"
"Atomic Train"
"Hannibal Brooks"
"Hugo"
"The Greatest Show on Earth"

Editing went alot better on this one and flows much smoother than the first two.

Very early Steam engine crash filmed on the Pittsburgh and Susquehanna railroad, better known as the "Alley Popper" railroad near Philipsburg, PA
Staged wreck was for the film Valley of the Lost Hope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-SV46oJR8o

From what I've read, the wreck sequence (and other rail sequences in "The Greatest Show on Earth") were done with live steam models from Little Engines in California; scale was 1 inch to the foot, which would make for a track gauge of about 4 3/4 inches, and an overall locomotive height of 15 inches or so.

In my opinion, these scenes somehow look better than the computer generated stuff that's so often used today.

Lionel models were used in a couple of low, low, really low budget monster movies from the 1950s. These included "The Giant Gila Monster" (Lionel Baldwin switcher) and "The Black Scorpion" (Lionel 2-6-2, wreck supposedly set in Mexico).

Another really low budget film was "The Giant Claw," about some huge bird from space that, among other things, attacks a train pulled by a Model Die Casting-Roundhouse 0-6-0 in HO scale. One of the things that's really crazy is that the movie people apparently used Mantua hook and loop couplers; the bird hauls the train away like a string of sausages!

Newest episode in the series.

Movie Train Wrecks and Crashes Episode 4: MONSTERS ATTACK!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THZz6O31e9g

Episode 5 in the series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWTVeXCLhO0

Features Runaway Train, The Last Passenger, Snowpiercer, and Death Train (2006)

Episode 6 in the series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k04bVGUscWw

Features the runaway train and crash sequences from Murder in the Private Car and Silver Streak.

Hi,

1) I always liked the the Amroad crash in Silver Streak (1976) with Gene Wilder and Richasrd Pryor.

2) How about the crash of one of two models for the Supertrain TV series (1979). That fabulous TV show that was Love Boat on Rails that lasted only (9) episodes?

http://popist.com/s/534fb12/

http://nbc_supertrain.tripod.com/id27.html

Doug vV

Episode 7 of the series is now up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imtKVrRhzgI

Features:
"Tycoon" with John Wayne
"Tough Guys" with SP 4449
"Train of Events"
"Duck, You Sucker" aka "A Fistful of Dynamite"
"The Cassandra Crossing"

New Episode

Movie Train Wrecks and Crashes: Cartoon Special
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KwCaZD-hLU

Exactly what it says on the tin.

Episode 9 now available:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Er498P7YE

Oh, Mr. Porter!
The Burning Train
Unstoppable
Ring of Fire
The Train
Bridge Over the River Kwai