I just watched the 1956 film The Great Locomotive Chase. I know that the line that the movie was filmed on is gone and I wonder could the movie be made again today? I do know that those Civil War replicas are built and can do the job but are they any locations where the movie can be filmed?

I want to know your thoughts?

The movie was filmed around 1956 on the Tallulah Falls Ry. A 1954 Official Guide shows it ran 57.2 miles from Cornelia GA to Franklin NC and was in receivership at the time. It connected with the Southern Ry. at Cornelia. I understand it was selected because it could stand in for the 1862 Western and Atlantic (now CSX). Curiously, the next listing in that 1954 Guide was the Atlantic and Western Ry Co. of Sanford NC.

B&O 26, William Mason, played W&A 3, General, and at the time 26 burned wood and did not have air brakes, meaning it had to be run as if it were 1862. V&T 22, Inyo, played Texas and did have air (you can see the air pump covered on the running board) and B&O 13, Lafayette, (replica of an 1837 Norris 4-2-0) played Yonah and also did not have air.

So what you need is an Eastern mountain railroad in condition to look like a Main Line of 1862. The three engines above are all still around. That said, it might make more sense to use Steam into History's line with their 4-4-0 and a guest 4-4-0 such as Leviathan. That area's more farm than mountain and there's a trail. An interesting thought.

Phil Mulligan

William Mason, I've heard, isn't going to be steamed up by the B&O museum anymore.
But the Kloke replica locomotives could easily stand in for the General and the Texas.
You can also do wonders with digital stuff these days.
But as for where you could film it, there are several branch lines in Northern Georgia and Tennessee where you could re-create the era in small spots. The line that TVRM uses for their excursions to Summerville GA from their depot in Chattanooga comes to mind. Plenty of places along that line with nothing modern in the background.
Also, there are countless Civil War re-enactors in the area you could ask to take part in, as well.

There's something very nostalgic about the old Disney version, albeit highly inaccurate to a great number of facts. Something rewritten to reflect accuracy might make a very entertaining film. As Lee said, with computers, almost anything is possible. And now that it's out for discussion, it's almost sounding like a challenge!
Bring it on, but make it historically accurate. No embellishments required.

I always thought about writing a Civil War film maybe I should write one about this. I do know getting this accurate is going to be tough. I would add a few political things to it like have Fuller and Andrews sit down on train before the event and have Fuller ask "I personally don't know what we're fighting for?". I would like you know that table scene where four of the raiders having dinner with the southerners I would have Campbell say "there are a lot of good people in the North. If you haven't been in the North so don't insult them got it". you know? I would add mild language PG13.

I guess If I made it I would have to use Steam into History's engines and I think I could get the Inyo to move from Nevada probably not. The William Mason would be tough. the problem is how to get rolling stock that still have link and pin cuplers and the same with the Engines?

P.S. I'm not a filmmaker I just know things

Well, cars aren't as complex as locomotives, I would think building replicas would be relatively easy and inexpensive. . .and note that I said "relatively!"

You might be interested that Walt Disney had a program on the making of this movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akc_bq8BIm4

I think that maybe I could use any 4-4-0 build a wooden cowcatcher, a lantern, and paint the cab and make it look like it's made of wood and put on a fake smokestack for modern ones. I can have a coal burner and have it run on wood. I could maybe get the William Mason and have it run on compressed air and add smoke machines. I think you could take the modern auto cupler out and put in the link and pin in its place. I could use some coaches from Strasburg Railroad have them painted into W&A colors and change the cuplers.

your thoughts

Yeh but you won't have Slim Pickens running the Texas, years before he piloted a B-52.

Phil M.

This just went from interesting to ridiculous. Kind of a pity.

Yeah, this is definitely in line with some of the other wild posts we've seen lately. I wonder what's up with this relatively sudden influx of what's probably younger people who haven't learned the difference between feasible and fantasy yet?

Also, does anyone know where the can of Foam-Off went? I thought I set it right over here...

look I know that this is getting ridiculous it was a simple post and it got out of hand. Hey I am talking within the ballpark that can be feasible. I watch behind the scenes of movies and how it's done.

Well, at worst--but perhaps the cheapest--you could go with prop locomotives and cars, as was done for "The Lone Ranger" and "Hell on Wheels." Sure, a lot of people here complained about rail inaccuracies, but what really counts is getting the story right, and the people in it. The lack of good story, and excessive costs, sank "The Lone Ranger."

That doesn't mean you want to have inaccuracies, but it does mean that they don't count too much in movies as long as you have a good script and actors and a director. Otherwise Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns, shot in Spain and using Spanish equipment for rail scenes, would have sunk.

Instead, Leone's direction and photography, performances by Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, and Gian Maria Volontè ("A Fist Full of Dollars," "For a Few Dollars More," and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly") and Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda, and Claudia Cardinale ("Once Upon A Time In The West"), all to musical scores by Ennio Morricone, mostly found good revenues and audiences, and are considered modern classics.

You won't want to copy Leone's directing style, but these clips, from the beginning of "Once Upon A Time In The West," are captivating in spite of the incorrect railroad in them.

Enjoy an almost silent film (little dialogue)--the lengthy title sequence, and its immediate aftermath, with Charles Bronson, Jack Elam, Woody Strode, and Al Mulock:

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/once ... -the-west/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTltxRGVJR4

What you're going to need to start with is a script. Someone has to write it.

Obviously, it has to be good.

If you're the one attempting to write it, you will want to read up on the process. There is a distinctive format for writing you need to follow, down to margins and type size and face.

Normally a script should be on the order of 90 to 100 pages long. That normally represents about 90 to 100 minutes of movie time. That's not an absolute requirement--the movie can be longer or shorter, sometimes to a considerable degree ("Once Upon A Time In The West" was 165 minutes, or two hours and 45 minutes, in its original form), but that's what most movies clock out to ("The Greatest Showman," a musical, is 105 minutes/one hour, 45 minutes).

Alternately, depending on whom you are selling the project to, you could make the movie longer still. That would suggest something in multiple parts--in other words, a television mini-series. Commercial television with its commercial breaks give you another challenge, but there are alternatives, such as subscription services like Netflix.

This is something that will DEMAND a huge effort from you, especially if you've never done this. It's going to take practice and time spent at a keyboard--a lot of that.

For myself, I found I could write about a page an hour. That's just typing. That didn't include going back and finding all the mistakes, or just being dissatisfied with how something came out and having to rewrite it. That's normal, things never turn our as you want to see them on the first try.

You will find the job is surprisingly exhausting. At best, when I was trying this, I could only work on it four hours per day. I later found I was in good company--that was the pace for Ernest Hemingway, who recharged with time spent with friends fishing, and drinking (too much!--don't copy that part!)

After you get that job done, you come to the really hard, difficult, frustrating, maddening part--selling this thing to somebody to produce it!! Unless you're doing this with friends as your cast who work for free, and with HO models for the trains and other things (and working all that into the project so it still, somehow, looks good), it's going to cost a bit of money--measured in millions of dollars!! That either means finding a studio or some other outlet to sell it to, or trying to raise the money to produce it yourself.

And then comes the actual production, if you're lucky, with the problems that come from having costumes made, of locations and sets, and all the labor that goes into it (a surprising amount of movie work is essentially house construction of sets, and furniture moving of all the props you use, and the lighting equipment, too)--and you have to pay for all of this.

And if you're working outdoors, you have weather to contend with, too, not to mention things like a noisy highway or a helicopter that shows up in a piece set in the 19th century. . .

Now, do you still think you are up to the job?

It would require good writers who stick to the historical story. It would require at the minimum, two reasonably accurate steam locomotives for the period. It would require political and romantic restraint. American history should not be toyed with and told inaccurately, as it hurts us as a nation. The Confederates won this battle, but lost the war. The Union raiders were not necessarily fueled by justice for slaves and unity of the nation. It could have changed the war; it didn't. It's a great story, whether you're a Yankee (I am) or a Reb.

It's not as big a story as "Titanic", but the star of that movie was really the ship, not the characters. So should this be.

THis needs to be done correctly, and not by amateur railfans.

If you're ever in the Chattanooga / Atlanta area you may be interested in seeing -

The Locomotive Texas in Atlanta.
The Locomotive General in Kennesaw Georgia
The W&A 1854 Calhoun GA depot.
- Just north of Calhoun the CSX still crosses the Oostanaula River next to the highway... this is the river crossing that was attempted to be set on fire.
The W&A 1852 Dalton GA depot, where the telegraph was sent to Chattanooga.
Tunnel Hill, GA, where the General passed through the Tunnel.
(The tunnel is part of museum, you can walk through it on a tour.)
The W&A 1849 Ringgold GA depot. Just beyond the depot, a stone marker along the current CSX tracks show where the Chase ended.
Chattanooga National Cemetery, where many of the Andrews Raiders are buried towards the front of the park in a semi-circle around a monument of the locomotive General.