The recent "Titfield Thunderbolt" thread was an inspiration to go looking up this rather noisy movie from the early 1950s, portraying the Royal Gorge War between the AT&SF and the D&RG:

http://www.youtube.com/user/UP4466#p/c/ ... Zft5DSVCVY

Have fun, but remember, this is Hollywood. . . :-)

And as an added feature, this short clip (all I could find) from "Fools Parade," made in 1970, and starring James Stewart, George Kennedy, Anne Baxter, and Southern 4501 as a B&O Q-3--and she had a pretty whistle in the film. . .

http://www.youtube.com/user/StatesEdgeF ... PhVpUaDJ0Y

I saw Paul Merriman and Walter Dove listed in the credits. Walter had a way with the 4501's whistle. She looked good in plain old black.
Wonder if this is on DVD?

Denver & Rio Grande (the movie) is available on Amazon in VHS format only, a quick check reveals.

Another absolute classic is DeMille's Union Pacific, which is available in VHS only. It is on DVD but as part of a collection of Demille's movies.

Both should be separate DVDs as both IMHO are classics, regardless of the hokum and liberties taken by the producers and screen writers.

Thanks!

Did they really destroy those trains for the crash scenes, or was it done with props?

Thank you, Jim Vaitkanus, for liking what you see.

Frisco 1522, I think Merriman and Dove got credit lines because they had small speaking roles; as I recall, one of them made a comment about a switching move, and the other replied, "All right," or something to that effect (I haven't seen the movie in over 35 years). Not a whole lot, but that makes the difference in screen credits, and pay as an "actor" versus as an "extra."

Alas, RCD, the wreck was real, and enhanced with dynamite! The engines were due for retirement (this was in the 1950s), and steam was still quite plentiful; no one was thinking of us almost 60 years later. . .

I couldn't find anything from the movie, but I did find the trailer to "Whispering Smith," based on a novel and character by the classic rail fiction writer, Frank Spearman. The late David P. Morgan didn't care too much for this movie when it first came out; in a late-1940s edition of Trains (which I believe would have been well before he became an editor there, and would have been, maybe, 20 or 22), he complained of things like hokey wreck photography (staged by tilting the camera instead of derailing a model or a real locomotive, as was done in John Frankenhiemer's "The Train"). I recall it more gently, with a combination of late-40s moviemaking with some authentic touches of 19th century railroading (one of the things I remember is an operator's office with a rack in the background of telegraph batteries, which were large jugs of blue electrolite with a zinc "crow's foot" for one of the electrodes in the bottom).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb5zUDCFBG0

One movie Morgan did like, perhaps because it starred the Kalmbach Publishing Company's "home road," the Milwaukee, was "Danger Lights," from 1930. Again, I am not able to get a whole movie, only highlights and promotional items:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j1BWGK5 ... 0D&index=4

Sadly, I checked the "channel" site where this is from, and it seems the fellow who put this particualr item up passed away this past November.

From this same site comes this short highlight reel from "Broadway Limited." Some movie critics consider this to be inferior to "On the 20th Century Limited," but I have to say what I see here looks (and sounds!) fine; I wonder how many Pennsy fans can identify the locations, including the transfer from the Broadway's streamlined K4s to the beautiful 1223, which is still with us:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SwBlDsb ... re=related

Some more from "Broadway," from another site, but darn it, no complete film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQjGywcM ... re=related

Again, no complete film is available, and the best I could find was this dubbed (Italian?) clip from "Union Pacific:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTXZdcLvzLU&feature=fvw

From this same channel, a segment (more is available) from a 1946 (French?) film called "La Batalla de Riel," about resistance on the rail system in WW II in Britainy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2P7Vwc_MpY&translated=1

Another segment; there is nothing available in the way of translation or subtitles, but one can tell a good deal from the available action. Overall, might be an interesting movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUAi4aas ... re=related

We'll take a break for now, but I wonder what else might turn up here.