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Re: Movie Madness



Tom Berry wrote:

> Concerning railroads: Some years back there was a made-for-TV adventure called
> "Runaway." Based very loosely on the real-life skiers' train from Denver to
> Rocky Mountain resorts, it depicted a trainload of skiers running away on the
> grade down the mountain.
>
> The train was pulled by two locomotives, which is standard practice. One of the
> crew had to go back from the cab of the lead locomotive to get to the train.
> Instead of simply opening the front door on the cab of the second locomotive and
> walking through to the back door, the movie people had him swing precariously
> hand-over-hand from the handrails outside the cab, feet dangling above the rails
> and backside narrowly missing the rocks protruding from the cliff beside the
> track. Any railroader must have had hysterics at the scene. Besides that, the
> whole premise behind the runaway itself was utterly implausible.

Yes, the producers should have talked to a railroader about the operation of air
brakes.  But there are plenty of unintended funnies when Hollywood rides the rails.
Like the whispered conversation in the steam locomotive in John Frankenheimer's *The
Train.*  Or various attempts over the years (*Night Passage*, *Butch Cassady & The
Sundance Kid*, etc.) to make the 1923 vintage locomotives on the D&RGW's Silverton
branch (today's Durango & Silverton) look like 1880's motive power comes across as a
low form of comedy for anyone familiar with locomotive design.  Oh, never mind - I
probably shouldn't get started on this track.

C. V. Mutschler
University Archivist
Eastern Washington University

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