Model trains in movies/TV series

[TimTheTrainMan]

Here's the ones I can think of....
Movies:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Addams Family (I don't remember if it was in the first, sequel or both.)

TV:
The Sopranos
One of the gangsters gets into the hobby for a few episodes. And then he gets whacked in a hobby store and wrecks the train layout as he's going down! I believe that episode is titled "The Blue Comet" named after the model train.
The Addams Family

Any others?

[shaygetz]

There's the movie "Arthur" with Dudley Moore. I believe it ran around his bathtub.

[tjcruiser]

"Night at the Museum" movie.

[gc53dfgc]

"Thomas the Tank Engine" Movie and TV

/\
l
Really how could you guys not remember that one.

[tjcruiser]

GC,

We're talking model trains here, right? I don't recall that in Unstoppable, etc.

Cheers,

TJ

[gc53dfgc]

well I got the Thomas the Trains right at least.:p

what Unstopable movie are you talking about thats not in my above post. :p

[jbmombasa]

Rails & Ties with Kevin Bacon and a whole lot of melodrama

[RGC]

Mister Rogers neighborhood.

[TimTheTrainMan]

Mister Rogers neighborhood.
Technically it was a trolly but I'll take it since I love Mr. Rogers.

[cabledawg]

Back to the Future III. Doc Brown has one (very crudely built though) running on his table for thier plan to go back to the future.

[big ed]

Captain Kangaroo

The Captain ran a compact Lionel "O" Gauge layout with two levels, like those built by Lionel for dealer displays.
On one occasion, a 736 2-8-4 speed-ed off a curve on a trestle set.

"Oh!" the Captain exclaimed, "We have a wreck!":D

No one remembers that?

[big ed]

In 1947 In a movie titled, Christmas Eve, American Flyer trains deliver food on the dining room table.

I can thank my old (young) lady for that one. She loves old TV movies.
Thats her hobby.:D

[big ed]

Dante's Inferno 1935

Used a Lionel standard gauge steam toy train.

[big ed]

The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951, used a Lionel steam locomotive.

[big ed]

Four's A Crowd, 1938

You can thank the old (young) lady again.
I searched for this info,


Walter Connolly, portraying an eccentric millionaire, runs a "large garden railroad" illustrated on page 4 of the 1938 Lionel catalog. A Lionel scale New York Central Hudson (700E; introduced in 1937) races Lionel's first scale model, a 17:64 replica of UP streamliner M-10000 (introduced in 1934). Warner Brothers teams Errol Flynn and Olivia deHavilland, but here they seem immature. Flynn comes across as crude and pushy. DeHavilland is annoying and childish, more like a teenager than an adult. Phone calls take a lot of screen time. Lionel never mentions this movie again, not even in its MODEL RAILROADING series of Bantam paperback books (PS). (04/17/2010)

[big ed]

While searching for the last one I found this,

The Dukes of Hazard ( Danger on the Hazard express.)


Opening scenes focus on a small Lionel layout. A 681 steam turbine is pulling a freight train. Abruptly a pickup truck shoots forward and knocks a boxcar on its side at a grade crossing. Boss Hogg explains to Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltraine ("Coal Train," perhaps?) that he is planning to use a remote-control pickup truck to loot a train of $2,000,000. A real train, diesel-powered, rolls by twice. First, Bo and Luke Duke inadvertently drive up and foil the robbery. Second, the General Lee, with Bo at the wheel and Luke disabling the robbers and the remote control, jumps over the boxcar. The layout serves as a plot device when the Duke boys discover it and deduce Boss Hogg's nefarious plan. They operate the layout with a black box that is a cross between a transformer and a TMCC controller. (09/06/2007)

[big ed]

Sweet Music, 1935 A classic :D

Used a Steamer & a O scale passenger train.

[big ed]

I found this in my search travels,

Superman Returns, 2006

Huge wooden doors in the Vanderworth mansion open to reveal a first-rate layout of Marklin HO and G (or no. 1) gauge trains. An iconic Santa Fe F-unit "warbonnet" pulls 3 white boxcars lettered "Marklin" across the screen, combining nostalgia and product placement. Sadly, the whole layout is pushed to pieces after Lex Luthor drops a piece of Kryptonian crystal stolen from Superman's Fortress of Solitude into a lake of real water. One quick shot shows a girl standing by a 50's car with its hood up and a wad of cotton to simulate steam or smoke. This description may seem silly, but that little scene conveys drama and character. (08/04/2006)

[big ed]

Found this too,

So You Want To Build A Model Rail Road. 1955

I never saw this one.

This black-and-white entry in the Joe McDoakes series from Warner Brothers is a hilarious take on all-consuming passion for toy trains. Lionel "O" Gauge trains gradually fill the McDoakes' home. The ending alone is worth the price of admission. This short played in the TCA Museum at Strasburg for years. One day, a woman in the audience kept saying to herself, "How true." Joe McDoakes is played by George O'Hanlon, also credited as writer. He also wrote for the TV show Petticoat Junction in 1963. He is best known as the voice of George Jetson. (05/09/2005)

Want more?:D

[tjcruiser]

Captain Kangaroo! I watched that endlessly as a kid. LOOONGGG ago. I'm not sure I remember the Lionel train, though. I wish I did.

TJ

[TONOFFUN80]

Ed you snowed in again???

you seem just a wibit board

[sentinal77]

That 70's Show has an episode with model trains. Red was playing with them and I think that they're Lionel.

[crosstie]

i remember the addams family tv show, gomez had a layout and had train wrecks alot

[Komodo]

TV show: ALF Episode night train: there is a o gauge layout in the garage. djlnCZsj-J8

[tjcruiser]

Good one, Komodo !!!!

HAAAAA!!!! (As Alf would say!)

TJ

[Komodo]

Good one, Komodo !!!!

HAAAAA!!!! (As Alf would say!)

TJ

thanks, I kill me. :P

[big ed]

Ed you snowed in again???

you seem just a wibit board



There are more, I thought I would give someone else a chance.:D

[T-Man]

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7180&stc=1&d=1296829710

Da Da Da Dum Snap Snap

[gc53dfgc]

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7180&stc=1&d=1296829710

Da Da Da Dum Snap Snap

I seem to recall it being a straight brig not curved where he crashed the trains.

[crosstie]

heres one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMxJtMoTnx8 you gotta love it :D

[gc53dfgc]

I knew it! it is a straight bridge.

[BrooklynBound718]

The television show, "Silver Spoons" sometimes showed a train riding through the living room of the home.

[TimTheTrainMan]

How can I forget this one?
Wallace and Gromet
"The Wrong Trousers."
Check it out for THE BEST chase scene anywhere in film. Seriously, the best.
(Hint: It features a model train.)

[TimTheTrainMan]

heres one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMxJtMoTnx8 you gotta love it :D
Thank you for that. That's awesome!
And at :25 I can see the girder bridge with the Lionel name just like I have.
And it's using trestles. I was wondering if I could do that with my bridge.
Now I know!

[TONOFFUN80]

NCIS not really a layout but dr. mallard has a model of the mallard
sitting on a shelf in the morgue

[sstlaure]

TV show: ALF Episode night train: there is a o gauge layout in the garage. djlnCZsj-J8

I loved ALF....I wish they'd put re-runs on TV.

[CNW 1518]

I loved ALF....I wish they'd put re-runs on TV.

That would be a major win

[NIMT]

X-Men Origins Wolverine
The guy with the mind powers has a train in his trailer.

[MacDaddy55]

Captain Kangaroo

The Captain ran a compact Lionel "O" Gauge layout with two levels, like those built by Lionel for dealer displays.
On one occasion, a 736 2-8-4 speed-ed off a curve on a trestle set.

"Oh!" the Captain exclaimed, "We have a wreck!":D

No one remembers that?

Sorry ed...I don't remember that particular accident....but man did I ever get excited when the Capt. would pull out the train table and Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit would don the Engineer attire, which set up a Mr. Moose Knock-Knock joke and all those pingpong ball!!:laugh::laugh::thumbsup:

[MacDaddy55]

i remember the addams family tv show, gomez had a layout and had train wrecks alot

Yes Crosstie and Gomez always got a bang out of it.......what destruction!!!:eek:
The updated Addams Family with The late Raul Julia is hilarious....Mortia,OH NO..Pugsly..Fathers playing with his trains.....The the covered bridge.....He's got the Diesel.....dead mans curve!!! God give me a SIGN!!! Its on You Tube!!!

[concretepumper]

Just watched Clockers the other day. A Spike Lee film about an Inner city kid who loves trains but never been on one. Pretty cool flick!

[crosstie]

back to the future #3 has a model train set up to demo how they were going to get back to 1985. you know the steam engine is pushing the delorean to ( when this baby hits 88 miles an hour your going to see some serious shi%#@#*&.

[tjcruiser]

back to the future #3 has a model train set up to demo how they were going to get back to 1985. you know the steam engine is pushing the delorean to ( when this baby hits 88 miles an hour your going to see some serious shi%#@#*&.

LOOK HERE ... !!!

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=2219

TJ

[big ed]

I don't know if this was listed already but it had some nice old trains in it.

This one I watched with the old (young) lady. Thanks to her. And I did not fall asleep like I do with most of her movies.:laugh:

It had Love and trains what more for a perfect family movie.:D

In it was the,

Old 97 is based on the J-Class 2-8-2 steam locomotives that used to run on the New Haven Railroad (http://wiki.ask.com/New_Haven_Railroad?qsrc=3044). Old 97 was a common nickname for steam locomotives that had the number 97 on them.

10047

[kursplat]

what about Thunderbirds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbirds_(TV_series))? they had a lot of model trains that make the Aero Train look tame

[tjcruiser]

Good one! I had fogotten about the Thunderbird puppets show ... from WAY back!

TJ

[joe7034]

I really don't know if this one counts, but on the RFD network, they run a show called
"I Love Toy Trains" it show cases Lionel train layouts. They also run a show called
"Trains and Locomotives" but they are real trains.

Joe

[tjcruiser]

I've rented the I Love Toy Trains videos for my kids ... good fun. We had some discussion of RFD here:

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=3684

TJ

[sstlaure]

My kids have the I Love Toy Trains box set....it entertains them quite nicely when we're driving long distances.

[crosstie]

LOOK HERE ... !!!

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=2219

TJ thanks for showing me that, awesome :thumbsup::D

[MacDaddy55]

For those O scale enthusiasts this movie will just thrill you. Cary Grant and Jean Crane in "People Will Talk"....about half way through the film she goes to a department store and buys a BUTT LOAD of Lionel Trains and then The boys start playing with them...at break neck speed! Old black and white but just a hoot...besides the trains!! Its on HULU or Crackle I can't remember!:rolleyes:

[log0008]

model trains are often of colectable shows!

[tyconator]

Superman Returns has a layout in it. The bad guy does anyways. One very supberd and wikcedly bada** layout!

[tyconator]

Also, on a episode of Tom and Jerry, Jerry writes a comedic book and Tom ties ol' Jerry up to his train track of his trainset and plans to run him over 'til the cananry drops a bowling ball on Tom's train!

[joe7034]

I'm watching a rerun of Dexter from 2009 the getaway, Dexter has John lithgow taped to a table with an O-27 Lionel steam engine around the kill table. Great stuff
Joe

[tjcruiser]

It was a rainy, nasty day here in RI today. I was stuck inside the house with the kids. We passed the time watching a few fun DVD's.

Had a blast watching Wallace & Gromit in the The Wrong Trousers ... fun model train chase scene, shown here, but with somebody else's poor-quality dubbed sound. My kids like the part at 2:30 where Gromit grabs a box of extra track, and starts laying down new line while he's whizzing along!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rk1s-aGHO8

And, to cap off our day of intellectual advancement, we also watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ... great fun there. Check out the "breakfast machine" train starting at 1:45 in this vid. I've gotta get me one of those!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVtuIiOWNVc (again, with dubbed voices)

TJ

[MacDaddy55]

Hey TJ....I'll bet you were humming"Oh,You,Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" to yourself at work today....what a good dad!!:thumbsup: Speaking of fun movies...rent the "Iron Giant"...great fun there!:thumbsup: Especially the Train Wreck!

[tjcruiser]

Oh, yeah ... I'm a humming away ... "Truly Scrumptious ... you're truly, truly scrumptious!"

I happened to read that the real (and fully functional) prototype car used for the movie sold at auction recently. A gent in England had if for 20+ years, and sold it so someone in the US ... around $850k or so ... not quite the $2M they were hoping it would bring. Down market and all ...

"Iron Giant" ... duly noted. :thumbsup:

Cheers,

TJ

[sstlaure]

I second Iron Giant. Excellent movie.

[trainguru]

Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and I remember one episode of 'The King of Queens," where the layout burst in flames! :O - That poor Lionel PRR Steam Turbine, or as it's known as in the episode, "The Boston Bullet,"... Rest in Peace.

[tjcruiser]

I remember one episode of 'The King of Queens," where the layout burst in flames!

Excellent one!!! Jump into video around 7:00 ... flames :eek: around 9:00

5-qq9E7Mr6A

(It's amazing what one can find in a few seconds on YouTube!)

TJ

[trainguru]

Actualy, very depressing!

[kursplat]

my daughter had the first Adams Family on yesterday. great footage of the first blown bridge and train crash...fantastic and sad all at once
:)

[trainguru]

There's also an episode of Arthur, called George and the Missing Puzzle Peice, where there is an asperger syndrome child named Carl, who's narrow focus is trains. Asperger Children, are a common and key part of the future of model railroading. God bless Marc Brown and PBS, for giving autistic children, model railroaders, and railfans, a pop culture voice!

[Reckers]

I wonder why it's always a Lionel train that gets blown up or torched. Does Hollywood have it in for O-gauge?:p

[trainguru]

I know right, for once, I would like to see a live steam model, like a 7 and 1/2" model blow up, and they all head for the hills, in a pump car, vs. speeder chase, with the cops on the pump car!!! Then, the 5:15 bound for Baltimore, comes barreling down the track, and they all get tossed into a haystack, then the guys that blew up the model on accident, escape, while the cops are digging through the hay,trying to find them (it's a big hay stack), and walk of into the sunset. It would need to be a b&w silent to make any sence though, but it would be funny!

[MacDaddy55]

I know this doesn't count...but I'm watching "the Train" on Hulu right now and still after all these years can't get enough of this movie! Especially Burt lancaster at the Yard, Burt working on one of the drivers in the machine shop....and even better Burt at the controls of his repaired engine out running a Spitfire thats stafing he and his crew as they race for Reive Rive to deliver the engine to the Nazis(the tunnel scene is terrificly intense!! My vote for Best Train movie EVER!!:thumbsup::D

[tjcruiser]

I was flipping around on the tube tonight, and happened to catch an episode of Cash and Cari on HGTV ... "Cari" is someone who runs estate sales for people, looking for antiques/treasures along the way. On tonight's episode, the seller's home featured a large collection of Lionel O trains ... postwar, some prewar, etc. Nothing mindboggling, but it was nice to see some dedicated air time given to model trains.

And then ...

HGTV rolled into another Cash and Cari episode ... this one featured an old American Flyer / Gilbert (I think) large-scale (standard gauge???) loco ... needed some t.l.c., but sold for $320.

TJ

[trainguru]

I saw that last night, that woman always has trains! I think she should just start a train layout. Does she even have kids of her own, because if she does... Need I say more?!

[trainguru]

Everybody that get's BBC America on their Cable or Satelite, watch Top Gear! There going to build "Autotrains" out of cars and camper trailers!!! :D And you should also see the Top Gear: Race to the North. They had Tornado, the largest new steam locomotive built to date, in the preservation era!!! :D:p

[kursplat]

just watched Rio Lobo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Lobo) last night. the script's not that great, but some good train stuff at the begining

[THE TYCO MAN]

Just read an Blondie comic today. heres the link:

http://www.blondie.com/strip.php?month=9&year=2011&comic=2011-9-16

[trainguru]

That is EPIC! But what's wrong with 7 dining cars??? In my home town, we had a great dinner train, but then the freeway got in the way, and now it's up for grabs in the eastern part of the state now! I bought 2 dining cars at a train show this year, Rivarossi, HW, NYC & B&O, so what's wrong with that? Meanwhile, could there be copyright infringment with the "Lionel" name? - :p

:thumbsup::D:thumbsup:
"Ayeeeee!" says the Fonz

[tjcruiser]

Just read an Blondie comic today. heres the link:http://www.blondie.com/strip.php

LOVE IT! I hadn't seen that in the paper yet today. Thanks for sharing!

TJ

[big ed]

LOVE IT! I hadn't seen that in the paper yet today. Thanks for sharing!

TJ


I don't get it?:confused:

I see no trains in the Blondie cartoon.:confused:

What am I missing?

[tjcruiser]

Ed -- the Blondie link changes daily. Here's the link to the strip from that specific day:

http://www.blondie.com/strip.php?month=9&year=2011&comic=2011-9-16

I'll edit the link above, too.

[kursplat]

Ed -- the Blondie link changes daily. Here's the link to the strip from that specific day:

http://www.blondie.com/strip.php?month=9&year=2011&comic=2011-9-16

I'll edit the link above, too.
:laugh: i'll take "threads that need expiration dates" for $100 alex

[THE TYCO MAN]

Just watched the TV show The Big bang theory and Sheldon's friend/room mate suddenly likes trains! So, he goes to an lecture on how HO is way better and he likes O! Then he comes home gripin' how the HO guys are backless people and bring home a HO starter set. Then towards the end, he gets into N!

[xrunner]

Then towards the end, he gets into N!


:appl:

[tjcruiser]

Saw that Bang episode ... good fun. Quite the pitch for Bachmann, huh?

[shaygetz]

Watched the Wild, Wild West episode "The Night of the Deadly Bed"...in it the bad guy is explaining how his train destroyer is going to work, using an impressively sized working model mockup that looks to be S scale. I half expected him to turn to West and say, "Please excuse the crudity of this model, I didn't have time to build it to scale or to paint it.":laugh::thumbsup:

[rrbill]

One of the old b/w Sherlock Holmes movies takes place mostly on a Brit passenger train. The night shots of the train going by are obviously of a lighted model train; it is going too fast and its movements are jerky. It is shown a good bit in the wee hours.
The movie Silver Streak is shown from time to time on television. It features a real passenger train with a fictional road name. It has very funny parts and the end features a pretty spectacular train wreck involving the lead diesel locomotives remodeling a train station.

[Kwikster]

Just trolling around and hit this thread. I loved everything posted here. Toss up on my fav being Gomez blowing up a bridge (saw that happen many, many times) and King of Queens train fire, hilarious!!!!!!!!!!

Did anyone notice Gomez used a ZW transformer?

Carl

[big ed]

Just trolling around and hit this thread. I loved everything posted here. Toss up on my fav being Gomez blowing up a bridge (saw that happen many, many times) and King of Queens train fire, hilarious!!!!!!!!!!

Did anyone notice Gomez used a ZW transformer?

Carl

I read something somewhere that they went through a lot of Lionel recording the scenes.
Nothing but the best for Gomez.:D

[THE TYCO MAN]

Watched Captain America last night. Has a train scene in it where they capture a nazi scientist. Not a model train, but, still have to share!

[stevetil]

Wilford Brimley had a nice little model railroad
in the 1980s TV show Our House.
Pretty cool show that.
But haven't seen it on in ages.