Hey Pittsburgh people - is this real???

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by Freericks

Believe it or not, I never saw Atomic Train (even though I worked there at the time... sort of pathetic... I know).

Don't worry, you didn't miss much. Typical Saturday night, 3am USA Network movie, if you know what I mean.

[BurghMan]

Originally Posted by JimThias

Don't worry, you didn't miss much. Typical Saturday night, 3am USA Network movie, if you know what I mean.

Yeah. You gotta love the low water in the caboose sight glass that led to the runaway!

[MDH]

Originally Posted by Freericks

No, not Atomic Train (I was actually in the TV Movie department at NBC when Atomic Train was made, although it wasn't my project, it belonged to my colleague). This was a movie from back when I was a kid. I remember watching it with my brother. The air date would be more like 1974 or 1975 and it involved them catching a runaway train with another locomotive.

I'll look it up when I get home (I'm out of town this week), unless someone else here on the list happens to have the Merrill book on 1970s TV movies.

Could it be this?

Runaway!

To quote one of the "user comments": "Ben Johnson drives the train and shows absolutely no cause for concern that his train, carry 200+ passengers, is about to leave the rails at Jackson City and cause massive carnage. A completely unrealistic movie albeit with some good scenery. As satisfying as an episode of Love Boat."

Never saw it - but now I want to...

[Joe the Photog]

Originally Posted by Freericks

Believe it or not, I never saw Atomic Train (even though I worked there at the time... sort of pathetic... I know).

You're actually the one that's not pathetic. Those of us who saw it are the ones that need counseling.

[Freericks]

Runaway could be it. I was too young to know if it was any good,

As to Atomic Train, I used to hang out at the Burbank train station at lunch back then during my NBC days. One day when that project came up in a meeting someone worried that the movie would do poorly because there were no more trains in the USA (maybe tht's an exageration but it was something like that). When I pointed out that there was an active train station a mile from where we wwre sitting half the people in the room didn't believe me.

[rathman11]

Originally Posted by Freericks

No, not Atomic Train (I was actually in the TV Movie department at NBC when Atomic Train was made, although it wasn't my project, it belonged to my colleague). This was a movie from back when I was a kid. I remember watching it with my brother. The air date would be more like 1974 or 1975 and it involved them catching a runaway train with another locomotive.

I'll look it up when I get home (I'm out of town this week), unless someone else here on the list happens to have the Merrill book on 1970s TV movies.

Definitely before my time then!

[Gracie057]

It was good shot and i think its real one!! It was near to shed i think!! By the way, have you heard of MiNeeds.com? It really simplifies finding affordable photographers. I used it to find them for my wedding. Essentially, after I described what I needed on this site, I received several competitive bids from local photographers. I liked the fact that I didn’t have to call around and negotiate with each, and that photographers actually came to me.

Pittsburgh Photographers & Photography - Get Bids & Save | MiNeeds

[jdirelan87]

Originally Posted by Gracie057

It was good shot and i think its real one!! It was near to shed i think!! By the way, have you heard of MiNeeds.com? It really simplifies finding affordable photographers. I used it to find them for my wedding. Essentially, after I described what I needed on this site, I received several competitive bids from local photographers. I liked the fact that I didn’t have to call around and negotiate with each, and that photographers actually came to me.

Pittsburgh Photographers & Photography - Get Bids & Save | MiNeeds

Two questions;

1. Should we be honored that the RP forums have become big enough to warrant regular spam?

2. Do the people who write these spam programs really think they fool people into thinking its not spam, or do they just don't care enough to actually try?

[Freericks]

When I got to the sentence, "Have you heard of My Needs (forget the dot com part), I thought I was listening to an ex girlfriend and stopped reading any further...

[Kelly Lynch]

Originally Posted by Freericks

No one at 20th Century Fox cares about someone seeing the paint scheme on a prop (which is what the engines are). It's not a significant part of the movie to them (not like seeing ET before the movie came out).

That being said, with all of these folks who are in the know posting cryptic notes about not being able to talk about it, I'm guessing that someone involved in the production did tell them that they had to stay quiet, and that person was someone involved with the locomotives themelves (not sure who or why) but probably someone who had a hand in prepping them for the shoot. And, taking that one step further, they likely didn't want to see their newly painted engines posted on line.

Actually, "props" (in this case, locomotives) are property of the studio Those props are assets, and photography of an asset you try to sell to the public via imagery is deeply frowned upon by studios. This is why many (if not all sets) are closed sets. You don't photograph sets, props, actors, anything -- after all, that's what the movie IS. In this case, the "props" are (physically) high-profile and not as easy to obscure, but often times studios will go to great lengths to obscure or render fuzzy imagery of its assets to protect the integrity of their production. It doesn't matter how big or how small the asset is, and you especially can't say whether or not it's not a significant part of the film.

When the 261 appeared in Public Enemies, it was a closed set and even when filming wasn't taking place, security was on hand to dispel photographers and curious cats. This didn't prevent some more intrepid photographers from capturing some cool stuff, but this is indeed the standard for sets anywhere, train movie or not, even if you're part of the production. In some cases, if you're allowed to photograph things its contingent with a dated NDA that allows you to dispel whatever you get after a certain point (usually after the release date, unless you're press and have some sort of happy exclusive before release.)

Sure, no harm in a "railfan" shot, but ask anyone in the industry and they'll say it's definitely a frowner.

[Freericks]

I have taken countless photographs on sets and never once signed an NDO or been told to stop. Of course, being a studio exec, I guess I got a free pass, but that being said, these engines were not on set. If they were concerned, they would have been tarped.

You're actually not wrong Kelly, but most of what you state is moot to this situation, due to the fact that these props were not protected at the time of the photograph.

[Kelly Lynch]

In my sophomoric experience, that's been negligible. Props of this size have been known to have been "covered" or masked in some way during transport, too. But then we wouldn't get the nifty paint scheme to look at

All it takes is someone who goes and sells a photograph of the subject to a magazine or elsewhere; whether it's on set or not doesn't always mean a claim to property or some disgruntled murmurs cannot be made. Heck, I've been in plain ol' wardrobe departments where you're not even allowed to remember what the garments on the rack look like.

[Freericks]

My experience isn't sophmoric, although a little removed, so maybe I didn't know what was going on at the prop and wardrobe level.

But honestly, I've been on 70 sets, easily, in my life, and I've walked around with an SLR around my neck on at least half of them, without a single person saying boo to me about it.

[JRMDC]

Hmm, a Kelly/Charles cinema-insider smackdown!

Jim. where's that popcorn? Where's MJ?

[Freericks]

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY... wait, that's trucks, right, not Smackdown.

[Kelly Lynch]

Originally Posted by Freericks

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY... wait, that's trucks, right, not Smackdown.

And it's only Wednesday!

I'm not disparaging your experience -- only mine. Maybe you look like you know what you're doing more than me -- which is highly probable these days.

[Freericks]

Originally Posted by Kelly Lynch

And it's only Wednesday!

I'm not disparaging your experience -- only mine. Maybe you look like you know what you're doing more than me -- which is highly probable these days.

I don't think we're having a Smackdown at all. I was only kidding because of J's post. I'm not disparaging your experience either. Just saying my experience has been different.

[Kelly Lynch]

Janusz is just hungry for blooooooood.

[ottergoose]

Perhaps you two could duke it out on stage at CRPA this spring?

[Freericks]

I haven't duked it out with anyone since the 11th grade.

[John Ryan]

I'd pay to see that.