This is how the railways do the vaccum or at least in the Gare du Nord station.

More detailed photo over at Jef Poskanzer's Flickr page.

A bit too early for snow, but you know its coming...

This film was made by Geoffrey Jones for British Transport Films. "Jones was struck by several images of black steam trains churning down the tracks against a glaring white backdrop, and hit upon the idea of making a new, separate film contrasting the comfort of the passengers with the often Herculean efforts of the workmen to keep the trains going in hazardous conditions."

A quite impressive train scene from the movie Wanted.

I love movies but movies with trains are a special treat. Here is a list of my favourite train movies, in no particular order. All movies are available at Netflix, some at Hulu.

The Train
During World War II, the French Resistance tries to stop a Berlin-bound train filled with art treasures.

Von Ryan's Express
Prisoners-of-war seize a Nazi train that is transporting them from Italy to Austria and make a run for Switzerland.

Full movie available for free at Hulu.

The First Great Train Robbery
In Victorian England, a master criminal makes elaborate plans to steal a shipment of gold from a moving train.

Full movie available for free at Hulu.

Emperor of the North Pole
Hobos want to ride the train for free. A sadistical railway conductor swears that they will not ride his train for free.

El Ultimo Tren
Three old man, a little boy steal a steam locomotive, with help along the way, in order to prevent it from being shipped(sold) to the US.

--Could not find any trailer--

La Bataille du Rail
Black and white movie about French railroad workers who were part of organized resistance during the German WW2 occupation.


--Could not find any trailer--

The Titfield Thunderbolt
Railfans take over their village's passenger train service to try to compete with the bus service.

The Taking of Pelham One Two ThreeIn New York, armed men hijack a subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers.


Full movie available for free at Hulu.

Runaway Train
Two escaped convicts and a female railway worker are trapped on a train with no brakes.

World without thieves

Theives try to con a simpleton of his money on a train in China

The Great St. Trinian's Train RobberyTrain robbers try to recover two and a half million pounds hidden in St. Trinian's school.

View a clip from the movie.

Tickets
A train travels across Italy toward Rome, interacting with the lives of a professor, Albanian refugees, three Scottish soccer fans and a complaining widow.

Silver Streak
A man finds danger and romance on a long-distance train.

Narrow Margin
Cop escorts a murder witness on a train with hit men aboard.

The clip contains both the Silver Streak and Narrow Margin movies

This clip covers the journey from Brighton (Sussex UK) to Hove and return.

Its movie time. Paradise Express(1937) is an B&W movie about the bad trucking company trying to squeeze out a small railroad business. This movie is in the Public Domain.



[IMDB link]

The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway is Kent's mainline in miniature. First opened to traffic in July 1927 as the 'World's Smallest Public Railway' and now covering a distance of 13.5 miles from the picturesque Cinque Portof Hythe, near the channel tunnel, to the fisherman's cottages and lighthouses at Dungeness.

This excellent clip by Terry Fullwood, brilliantly narrated by Paul Clarke, captures the history and the charm of Captain Howey's Toy Train.

Head over to Hulu to watch legal and free (ad supported) high quality movies.

Click on the movie title or the movie to go directly to Hulu where you can watch 480p, full screen versions of these train movies.

Enjoy the Show!

The Great Train Robbery


Von Ryan's Express

Vimeo, is like youtube but offers HD quality video hosting. I found a channel for HD train videos. There are many train videos. Try the search for more train vids. Its best viewed in full screen. Can't believe the clarity when compared to youtube!

This is a teaser and my current favourite:
Janmabhoomi Express by Jay B

Funny Intercity advert...

Trains would be more efficient if they dont have to stop to drop off and pick up passengers. To solve this problem, Taiwanese inventor Peng Yu-Lun has introducted a new concept for a constantly moving train. It consists of a separate car atop a moving train that is dropped off and picked up at the stations. Check out the video to see this radical concept.

[via Boing-Boing]

This is actually an animation created by rvg1hwnd but i wish someday, railsim could reach this standard. Enjoy!

An old 1991 clip...

Tank cars must be relieved of all interior pressure by cooling the tank with water or by venting the tank by raising the safety valve or opening the dome vent at short intervals otherwise....

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Trainz team created a very detailed and authentic route from Sukna to Darjeeling. All the buildings, foliage and objects were modelled after the prototypes. The route is DEM-based and can be downloaded for free from DarjeelingTrainz.

Here, we catch a charter train as she struggles her way from Kurseong towards Darjeeling.

Most cab-view videos on YouTube are amateurish but this one about the TGV Atlantique, is the best cab view that i have seen so far. The clip is professionally done with tons of cabviews with some passing and overhead shots.

It follows the TGV engineer, steping into the cab, driving it from Bordeaux to Paris. It is in 6 parts, the clip below is to part 1. Narration is in French so could not understand what was being explained.

I recorded the Boston-bound Acela, the Regional and the MBTA Commuter all within 20 minutes of each other. Wished Acela would have sounded the horn though.

Finally its here! It took almost 3 years for the DHR team, from around the world, to recreate the Darjeeling route for trainz. It is around 45 miles long. The trainz version covers Panchanai to Darjeeling and it approx 4 hours long. The DHR team created all the content for this route. This includes the locos, passenger cars, houses, vehicles, people, trees, car beeping sounds and lots more. I spent half-an-hour and the number of custom content were astounding. Check out the screenshots to get an idea of the scope of this route. Congrats to the team!

The route is free and the total size is around 550MB broken into many zip files. You have to be a registered Trainz user to get the zip file password. Downloading and installing takes some time. Register at their forum to get detailed instructions and support.

Have fun while chugging up the Himalayas!

Great layout, good camera work and uplifting music.
[movie by scs0360]

I had purchased the EMD SD9 locomotive for Trainz, from Virtual Motive Division. The cab view, done by Josef Pav is exceptional, almost real!

I took it for a spin on the Desert Wood route from US Locomotive Works. The hoppers in the consist were from RRMods.

Having seen the Stella Artois Beer and the CSX commercial some months back, that involved trains, i looked around for more. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Stella Artois Beer



2. CSX commerical




3. CSX commerical



4. GE Locomotive



5. Virgin Train "Apache"



6. Virgin Train "Classic"
This one on youtube seems skewed so you
might want to try the quicktime version version.


7. DHL Courier



8. TGV


9. Global Warming


10. Orange Obox
Not a lot of trains in this one but happens in a subway and is funny.

Took the Black 5 steam locomotive for a run in the demo version of Kuju Rail Simulator.

I really liked the detailed graphics and the nice touches like passengers walking and birds flying. I also noticed the gentle wafting of clumps of grass in the breeze. I am a Auran's Trainz fan but, its nice to see some competition in this category. The more the merrier for us rail addicts.

Since i like European railways, i would have to purchase this version but trying to get it in US is expensive with the S&H. Kuju, however has announced the US version, which is available for pre order at Amazon.

I plan to bring my experiences and passion for trains through this site.

My scale of choice is HO. I like German steamers, British and US diesels.

Currently, I am virtual railroading using Trainz. Trainz is a dream come true for all those model railroaders who having been waiting for lotsa money, space and their spouse's permission to create their dream layout.