This has got to be the most exciting railroad film ever made. The combination of real and model trains,, plus wonderful studio work, mesh beautifully. It's a real thrill ride. But if you're a rail fan, you see gigantic holes that the makers had to gloss over. As mentioned by another reviewer, yes, the deadman found in every locomotive would have prevented any of this from happening. The engineer must be sitting with his foot on a a switch before the engine can be started, and if he takes his foot off while running, the train goes into emergency braking. This is not only the application of brakes but the motors act like a car downshifting (dynamic braking) to further slow it. To make matters worse, the whole train ride could have been prevented if the stowaways had simply uncoupled the last locomotive. Sure the first 3 would need to be derailed, but at no loss of life. Finally, I had an odd feeling that I wasn't watching real trains. Reading the information on IMDb showed I was right. The details were faked to make the Montana and Alaska trains match up. All of this only slightly detracted from my enjoyment of the film.
However, I found all of the characters and their actions not only unbelievable but trite. Compared to the original version of The Taking of Pelham 123 it had the quality of a high school production. Eight stars for the action alone.
However, I found all of the characters and their actions not only unbelievable but trite. Compared to the original version of The Taking of Pelham 123 it had the quality of a high school production. Eight stars for the action alone.
