Film (VERY BRIEF) of Canadaigua Depot and Brighton Bullet

In 1953, Ford Motor Company made a documentary film called "American Farmer", about a New York City young man going to Canandaigua to work on a farm outside Canandaigua (the Blazey farm, now Finger Lakes Racetrack). At the beginning and end of the film there are VERY brief clips of one of the NYC passenger trains pulling into the Cdga station. Not exactly great documentation but you might freeze-frame to see some detail. We saw this at a Cub Scout meeting in 1960! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-h_4zTxH00" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some footage at the end, too, at 26:20.

Looks like a GP7 rather than an Alco. I had heard they used "Geeps" on that job but assumed the guy was actually referring to RS2/RS3's. Looks like I was wrong.

Very cool footage, thanks for posting that link!

"Brighton Bullet"??? What was that? No luck on Google.

"Brighton Bullet" was the informal name for NYC's Rochester-Canandaigua passenger train. It is referenced in a couple of books.

1:23 and 26:20. Both scenes likely filmed at the same time..
New York Central EMD GP7 No. 5760.
NYC did have some steam-generator equipped GP7's for passenger service.

Scot

Typical for that era of film production, the sound was added later. No EMD 567 chant for that nice looking geep. Sounds more like an Alco 244.

With the various bike paths and RR rides I've taken, I always look for telegraph poles and see how many remain standing let alone have any wire still attached. At about 1:17 there is a few second view with 20 or 30 wires from pole to pole. Thought that was pretty cool to see.

Scottychaos,it did seem most likely to me they were shooting the arrival and departure scene at the same time. However unlikely, though, it occurred to me that the man was arriving from Syracuse and departing to Rochester, so the train would have been heading west both times. Yeah, unlikely.

As for sound, did you hear the engine noise they looped in for Mr. Blazey's Ford car? That didn't sound real healthy, even if it was 1953-54. Not necessarily a good representation of Ford products.

I presume that's "artistic license", and they probably were not worried about being critiqued 60+ years later. Note the guy's whole ride from NY City was in daylight, yet by sun angle he arrived at Canandaigua late morning give or take.

However, it's possible in real life it would be quicker for someone eastbound to take the Auburn Road train west into Rochester and make connections there, instead of the local back to Syracuse. Confirming that would take timetables and spare time, neither of which I have at the moment!

twinship wrote:Scottychaos,it did seem most likely to me they were shooting the arrival and departure scene at the same time. However unlikely, though, it occurred to me that the man was arriving from Syracuse and departing to Rochester, so the train would have been heading west both times. Yeah, unlikely.

No, Rochester isnt involved..
In the story, the kid if going from New York City to Canandaigua by train.
probably Auburn road from Syracuse to Canandaigua.

The journey back at the end of the film is simply meant to be "back home to New York City"

yes, at the end of the film they briefly do the show the train pulling out of Canandaigua headed west, toward Rochester..
but i suspect that was just for ease of filming..for the movie, he is supposed to be leaving in the opposite direction he arrived..they dont care which way the train is actually going for the scene.

and in the beginning, they do have the train going right to left (west) then at the end its filmed going the opposite direction, left to right (east)..so they did make sure that looked correct overall..the brief scene of the train pulling out toward toward Rochester is likely just a fluke, filmed that way because the locomotive was already on that end of the train! for the movie's purposes, Rochester doesnt exist...and for people who dont actually know how the Canandaigua station is situated in relation to the tracks, (which statistically is.. everyone) they cant tell the train is briefly going west..and every other shot at the departure scene shows the train going left to right, Eastbound.

So, the two scenes were very likely filmed on the same day..no reason not to film them the same day, when the actors and crew are all already there in Canandaigua.

Scot

scottychaos wrote:
No, Rochester isnt involved..
In the story, the kid if going from New York City to Canandaigua by train.
probably Auburn road from Syracuse to Canandaigua.

The journey back at the end of the film is simply meant to be "back home to New York City"

Scot

I agree the film shoot was probably all at the same time, and they did not care about specific accuracy.

But again - depending on what the scheduled trains were, it might have been quicker to take #3 (or whatever) into Rochester, and get an eastbound fairly soon, rather than wait around Canandaigua for #18 (or whatever) and sit through a slow ride stopping at every podunk town along the way and arriving at Syracuse for a mainline train hours later.

BR&P wrote: Scot
But again - depending on what the scheduled trains were, it might have been quicker to take #3 (or whatever) into Rochester, and get an eastbound fairly soon, rather than wait around Canandaigua for #18 (or whatever) and sit through a slow ride stopping at every podunk town along the way and arriving at Syracuse for a mainline train hours later.

maybe..but the movie simply isnt concerned about such things..
as far as the movie is concerned, this is the railroad:



But I didnt catch this before..now I see we are actually talking about two different things:

1. The train ride as far as the movie is concerned. (the straight line depicted above)
2. What actual route the fictional kid might have taken, if it was a story that actually happened in real life.

Those are two completely different things.

Scot

scottychaos wrote: But I didnt catch this before..now I see we are actually talking about two different things:

1. The train ride as far as the movie is concerned. (the straight line depicted above)
2. What actual route the fictional kid might have taken, if it was a story that actually happened in real life.

Those are two completely different things.

Scot

Exactly! For film purposes, the only thing important is he got there, and he went back.

Aside and separately I was speculating that in real life it MAY (or may not) have been quicker to go the relatively short distance to Rochester to catch an eastbound main line train, rather than riding the local all the way back east down the Old Road.

At the end of the movie while he looked out the window with the water in view, my first thought was he's traveling along the Hudson River on the West Shore headed to NYC.