MOVIE: Unstoppable

Denzel Washington stars in a movie called "Unstoppable" based on the runaway CSX train on 5/15/01. However, it uses a fictional railroad that uses some GE diesels painted in a livery that's a cross between Canadian Pacific and ATSF's Warbonnet paint scheme. Denzel Washington plays a conductor on the train that runs away. I know part of the movie was filmed on the Wheeling and Lake Erie RR.

Does anyone know if it's a made for TV movie, go straight to DVD, or be in theatres and when it will be released?

Well, for starters, some of the trailers now playing in theaters indicate a ridiculously high number of grade crossing accidents --- the fact that we know the crossing gates which bloomed all over the L A basin in the wake of Metrolink would prevent this notwithstanding.

I'm afraid it's just going to be more fodder for the NIMBYs and security-obsessed suburban ditzes.

I just saw the trailer today for the movie and it definietly does look interesting. I do agree that there were a large number of grade crossing accidents, I wonder if the motive behind all the grade crossing accidents is to show people in the real world how dangerous grade crossing accidents really are. I definietly think I will check out that movie when it comes out.

Supposedly it is based on a true story in May of 2001 of a freight train that left the Toledo Ohio yard and wasn't stopped till 66 miles away after passing through three counties. This movie also reminds me a little bit of that made for tv movie that was made years ago called Atomic Train which I think aired on NBC.

Here is the link to the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM-0Ywc7wNY

can't wait for it to come out. for once me for being, people don't persecute me for being a railfan. many people can't wait for it to come out. i guess destruction and explosions make trains very attractive to the general public. they based it on that CSX runaway out of toledo a couple years back that was carrying flamable materials, that was driverless might i add

I somehow had forgotten that much of the on-location work for this film was conducted primarily on portions of former PRR trackage in Central Pennsylvania:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477080/locations

The lion's share (No pun intended, fellow Penn Staters ) appears to have been produced on either the former Northern Division (Harrisburg-Buffalo) main, including the Keating Summit grade between Emporium and Olean, or on the former Bald Eagle Branch (Lock Haven-Tyrone), now Nittany and Bald Eagle. Both of these lines have seen major reductions in traffic over the years, There's also some activity in the Ohio Valley between Wheeling and Bellaire, and at Brewster, HQ of the reincarnated Wheeling and Lake Erie. But the trestle scene in some of the trailers brought no recognition.

2nd trick op wrote:I somehow had forgotten that much of the on-location work for this film was conducted primarily on portions of former PRR trackage in Central Pennsylvania:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477080/locations

The lion's share (No pun intended, fellow Penn Staters ) appears to have been produced on either the former Northern Division (Harrisburg-Buffalo) main, including the Keating Summit grade between Emporium and Olean, or on the former Bald Eagle Branch (Lock Haven-Tyrone), now Nittany and Bald Eagle. Both of these lines have seen major reductions in traffic over the years, There's also some activity in the Ohio Valley between Wheeling and Bellaire, and at Brewster, HQ of the reincarnated Wheeling and Lake Erie. But the trestle scene in some of the trailers brought no recognition.

they did do some filming on the liona, avon, and lakeville. could it be a bridge off there?

I do not believe there is such a trestle on the LAL/WNYP.........

Charlie

from what i seen in the trailors - the trestle is the old B&O trestle from Benwood WV to Bellair Ohio - now used by the W&LE to interchange traffic with CSX at Benwood WV on the ohio river sub -- several of the shots looked like W&LE \ NW trackage between Bellaire OH and Martins Ferry OH and their is several crossing of this track along the way in those two areas -- from the trailor - it looked like train came from WV to Ohio and then northbound behind a shop where I use to work at in Bellaire -

Thank You for that info!

Charlie

I've had a thought. Suppose this movie does very well in theatres. I wonder if they would make a sequel and how it would work out.

Tom6921 wrote:I've had a thought. Suppose this movie does very well in theatres. I wonder if they would make a sequel and how it would work out.

It's an interesting thought. The stigma of railroading as a dead-end industry which we all lived with for a lot of years has finally been dispelled, but we have a long way to go before we return to the days when characters like "Eddie Sand" (Harry Bedwell's ficticious itinerant telegrapher), enjoy the status they once did.

I'll own up to it; I pick up a little extra pocket money in the summer at a theme park, and the management, aware of my background, usually assigns me to the "Cannonball" or the "Zephyr", our two train rides. I get occasional inquiries about actual rail employment, and it's gratifying that a lot of them come from people who would have faced discrimination not-too-long ago. My answer is that Norfolk Southern is usually hiring, but the real world of an operating railroader is both very demanding and potentially quite rewarding.

So this could be the sort of publicity rail employment could use, if the fantasy-peddlers aren't (as is, regrettably, the usual case) carried away.

I caught a sneak preview of the film this Saturday and I have to say it is very good. It is indeed loosely based on the CSX 2001 runaway. They use a lot of railroad terms seemingly correctly in this film. I would definitely recommend seeing it (and Denzel is awesome at the helm as an engineer )

One review I read quoted "too much train, too much speed".

That's very much the way a railroader would speak ... "train" is often referred to in that manner ... "9,876 feet of train", "112 cars of train", etc.

Here's a link to some photos and video of the movie being shot:

http://heavyequipmentforums.com/showthr ... nstoppable