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The Marfa area has long been a popular location for Old West movies, though the town itself has gone modern and in the past few decades has become a trendy, quirky art community. It sits at the western foot of the Davis Mountains (yes, there are mountains
in Texas; Mitre Peak a short distance northeast of Marfa tops out at 6,190 feet), and the Southern Pacific crosses the range via Paisano Pass to reach Alpine, 25 miles east. Alpine, my birthplace, is home to Sul Ross State University and is the gateway to
Big Bend National Park. Santa Fe's Orient line, heading down to Mexico from Alpine, used SP trackage rights over Paisano Pass before veering south down to the border at Presidio. The entire area is really quite scenic, if somewhat isolated.
Hol
From: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io> on behalf of Michael Woodruff <mwoodruff54@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2022 2:55 PM
To: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io>
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Film title wanted
According to
imdb.com, the scenes with the train were shot in Marfa, TX which is on the SP's Sunset Route, and indeed is in the middle of nowhere.
msw
wa
Rupert;
I'm fairly certain you are referring to a rather memorable scene depicting the homecoming of a deceased Hispanic-American soldier
from the 1956 movie "Giant". The movie starred James Dean, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor among others. As you mention, the flag-draped coffin is left on a baggage cart trackside in what appears "in the middle of nowhere". An honor guard wheels
it away and accompanies it to a small cemetery where a service is held. The movie was set in the Texas plains and tells the story of a wealthy rancher and his relationships over several years. It plays with some regularity on TCM here in the U.S. and I just
watched it again recently. Unfortunately, it has no Burlington Route ties that I'm aware of, though the scene with the train would no doubt interest all of us.
Kind regards,
Rob Adams
Wellman, IA
On 5/18/22 4:03 AM, Rupert Gamlen wrote:
Nothing to do with the Burlington, as far as I know, but a friend is trying to identify the title of a film involving a train.
Part of the story is that an African-American soldier was killed during WWII and his body was brought home to his family. The train stopped in the middle of nowhere, the coffin was handed over to his family with full military honours, and then the train left.
Ring any bells?
As compensation for your help, on the subject of films, from the Railway Age Gazette in 1914 -
Thirty or more passengers in the smoking car of a suburban train on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy in Chicago were injured on the night of November 24, when the car was set on fire by an explosion of a moving picture film which was
being carried, wrapped in a paper package, by one of the passengers, and which presumably caught fire from a lighted match or cigar stub thrown on the floor.
And from Railway Review in 1922 -
Why hound dogs leave home is a subject of deep concern at the present moment to some gasoline rail car salesmen, if not to the entire industry, since the latest and most serious complaint against this type of equipment comes from a state
where railroads are not unmindful of the fact that the people have to be shown. Farmers along a branch line of the Burlington Railroad are objecting to the continued operation of a gasoline rail car on this line because the sound of a high pitched horn with
which this car is equipped so nearly resembles the horns used for raccoon hunting that the operation of this car is causing all the hound dogs to leave home.
Thanks
Rupert Gamlen
Auckland NZ
--
John Robert Adams
Wellman, Iowa
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