larryjensen Wrote:
========================================
> ... {Bob} Richardson did definitely credit
> "Denver & Rio Grande" with showing people
> (including Rio Grande management) what
> effective publicity did for the train. That
> movie wouldn't have happened without "A
> Ticket to Tomahawk," which also resulted
> in the "Painted Train" with and increased
> capacity, hence my belief that "...Ticket..."
> started the chain reaction that helped save
> the branch.
larryjensen {also} Wrote:
========================================
> ... "A Ticket to Tomahawk" was the "trigger"
> for a sequence of events, and certainly the
> efforts of many good people, that resulted
> in the Rio Grande not being able to achieve
> their objective of abandoning the Silverton
> branch in the early 1950s.
What about
'Colorado Territory', Larry -
Which aired Thursday evening (Jan. 15) on TCM. It's a really well-made movie, with a much better and more complicated plot than any of the others -
'Ticket', 'Rio Grande', 'Night Passage' and especially the later
'Good Guys ...', 'Shootout' and 'Bite the Bullet'. The RR scenes were done at the depot in Durango and on the Farmington Branch, starring #315 as just "15". Its director, Raoul Walsh, was already well known for his 'Film Noir' crime movies ('Colorado Territory' was based on one of them, but changed into a western), and its star was the popular Joel McCrea. IIRC, it was very well regarded as a film, although I don't think it got any Oscar nominations. I would regard 'Colorado Territory' - an "adult" western predating 'High Noon' - as having made 'Ticket to Tomahawk' possible, and give it - and #315 - a share of the credit for starting the sequence of events that saved the narrow gauge.
I know it's unlikely, given that #20 now belongs to the CRRM, but I would sure like to see those two former F&CC engines - #20 and #315 - running together on the 'Wild West' east end of the C&TS.
Maybe we should promote the filming of a documentary - or twist Rattie's arm 'til he agrees to get together with Jim Clarke and film une "Westerne Noir" -
'A Ticket to (Dark) Colorado Territory' ...
- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2015 07:09PM by Russo Loco.