Here is a nice drama starring Kevin Costner and Elijah Wood. Set in the Early 1970’s, it goes through the memoirs of “Lidia.” Around the 6 minute mark, this movie, that is set in the early 1970’s, is suddenly time warped into the 1990’s, and then as quickly as it happened, shoots right back into the 1970’s.
The thing about movies is, to producer’s, a train is a train. Time and Time again, I have seen goofs like this. In recent movie about Ray Charles, set in the 1950’s, you see intermodal well cars with Pacer Stack Train containers on them, circa 2003! In the hard to find movie “Dynamite and Gold” starring Willie Nelson, a film shot on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroads, the movie is supposedly set in 1889, however the locomotives were built in 1926! They look to modern for the era the movie it was supposed to be set in.
“The War” takes us to that level of railroading goofs. Lets take a look at the shot, and the locomotive used in the film
A late 1980's General Electric B32-8 shows up in a movie set in the 1970's!
The locomotive shown in this film, again, set in the 1970’s, is Norfolk Southern B32-8 #3534. NS 3534 was built by General Electric in October of 1989! That is almost 20 years after period “The War” was set in. The GE B32-8 is a rare locomotive model, so at least the had a good choice when they captured her on film. It looks like the crew is an-aware that they are being filmed, probably thought the camera man was a railfan or something! A total of 49 B32-8’s were built, 45 for Norfolk Southern Corp, 3 for Burlington Northern, and 1 for GE that they have kept as a test bed for new locomotive models. She carries Serial #46129. Not much history on this locomotive, as she is still in every day service on the expansive Norfolk Southern System.
Only the cab of the locomotive is shown, possibly to keep away from any legal matters for showing the NS name in the movie. However, to the railfan, it is easily identifiable. The solid Black Paint scheme, the Yellow handrails on the front, the “Sou” under the road number and the white stripes on the low short hood all give it away as a Norfolk Southern locomotive. This is not a long blog post, but I thought I would bring this little clip up, that lasts only 3 seconds in the movie, that when looking at a train in a movie, don’t automatically assume that the train is correct for the period. 50% of the time, it is wrong, as it seems like movie producers don’t care what kind of train is in the movie!
Here’s a recent photo of NS 3534, still in the same paint scheme: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1889546
This little clip was recommended to me by Megan Salter! Thanks Megan for bringing this little clip up! As always, if you have clip in a movie that you want me to dig into, shoot me a message on The CineTrains Project Facebook page! You will always be credited! Happy Railfanning!
The CineTrains Project - Trains in the Cinema and TV 
that unit has sou on it look