Fast Cars and wreck less Driving – The locomotive in “The Fast and the Furious” (2001)

Who would have thought, that a movie about fast cars, hot women and stupid acts of driving would become a movie franchise. In all there have been 5 movies, with the latest being “Fast Five” that was released in 2011, and a 6th film, planned on being released in 2013 called “Fast Six”. The Scene in question is from the first movie involves a 1970 Dodge Challenger, a 1995 Honda Civic (Modified) and a  1968 EMD GP40 (Stock).  The scene takes place when Brian (Driving the Civic), and  Dominic (Driving the Challenger) drag race down a street, and narrowly avoid getting hit by SCRX GP40 #3134. After a sigh of relief, Dominic ends up rolling his Challenger after colliding with a Peterbilt Tractor-Trailer.

SCRX GP40 #3134 in "Fast and the Furious"

The locomotive that is seen is Santa Clarita Railroad GP40 #3134. She was constructed by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in August, 1968, with serial #34295 and Frame #7127-14. The Locomotive was built for the Penn Central, the giant North Eastern railroad that went Bankrupt after only 2 years! The Locomotive was originally ordered by the New York Central in 1967, but was delivered after the Merger, and came decked out all for PC. When built, she was Penn Central  #3118. She served the large, bankrupt Penn Central until 1976, when the Penn Central and many other Northeastern railroads all merged under the government run “Consolidated Rail Corporation,” other wise known as Conrail. Under Conrail, the locomotive was Conrail 3118, and she served the Big Blue (Conrail’s Nickname since their paint scheme was solid blue), until 1983, when the 15 year lease on the locomotive was up. After Conrail released the locomotive back to its owner, Helm Financial, the locomotive was sold right away to the Denver, and Rio Grande Western Railroad, that operated in Utah and Colorado, with trackage rights into Kansas City. The locomotive was then renumbered to DRGW #3134, the number she carries to this day. She spent the next 15 years being owned by the D&RGW, the Southern Pacific, and the Union Pacific. The locomotive was retired by the Union Pacific Railroad, still in full DRGW paint, in 1999, and was then sold to the Santa Clarita Railroad. During her time on the Santa Claritia, she was use in not only “Fast and the Furious,” but she was also used in an Operation Lifesaver commercial that involved an exploding car. She stayed with the SCRX until November 2004, when she was sold to the Southwestern Railroad for use on their new Carlsbad division in New Mexico. Today, she is still earning a living on the SouthWestern, working the many Potash trains and the occasional unit grain trains.

Here is a Photo of the unit as Penn Central #3118:                                                                           http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=358929

Here is a Photo of the unit as Conrail #3118:                                                                                     http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2835197

Here is a Photo of the unit as D&RGW #3134:                                                                                 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=17485

Here is a Photo of the unit as SCRX #3134:                                                                                                   http://www.locophotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=69246

Here is a Photo of the unit as SouthWestern #3134:                                                                      http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2578007

Again, I hope you enjoyed the latest installment of The CineTrains Project! I hope that you keep on coming back and reading more about trains in the movies and on Television! If you have any ideas you want to pass along to me, just find out out to contact me in the Submitting Ideas section of the page! Happy Railfanning!

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