Twenty-Five Favorite Train Movies

Gene Wilder, Jill Clayburgh and Richard Pryor on a cross-country train ride. Really great dialogue, a strong supporting cast, and the train itself all make it a fun ride, and probably my all-time favorite train movie.

Fess Parker stars in a terrific Disney flick that Walt must have loved, given his well-known affection for trains. This is the true story of Andrews Raiders and how Conductor William A. Fuller almost single-handedly foiled their plans during the Civil War. The Raiders were the first soldiers to win the newly-authorized Congressional Medal of Honor.

Another movie with a real "feel" for railroading. Lee Marvin stars as the hobo known as "A-No.-1" and Ernest Borgnine is the vicious conductor determined to keep him off his train. Keith Carradine plays a young hobo who wants to become as famous as A-No.-1.

Burt Lancaster stars as a member of the French Underground during World War II, trying to stop the Nazis from stealing a trainload of priceless French art without destroying the art itself. Some have criticized this movie for destroying a lot of old steam engines, but the truth is, they were going to be scrapped anyway, so at least they got to help tell a good story. Regarded by many as the BEST train film ever.

Look up the word "quirky" in the dictionary, and this movie will probably be listed. Peter Dinklage shines as an anti-social dwarf who inherits an abandoned train station when his only friend dies, and almost against his will, makes new friends with a personable Cuban-American hot dog vendor (Bobby Cannavale) and a dysfunctional, lonely housewife (Patricia Clarkson). I just love this movie.

Terrific story of the building of the first transcontinental railroad, even if they do take some liberties with actual history. Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Preston are all amazing, and no one ever did spectacle like Cecil B. DeMille.

A wonderful book brought to film, and Tom Hanks is just superb (as usual). The real engine used as the "model" by the animators actually was numbered 1225, and the story of how it was saved from the scrapper's torch is fascinating in itself.

This is a formulaic Western with enough plot holes to drive a train through, but it's also got gorgeous Colorado scenery, lots of great narrow gauge train action, including a head-on collision. Besides, I can always watch Dean Jagger in anything. This is a HEAVILY fictionalized account of the battle between the Santa Fe and Rio Grande railroads for control of the Royal Gorge.

Buster Keaton is wonderful in this fictionalized account of the same Civil War story as "The Great Locomotive Chase." I love the scene where he is sitting on the main driving rod of the steam engine as it begins to move. Unbelievably dangerous in real life, but you just can't take your eyes off of him - the true definition of a movie star.

A young John Ford was still learning how to make movies when he directed this (fictionalized) account of the first transcontinental railroad. Mr. Ford was one of those guys making up the rules for how to tell stories visually, and this was one of his best early works. The railroad scenes have often been used in other films, as if they were authentic early newsreels of actual events.

Many of the train scenes in this movie were actually shot on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, formerly part of the famed Denver & Rio Grande. Don't miss the scene where the locomotive becomes almost a living character itself, representing the inevitable approach of the future.

Terrific cast in a very under-rated movie. Glenn Ford plays a returning Korean War vet who gets mixed up with his boss's scheming wife, played by Gloria Grahame. Wonderful film noir.

One of those movies so popular from the 70s with an enormous cast, all competing for screen time, but still very well done, and featuring the most famous train in the world. Remade in 2017.

Who is the real bad guy - the escaping criminal, or the sadistic warden trying to catch him? Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay, and John P. Ryan star.

Steven Seagal battles Eric Bogosian and a trainload of terrorists to rescue his niece and stop the bad guys from getting away with their evil plot. Satisfying explosion and mayhem at the end.

The opening shots of the SP streamliner streaking across the desert are as magnificent as any train images ever caught on film. I have a special fondness for the "Black Widow" paint scheme these engines are sporting. This is my favorite Spencer Tracy movie, with Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, Dean Jagger and Walter Brennan all in strong supporting roles.

Perhaps not a train movie to some purists, but the fight between Sean Connery and Robert Shaw is a classic.

Interesting film noir, with a cynical detective trying to protect a reluctant witness during a cross-country train trip. This was the first movie shot primarily with hand-held cameras, to simulate the feel of moving train compartments. I prefer this one to the 1990 remake.

Hitchcock was a genius. The movie is well known for the deadly crop-duster chase, and the dramatic moments on Mt. Rushmore, but the snappy dialogue between Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint is just terrific, as is the final shot of movie.

Hard to go wrong with Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, and lots of your favorite western character actors. The plot won't stand up to close scrutiny, but the winter scenery is beautiful, as is Miss Ireland.

This is really not a very good movie, BUT - all the action scenes are done with real actors, real stunt men, and real trains - no CGI here. Denzel Washington and Chris Pine are pretty good as the train crew trying to stop a runaway train. The story is loosely based on an incident that happened a few years ago.

Definitely a "dated" movie, but filled with lots of beautiful scenery and railroad action.

This is a pretty typical Judy Garland musical, but worth it just to hear "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe."

John Barrymore plays a flamboyant New York producer trying to get back a starlet who has deserted him. Most of the action takes place on the Chicago-NY train.

What list is complete without a Marx Brothers movie? Groucho & company "go west" to seek their fortune. Mayhem ensues.