The Iron Horse

The locomotives and rolling stock are using knuckle-type couplers which did not begin wide use until the 1890's.

In the 1860's era setting of this movie, the couplers in use would have been link and pin.

This anachronism is understandable as the safety issue would have prohibited the use of the era appropriate link and pin couplers.

The Union Pacific steam engine at the Golden Spike ceremony was the UP119, not the UP116.

A claim was made that the original Jupiter was used in the movie.

After the Central Pacific Railroad was reorganized as the Southern Pacific, the steam engine was numbered SP1195, was converted to a coal burner and then sold to the Gila Valley, Globe & Northern Railroad in Arizona.

Unfortunately, it was scrapped in 1906 for $1000, so it could not have been in this movie.

The Central Pacific steam engine used in the sequence of the 10 mile day was a coal burner, evident by the straight pipe smokestack.

All Central Pacific steam engines at the time were wood burners with a diamond stack or similar smokestack.

At 3:12, Brandon's arm changes position as he leans against the tree.

Snow all over the girl disappears by the time she goes through the gate with her father.

In the mid-1920s cinema saw the second coming of the epic, the first having been in the mid-1910s, and giants of the era such as Douglas Fairbanks and Cecil B. DeMille were continually upping the ante on each other with bigger and bigger pictures.

1st watched 10/25/2013 -- 7 out of 10(Dir-John Ford): Epic silent movie about the path to the completion of the transcontinental railroad seen thru the eyes of the son of a dream-filled mid-westerner, played by George O'Brien in adulthood. This movie does a pretty good job of portraying the conflicts in the effort -- while throwing in some romance with a few fist fights.

One of greatest John Ford's film, I have ever saw. This epic-scale silent western was hugely influential on outdoor films that followed it due to its large production.

An amazing film for its scope, visuals and acting.We get to see many of John Ford's classic trophes in this film: the interplay and comic relief of European characters, great bar scenes and wonderfully photographed Indian action.

Shortly after I had finished watching my first ever silent film (Alfred Hitchcok's last ever silent film:The Manxman)I found out that before he started his legendary partnership with John Wayne,director John Ford had earlier in his long career, made some very epic silent film westerns.With having read up some interesting things that Leonard Maltin has said about the film,and discovering that the U.

In Springfield, the surveyor Brandon dreams on building the first transcontinental railroad while his skeptical friend Thomas Marsh (Will Walling), who is a small constructor, believes he is nothing but a dreamer chasing a rainbow; their children Davy Brandon and Miriam Marsh are best friends. Brandon heads with Davy to the west, where he finds a possible pass for the railroad.

Thursday July 15, 7pm, The Castro, San Francisco"In the heart of one man there is no rivalry" Set amid the romance and mythology of the American West, construction of the Transcontinental Railroad is recounted in cinematic splendor by Hollywood's master of the genre. Bestowing an almost religious patriotism to the story, central characters Dave Brandon (George O'Brien) and Miriam Marsh (Madge Bellamy) are introduced as the childhood neighbors of Abraham Lincoln.

It's hard to know where to start with a review of this film, because it has so many different elements woven together expertly in interlocking layers. Suffice to say that in the closing scene (not a spoiler as we already know what happened at Promontory Point), a bunch of big-wigs (Leland Stanford, etc.

Previous to directing The Iron Horse, John Ford had been known as the director of a few dozen B westerns, most of them probably lost by now and most of them starring Harry Carey. In getting the assignment for The Iron Horse, Ford got his first really big budget to work with from Fox Films.