TV show builds a new steam locomotive...

[Richard "Steam" Symmes]

Still no excuse for mediocrity. A little extra work would have made it right. "OK" is rarely good enough.

I remember a full page illustration for a story in the Saturday Evening Post back in the 60s. The story concerned a Civil War train wreck.  The artist who did the illustration was obviously using an American Flyer S Gauge "General" as a research source because he had included all the large slotted screw heads in the undercarriage of the wrecked locomotive, and other things which only would have been on a model. 

See my first post above.

Richard

[Stephen Hussar]

Yes, up close it is rough looking, and looks odd "to us." I actually think their bigger problem is that it's very likely going to shake itself apart before the first season is finished shooting.

Stephen

[Richard "Steam" Symmes]

Did anyone watch the premiere of "Hell on Wheels" last night?  Verdict?

To me it looked like "The Walking Dead" meets "How the West Was Won".  Shot in dreary "sepia", it was like "Deadwood", with trains.   I noted the shot of the track showed nice crushed stone ballast. I'm not aware that either the UP or CP used anything other than gravel or sand out there.

The "locomotive" visibly had no interior mechanisms, as you could see right through the undercarriage in the side shots.  Great big "Titanic" rivet heads abounded. The 1960s TV series, "Wild, Wild West" came to mind. I expected to see Robert Conrad ("James T. West") jump off the engine. Thanks to CGI, reality should be easier than ever to replicate, but instead we get this sort of thing.

The show itself wasn't much better. I doubt it will be back for a second season, whether or not they reach "Promontory".

Richard

[Mike Arnold]

See I thought it was good for a modern western not as good as Deadwood. But as for the locomotive or locomotives there looked like two? A 4-4-0 and a 2-6-0? Could not tell on the latter. But I will continue watching may get better or worse.
Mike Arnold
www.twinforksnrhs.org