Saturday, January 19, 2008

All The Queen's Horses

I used to watch the show Due South. The story of fish-out-of-water Mountie Benton Fraser in Chicago entertained me, and of course the Canadian content was good. Recently we bought a Tivo and I saw the classic episode All The Queen's Horses come up on the guide, so I recorded it. I just watched it and it was better than ever!

The episode features the RCMP Musical Ride travelling by train from "southern Manitoba" to "somewhere in Illinois". The train is intercepted by terrorists and mayhem ensues.

This time I watched it with a railfan's eye. The train is quite real and features CP 3072 leading three platform cars (with RCMP containers full of horses), and three VIA coaches, with a yellow CP caboose on the end.

It's quite an entertaining story, if you don't pay too much attention to detail. Early in the show the terrorist "driving" the engine is tossed out of the train, yet someone keeps blowing the horn for crossings. And, not to give too much away, but at a particular scene Leslie Nielsen shoots the target on a switch to reline it. Never mind the handle that would hold the switch in place... what about the switch lock? :)

Nit-picking aside, the train shots in this movie are good. There were lots of helicopter views of the train and it was nice to see something filmed on an actual moving train. Recommended!

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