Cost of the train wreck

I'm watching the movie right now on Movies! television network and just watched the wreck.

OOPS! The steam engines exploded a foot or two before they actually made any contact!

Now I watched the flatcar loaded with dynamite crash into the log barrier. It too exploded too early.

Why the special effects crew didn't use a contact method of detonation is beyond me.

Terry Thomas
Stills Photographer
Director of Photography
www.TerryThomasPhotos.com
www.imdb.com/name/nm1669504/board/thread/100119963

I've read various accounts about the cost of the train wreck in the 1993 Fugitive film, ranging from $600,000 to $1,000,000. Don't know which story was accurate, but they evidently had to do it in one take, because of the cost.

I'm of the opinion they did the crash with models.  If you re-watch the head-on wreck the engines stop dead, as do the cars following the two locomotives and tenders.  Momentum should have caused them to continue forward and crush themselves against the wreckage of the two engines.

-"BB"-