MovieChat Forums > The Day of the Roses (1998) Discussion > The reality of this story

The reality of this story

posted 17 years ago by woolcock
3 replies | jump to latest

Hi,
I would really like to know how the producers of this story recreated the train wreckage so realistically. I could tell many of the scenes were from the actual event, probably news footage but the scenes of people trapped under wreckage and the conctrete road on top of the train was amazing.
Throughout the film it was so believeable and realistic.
When the locomotive and the carriages were inspected they really looked like the actual locomotive and carriages from the derailed train. I found the DVD at Parklea Markets and although I had seen it years ago, but when I started watching it again it was totally engrossing.
Regards,
Carole

[–] electronic_brain 17 years ago

The locomotive would've involved re-numbering, possibly a repaint, and a layer of dust.

As for the carriages, they were probably rescued from a scrapyard, and then used to re-create the scene. The rest would've been done from scratch.

However, I could've sworn that carriage 2017 (on the DVD box) was part of the old '3801 ltd.' company, a rail preservation group that was dissolved mid '07. Or am I getting the numbers confused?

Another thing I noticed, some of the tracks looked like they had cement sleepers (or ties, for the Americans). These are the things that hold the track together ('dead wood' line). They would've all been wooden sleepers back then, right?

[–] electronic_brain 16 years ago

Done some extra research.

They re-painted loco 4638 to 4620 for the movie, and yes, the carriages were from 3801 ltd. Still not sure about the sleepers, but the film was done in brisbane, so that may help.

There's more info in the depths of the Railpage.com.au forums - use the search feature.

[–] Todge (23) 7 years ago

Concrete Sleepers were first used in the late 1800s, and in Australia, most have been concrete since WWII.