Supertrain Clips

[loufalce]

Classic bad TV and disco music at their worst.

[sideslide23]

@IndianaJones772 the train is as wide as a boeing 747.

[Woulfe]

Supertrain was a result of TV network executives thinking they know how to make a show without any creative team working behind the scenes at all

TV network executive : Let's make Love Boat, but put it on rails, a train, people love trains, right ?

Turns out he was right, the train was the best actor on the show ;-)

[alphamone]

@Woulfe

and even it tried to get out of it. Unfortunately the stupio decide to rebuild it.

[sideslide23]

the Supertrain became a Boondoggle, Only America is a Boondoggle but the rest of the country are not.

[nhlalwenhlezondo]

I remember being on this train, service was terrible, lawls!

[EMDSD14R]

i have this movie..i like it alot...good graphics for its time i think

[vectrinox]

To me, The Supertrain and the Cyclops Bus look like vehicles you would see on Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, or Terrahawks.

[ChannelUmptyThree]

@vectrinox I was thinking the VERY same thing when I saw the clips

[vectrinox]

I had recently scored a rare copy of the Supertrain Complete Series DVD Collection off Ebay and should be receiving it sometime today. I can't wait to watch & listen to that cool funky retro disco theme intro "LOL"

[coverdale20]

Someone needs to be fucked up for this one....

[carlsetzer]

It had a disco soundtrack, how could it fail?

[jzuijlek]

I am viewing this in The Morning. This is a Good Train, not a Bad Plane.

[jerryvine]

@algildea

I agree this would be better viewed In The Morning

[Woulfe]

@jerryvine

Okay, I don't know what you two are on about at all, it's like you watched the first 10 seconds of this or something like that.

[algildea]

I'd like to view this In The Morning

[Woulfe]

@algildea

What do you mean, there are a lot of daytime clips in this video, verry few nightime ones at all, just one or two in the entire video.

[Lalo3001]

Loved this old show when I was a little kid!!

It was basically Chips meets the Love Boat (all great shows I watched) set in a train. 

I'm 42 yrs old by the way. Great memories of when I was a kid in the late 70s.

[Woulfe]

@Lalo3001

So very few of us who recall this show, guess one has to be over 40 to recall it.

I'm 46, and I recall a lot of things that make me wonder WHY do I remember THAT ?

Not like I'm gonna wind up on Jepordy & asked questions I only know the answers to, heh heh heh heh heh

[patchesdf]

That's hilarious. The super train goes even slower than a regular one. Probably because all that cardboard would blow off of it if it went any faster.

[Woulfe]

@patchesdf

Actully it's plastic, like any other model train is.

[worm082]

ITS LIKE CHiPs ON AMTRAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[Woulfe]

@worm082

Pure 80's cheese, train was coolest thing on the show, rest was pretty forgetable.

[andyjay729]

This show probably did considerable damage to Amtrak's reputation, as much as Silver Streak but for opposite reasons.

[Woulfe]

@andyjay729

I find it hard to believe a show NO ONE EVEN REMEMBERS could hurt Amtrak's reputation in any way possible....

[andyjay729]

@andyjay729 Figure of speech. Although it might have made people take trains less seriously at the time.

[Rhombus20147]

And to think adults were paid money for this.

[marekerhardt]

Another NBC disaster!

[TheMantisTycoon]

Is there a place i can download the theme?? Ahh how much i want the G-scale supertrain at 1:20.

[MediaWatchDawg]

Alllllll aboardddddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!

[sideslide23]

this is a great rail technology, a wide body train, i wander if they would make this a reality in the world?

[Woulfe]

Possibly not, jet travel has replaced train travel in the world.

[sideslide23]

it did in the 1960s but Bullet Trains in england parris, Japan, and Germany replace air travel.

[craioveanu95]

@sideslide23 well it's not possible. sorry but elemantary fizics just denies it. the train would be to wide and heavy so it would rupture at the half.

[sideslide23]

I got you, this train is just as wide as the boeing 747.

[JBofBrisbane]

@craioveanu95 - Physics, man... Physics!

[spinsandneedles]

California is going to build a high speed rail between San Francisco and L.A. This would be the way to go.

Or better yet - between L.A. and Las Vegas.

A few years ago the Supertrain model was sold through an ad in Model Railroader and has not been heard of since.

[vonbose1]

Was this pre-ebay? Any idea what it went for?

[spinsandneedles]

Yes, several years before Ebay. I think the owner wanted $25,000. I don't know that there was any follow-up in MR because it was an ad, not an article.

[sideslide23]

they are planning to start on the construction of the desert Xpress high speed in March of 2010, I hard that the CAHSR would start on their construction in 2012.

[sideslide23]

@spinsandneedles there going to build both, and I also proude about the news about the Desert lightning and Wester high speed rail alliance. matter fact I'm pushing for the Desert lightning, not only it goes from Vegas to Middle of L.A. it will go into Phoenix where I live. and people of Arizona can beat the heat traveling to L.A or Vegas.

[nickelindimer]

Gotta dig the the suggestion in the elements of the theme.

The opening bass-line evokes images of madly-pounding pistons, and the horns suggest the dawning of a new era before taking a "charging" melody.

Then the violins give notion of a superhero-esque something coming down to earth, before merely accompanying the horns to represent a train whistle.

Then at the conclusion of it, the synths make a sound of suggestive of something whooshing-by at high speeds.

Overall, a well thought-out work!

[thommmiey]

Correction its windows movie maker not microsoft movie maker

[Woulfe]

Well, it's made by Microsoft so both names are valid.

Does it really matter ?

[Woulfe]

Heh, I didn't make the music....

The music is theTheme from 'Supertrain' that I found online and embeded into the video before posting it to here.

Thanks in part to Micro$oft Movie Maker.

[bionicleguru]

its real!!!!!!!! 0_o

[Woulfe]

Well, as Real as any other TV show from the late 1970's, early 80's was.

Check out the uber fan page online.

[autismksu]

i like your supertrain videos

[manofsan]

Was this one of those Gerry Anderson puppet shows?

[Woulfe]

Nope

[madercic3aolcom]

Cool post. Thanks. I was 11 when this aired. It was so cool looking and heavily promoted there was no way I was going to miss it. The thrill wore off real quick. Wiki says only 9 episodes. My fuzzy memory easily concurs. Gotta love that disco!

[Woulfe]

Yup, 8 one hour Episodes, and 1 two hour pilot, the 2 hour pilot made it to VHS as a movie, and has been shown on TV as one as well.

If the pilot was counted as a 2 part episode that'd make it 10 episodes.

However, because the rest of the show has never been rerun on TV the pilot remains a 2 hour movie & can be bought from Amazon !?!?

Weirdness

[Woulfe]

Only if they use CGI for the train itself.

The reason the show cost what it did was buliding several 'scaled' versions of the train to run outdoors.

[milw189]

As THE former lighting guru in MSTS early years, I am wondering if this is the guy in the 2003-2005 era that use to post on the MSTS forums about building the 'SUPERTRAIN'??? If so, nice to see you made it and got it working!!

I remember this show, and was sad to see it go off. Knowing rails inside and out, it makes me laugh to see just how STUPID the people who made this series were on all things rail-related!!

Like the steam coming off the locomotive in the clips...;-)

Thanks!!!!

Ace

[Woulfe]

2003-2005 hum.

Possibly not, I did talk to him I think & tried to help him out if it is I think who your talking about.

I was the one who had trouble converting my TRAINZ 'Supertrain' into one for MSTS.

It's not as easy as it sounds, yanno.

As for the show itself.

Yea they got a lot of things wrong, I think they were just making things up as they went along and hoped people would buy into it.

Guess that's yet anouther reason the show failed, the 'does it ring true ?' test.

[Woulfe]

Welcome to being blocked, if this is all you can say on every Supertrain video I have on You Tube.

[Mikakk2]

This train would never be built in the real world.. It would cost many billions of dollars just to lay the tracks.

[Woulfe]

Well, that why it was only on TV ;)

That and Trainz Railraod Simulator, thanks to me.

[michigandon]

Not to mention the fact that the mere commencement of construction of such a right-of-way in this day and age would result in an Eminent Domain squabble that would wage on for at *least* a decade, if not longer!

[Woulfe]

Heh, perhaps the morons at NBC thought that didn't matter, they could of used that as a plot device on the show itself, but no, they settled on Love Boat on rails minus the fun.

[anyhu4u]

omg!!!!! i had a model train of this thing back in the day.i pluged it up and recharge itself.never new it was modeled after a show.thanks 4 the memories

[JBofBrisbane]

@anyhu4u - I think your train was actually a Hot Wheels Hot Lines train. The loco was called the Speed Chief, and the carriages were the Folks Wagon and the Tail Waggin'. Sorry it's been two years, but...

[Woulfe]

@JBofBrisbane

I remember that toy, I got it because it reminded me of Supertrain, or vice-versa, I watched the show because it reminded me of the toy I had years before.

Tyco also had a train shaped the same way that had tracks that went up the wall type deal because of how fast it ran on the tracks it could do that, the lightweight train cars also helped in that as well.

Forgot the name of the Tyco set, it's been too long.

[Woulfe]

The show should of been a Comedy from the get go, it would of worked so much better....

Possibly would of last longer as well.

[nickelindimer]

"My Mother the Car" lasted only a month. And that's in the mid-'60s! Plus, "Super Train" was done in the age of the jumbo-jet & the Concorde taking flight. The idea of a high-tech, high-speed, high-luxury train made sense for a drama. And the music, It was partially what was big at the time, and the futuristic aesthetic to it fit the show's premise. Why didn't this show last? Lack of plausibility (and/or feasibility) & America's interest in nuclear power cooled after the Three Mile Island prob.

[scotpens]

Actually "My Mother the Car" lasted one full season of 30 weekly episodes, starting in September 1965.

[nickelindimer]

A advanced tech nuclear-powered railway train, with guests that got aboard every week. It sounds like a cross with the "disaster" farce "The Big Bus" (Also nuclear-powered) & "The Love Boat". I figure the reason it was nuclear-powered was because of America's interest in alternative fuel & power sources when the show ran (OPEC embargo, remember?). And for the record, Mag-Lev talk goes back as far as the '40s, it was just commonly unheard of in '79. And "My Mother the Car" was the worst show ever

[marty1968]

wow... nuclear powered to create steam? and not energy for mag-lev operation...

how ghey

[Woulfe]

It was 1979, they didn't know about stuff like mag-lev back then, they just pulled the idea from thier butts for the train, me I would of used matter / antimatter intermix as that sounds a lot more futuristic.

[Woulfe]

It was 1979, they didn't know about mag-lev back then.

[cmfsharp]

by "they," you mean the show's writers, yes?

search youtube for "Transrapid - The Story 1" and "aerotrain chevilly"

[Woulfe]

The show's creators came up with that idea, all the writers did was put different folks on the train for guest stars.

Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh

[MINILOCO999]

now that is weird, the rain is the only decent thing, the music is... well, weird!

[Woulfe]

It's Disco, that's why it's weird.

[scotpens]

Weird? That's late-1970s disco, dude. About half of all the shows on TV back then had a disco soundtrack. Get down and boogie!

[perrypearl]

If it's run like Amtrack we're all dead meat!

[Woulfe]

As far as I can remember the show, it wasn't ran like Amtrak, if it was it'd still be on TV, people love disaster films after all.

Just look at all the "End of the world" programs on The History Channel.....

[protomodelsdotcom]

The show was lame,but the train was cool.Bet it could have been better if they gave a better effort.Liked it anyway.Great set of clips!Thanks

[Woulfe]

No problem.

The main reason I put these clips together was to see if I could make it for TRAINZ.

Then port it into MSTS from TRAINZ.

[protomodelsdotcom]

Who owns this train now?Some one must have saved it!I want it.lol

[Woulfe]

No one knows who owns the "miniture" as NBC / Universal sold it, track and all, off.

Where it wound up, nobody seems to know.

This is why one can only have a virtual version, the real one is lost.

[protomodelsdotcom]

Oh well,guess I'll buoild my own.I have some tech notes and measurements.This will take awhile to build ,but I'm going to do it just so I can sayIi've got one.I own a small model building company,got all the equipment to make it.Now where do I put it?lol Let ya know when I have it close to done.

[Mobius4077]

the back of the train at :43 looks like a station wagon....

[Woulfe]

Now that you mention it....

It dose indeed, like one from the 70's no less !

Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh

[michigandon]

Hey, why not? The "Aerotrain" also had a rear car that looked like the ass end of a '55 Chevy Nomad. Look it up!

[perrypearl]

Anybody ever see the movie "THE BIG BUS".It reminds me of this.Great mindless escapism.

[openmind1969]

I've seen most of it. For years I kept catching the last 5 to 10 minutes on television. (right about the time the bus broke in 2)

[scotpens]

There are some similarities, except "The Big Bus" was INTENTIONALLY funny.

[perrypearl]

This is true. In college I wrote a story about a luxury submarine that went from LA to Hawaii with has-been and never-were guests meant as a parody. I loved this show and the BIG BUS is so underrated, better in my opinion than Airplane.

[adelgado75]

I remember this show. Wasn't this the biggest flop in television history? Fred Silverman was behind this show if I am not mistaken.

[Woulfe]

Yup 100% Correct, you get a cookie ! (:.:)

Cool train, horrorble show. NBC (that bastion of quality entertainment) didn't know if they should of made the show serious or funny or whatever have you.

[kyatisback12]

omg whats that for a train?

[Woulfe]

It's the train from a failed TV series called "Supertrain" from the late 1970's early 1980's, possibly long before you were born, or you'd know that allready ;)

[keviar69]

I loved this show , my babysitter and I would watch this and (LOL)disco dance to the opening credits. I wish someone could get the clips with ZSA-ZSA GABOR..High camp at its best .....THANKS !!!

[Woulfe]

Zsa Zsa was on an episode ? I don't remember that.

Then again my memory is a tad rusty at that.

Guess that happens after 4 decades of pop-culture.

[keviar69]

She was shown in the promo clip"dancing -walking across the disco car floor with a big feather boa ,I think it was white

[Woulfe]

They so need to put this show on DVD, just for the sake of Trivia if nothing else.

[keviar69]

I would LOVE it , where can I get the theme on as an mp3 ?

[Woulfe]

If you go to one of the Supertrain sites it should be on one of them in mp3 format already, that's how I was able to use it for this.

[radamail]

OMG, you're so right about that Woulfe. This is too "good" to keep locked up in a dusty vault somewhere.

[Woulfe]

If anything it has a high "Cheese" factor, the kind of show that'd be fun to MST3K on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

[perrypearl]

I remember seeing that.Lyle Waggoner was with her.Wow,MEGASTARS!!!

[trainboy94]

What A train but I've heard that on the show the train was a model

[Woulfe]

2 models actualy a 1/2 version and a 1/4 version of the full scale 'sets' that were at Universal.

[26004]

its no class 37

[Woulfe]

Well, it's not a real train, I think it's only fair to compair it to other Hollywood made trains ;)

[tomekst44]

This train is ugly.....

[Woulfe]

If you think so then why did you even bother to watch this when you've said the same thing on the other clips of this I have here ? Get a freakin' life.

[scotpens]

Ugly? It looks cool! The front looks like a Star Trek shuttlecraft.

[Kikabom]

Im not sure how much this is in mph but the maglev train (which is real) goes 581 kmph... wouldnt that be a bit better than super train? but then again this super is from what - what the 70's?

[Woulfe]

Yup, it's from the late 70's early 80's back then a fast train would be 200 mph, that was before the Jap's had their bullet train up and running.

[scotpens]

The first Japanese high-speed express train known as the "bullet train" started running in 1964. It had an average speed of 210 km / hr. (130 mph).

[Kikabom]

U did help me and all but i just meant more of like does this train have any super powers? does it do hero deeds or anything?

[Woulfe]

It's super fast does that count ?

200 MPH

Way faster then The $6,000,000.00 Man...

[Kikabom]

Its cool but why is it called super train?

(sry i guess i wasnt alive yet when this was :S)

[Woulfe]

I guess it was because it was bigger then a normal train, a train on steriods so to speak, a 'supersized' train.....

[peepeevagi]

Oh supertrain, we love you!! Wait, what? Whoops, sorry supertrain. The mag-lev is in town!

[Woulfe]

Heh, the concept was sound, in the 1980's....

20 years takes a lot out the concept, eh ?

Nuke powered train ? I don't think so......

Try mag-lev ;)

Or even matter / antimatter intermix.....

THAT'S futuristic nowadays !

- W -

[peepeevagi]

I'm not talkin concept. It's like 'holy crap, a nuclear powered train that goes 200mph!' and then what pulls up right next to it 'um, sorry Supertrain. I will allways love you' kinda sad thing. Hah, it starts a feud and it's decided by a race, Supertrain wrecks but the following nuclear blast kills the mag-lev whom secretly was jealous and in love with supertrain. Ahh, a mechanical drama.

[Modeltrainguy]

I remember a promotions clip in the local newspaper read as '...Atomic Powered!' I hope I still have the clip...in a box somewhere at home. Sigh.

[Woulfe]

Yup, it was Atomic Powered on the show.

Made steam to run it.

So in a way, it's a steam locomotive.

[sandym70]

Loved this show as a kid - thought the train was the coolest thing ever (it looked like something from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century). Thanks for the clip!

[RolinDHayse]

The font used is HEMIHEAD which also associated with the famed FIERO Mid engine sportscar.

[ThisIsLove42]

Thank you so much for Supertrain! I never thought I'd see it again.

[Engage777]

Wow. Thanks Woulfe for posting this. -This is one of my all-time favorite bad shows. I loved it as a kid; fascinated with the model-making. Give credit to those guys, they did a hell of a job making it look real for '79. Of course, the acting was crap...lol

[Woulfe]

Engage77 - That's why the train itself was cool, it was a better actor then all the people who rode on it every week ;)

[ClaudeBalzzzz]

Hm...then again, that Jamie Farr has quite a range...lol

[Woulfe]

Claude - I don't remember him being on the train.

Then again it was 25 years ago so, meh.

[dryrain068]

I am just old enough to remember this when it ran on the air. Surprising how my 6-7 year old mind didn't pick up on the economics of an ultra high speed train stopping at every podunk town with 30 or more people in it, so teh townsfolk could hold a parade.

[Woulfe]

I think that clip was from the pilot episode, gotta have a parade at every hick middle of nowhere town for the first coast to coast run yanno ;)

[Modeltrainguy]

I remember watching the 2 hour movie. It DID have the scene of the train stop at some station in the desert...but only briefly of course. Ahhhhhhhh. The memories of the show. ^__^

[bisnagaboy]

I wish TVLand would air SUPERTRAIN reruns!

[brnleague99]

Weren't there only like 13 episodes?

[Woulfe]

brnleague99 - I think there were only 9 episodes IIRC....

[Woulfe]

Film Or Real ? Well, can you tell ? If you can't tell then the guys who made the minitures for the NBC TV Series 'SUPERTRAIN' did a good job to convince you that it was a real train and not a toy one.

[EisIgel]

Film or Real

[CairoEast]

You know what this intro music needs? Trumpets! Violins! Funky bass! More, more, more!

[Woulfe]

Actually they would of made the money back had they kept it on the air long enough to recoop the money spent on the minitures and sets.

As they didn't need to bulid new ones every episode after all, they allready had all 8 cars and the loco insides bulit, they were planing on showing the insides of the other cars over time, but meh.

[NCStL576]

I heard the it was the most expensive TV series ever made. And besides, if it continued, NBC would be bankrupt!

[Woulfe]

Severed well as an insperation for makeing it for games that's for certain, I just finished it for Locomotion too, need to do another video someday ;)

[Callum027]

Now that's a funky looking Train indeed.

[Woulfe]

Science Fiction will allways be years ahead of Science Fact, it's something i've learned to live with over the years ;)

[EMD2024]

Now we know were the Amtrak Viewliner car profile came from...as always 10 years behind on design trends.

[Woulfe]

To this day I wonder if the rateings were wrong and a lot of folks actually watched the show, just that NBC found it was 'too expencive' to keep around.

[bisnagaboy]

I loved that show! I loved theme more, though!

[Woulfe]

1979 to be precice. Show bombed big time, still a cool looking train non-the-less.

[chatanugadotorg]

I remember hearing about this show in a late 70s issue of Model Railroader. NBC was making it to be a kind of "Love Boat" on rails. Not surprisingly, it bombed.

[munchkinthecat]

That is one funky looking train!