Colossal Collision

In Colorado's deep-slashed Las Animas River canyon two ancient locomotives were fired up until the safety valves were blowing under a full head of steam. Five cars were hooked on to one engine, two on to the other; in addition, the locomotives carried 300 sticks of dynamite garnished with 30 Ibs. of black powder. Portentously, [rom about a fifth of a mile apart, the panting engines began to roll slowly toward each other on the same narrow-gauge track. The engineers in the cabs pushed the throttles open, then jumped clear as the trains picked up speed. A few seconds later the canyon rocks reverberated with a thunderous blast as the iron horses collided headon. Scrap iron hurtled against the wooden barricades which protected the five cameras grinding away from different angles. Farther off, 300 railroad and film people cheered. As any small boy could understand, there may be something richly satisfying in the spectacle of two monsters bashing hell out of each other.

Thus, last week, the film industry recorded its first no-fake train collision, the supercolossal climax of Paramount's old-time rail saga called The Denver and Rio Grande. The D. & R.G. itself donated the equipment, due for scrapping. Producer Nat Holt staged the wreck as a fictional incident of the railroad's struggle with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe some 70 years ago, to push the first railway track through Colorado's Royal Gorge. Producer Holt had only one misgiving about his $165,000 real thing: "It looks so good, people will probably think it was staged with miniatures."

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