I have placed this on the Southern forum, also, .....I was in Griffin, talking with Mr. Warren Frye the other day, and we were discussing old railroad lines around the area. He made mention of the old "Atl/ Ft. Valley" line that went through Zebulon. He told me that in the 70's (approximately), Johnny Cash was in a movie in Zebulon, Ga. as engineer on a steam locomotive on this old line. Does anyone else know anything about this?

-- Elton (RepoMan801@aol.com), January 24, 2004

Answers

Small contribution to this problem, in that, while watching a J Cash deal on CMT this afternoon saw a short bit of footage with Cash waving out the window of Southern 4501. This gave me an opportunity to reflect on this time in the seventies as late father was Engineer for filming in Courtland / Wheeler Alabama. I was only around 15 at the time. On the segment with Cash out the window, dad in floor on concrete block. They probably did this all over the railroad and added the footage together for the film. Got gloves Cash wore......$50 a finger. Send away for yours now.. (Actually a joke my dad used to tell about having two dozen pairs of gloves...) Anyway, I wish I had a picture of that event on my office wall, ergo my discovery of your discussion. I think Jack Daniel in Memphis Tenn has copies of all the photos of the Southern event that he used for his book about the history of the railroads of North Alabama. T. W. Dugger Trainmaster-Norris Yard Norfolk Southern Railway

-- Tom Dugger (tom.dugger@nscorp.com), September 11, 2004.

The name of the show was a Johnny Cash special.....

"Johnny Cash.....Riding the rails"

I remember the show well. The last scene was pretty cool. Johnny is the cab of the 4501 singing "The city of new orleans".

It was a cool show.

Cary

-- Cary Atkinson (carya@save-net.com), June 17, 2004.

This sounds like some of the footage that was used in his music video for the song "Hurt." It came out not long before his death last year. Some copies of the CD "The Man Comes Around" include a DVD with the video on it.

They used a lot of old footage in the video, including some in which he is in the cab of a steam locomotive going down some track and some of him climbing into a boxcar with guitar in hand.

-- Skip Jennings (rjennings20@comcast.net), January 27, 2004.

As I remember it Johnny Cash had a couple of specials on TV and it was included in one of them.

Gordon

-- Gordon Tuenge (gotrains@yahoo.com), January 26, 2004.

Thank you, Mr. Tuenge. Do you happen to know the name of the movie, or know where I might find out more about it?

-- Elton (RepoMan801@aol.com), January 26, 2004.

About all I can tell you about the date is that it was between 74 and 79 when I was Trainmaster on this line. We spent two days "shooting" several scenes over and overand it seemeed like an eterninity. Then, when it finally aired on TV, only a few seconds were shown. Very disappointing! Johnny Cash, the actors and the filming crew all worked well with us "railroaders" and the weather was favorable. The structural lines of old depot at Zebulon went well with the steam engine in recreating an historical appearance.

Filming was also done for 2 days at the freight depot at Griffin on the Cof GA during that same week. Made for a tremondous loss of time for Trainmaster duties that week but as I reflect back upon it I'm glad I had the opportunity to be involved. It was really a highlight in meeting Johnny Cash.

-- Gordon Tuenge (gotrains@yahoo.com), January 24, 2004.