AS THE THRILLING scenes of Walt Disney’s “The Great Locomotive Chase" unfold on the screen, few will realize what tremendous planning and preparation was necessary in order to photograph them. These are chase scenes that are different from the usual scenes of the pursuing and the pursued filmed in Hollywood where every possible kind of equipment necessary for this type of photography is at the cameraman’s immediate command.
The chase scenes for this picture were filmed 1500 miles away, in the mountains of Georgia, and as is usually the case when a film company goes on location, exigencies arose that invariably found the company in need of a vital piece of production equipment or forced to change its shooting schedule.
That’s what happened to the Walt Disney company on location at Clayton Georgia, where director of photography Charles Boyle A. S. C. and his camera crew undertook one of the most challenging photographic assignments in filmdom history. Because there were little or no paved roads paralleling the railroad over which much of the action was to be filmed, the camera car brought along for shooting from the
highway was converted with flanged wheels so it could travel on the tracks. Some of the picture’s most thrilling scenes were filmed from the camera travelling before or behind the train as it sped along the ancient rail line that extends from Atlanta to Chattanooga.
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