If you love trains, watch The Sundown Limited (1924)

[wheezer]

I just saw the early silent The Sundown Limited for the first time in years and it is completely charming. It was remade in 1929 as Railroadin'. One of the cleverest in terms of properties, created by Charlie Oelze. When the kids build their steam engine, it looks completely convincing, and we gradually find out the tricks: puffs of flour for steam, a dog on a treadmill chasing a cat for a motor. To me all of the Our Gang shorts though the mid-thirties besides being delightful as comedies, are almost like documentaries with their depiction of children and American landscapes of the period. All film does this to some extent, but for me, the Our Gang films do it best. This film has wonderful footage of actual steam locomotives, and then we see how a steam engine might be imagined through a child's eye. It's a wonderful homage to two special things we have lost, the romance of the steam engine, and the special world of childhood.