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James Clark Is Hollywood’s ‘Go-to’ Man for Trains
By Kit Knight
James
Clark, 66, has been involved in over 250 movies and TV series.
If a Hollywood production needs a train, Clark gets the call. Need
a
Civil War train? Call Jim. Need a train that looks like a tank?
Call Jim — he’ll build one.
Some of the movies he’s been involved with are “Throw Momma From
The Train,” “Lethal Weapon 4,” “Eraser,” “Money
Train,” “Fast and Furious,” “Under Siege II” and
numerous others. His TV productions include 22 episodes of “Dr. Quinn Medicine
Woman,” “War and Remembrance,” and Clark’s work was important
to Steven Spielberg’s 2005 mini-series, “Into The West.”
As a child, Clark liked both trains and cars, but his interest wasn’t geared
to model trains; instead, he preferred visiting rail yards and train museums.
From 1961 to 1974 Clark raced cars for Chrysler, and the paint jobs on his cars
often included a train.
Clark moved to Carson City, Nevada in 1976 and got a job at the Nevada State
Railroad Museum. He formed a company called the Nevada Film Agency, and by 1986
he’d been involved with over 30 motion pictures filmed in northern Nevada,
both as a stuntman and as a train consultant. Clark provided 33 vintage antique
cars for Clint Eastwood’s “Honkytonk Man.”
In 1986, Clark returned to southern California and founded the first-ever train
rental business. The business was unique because Hollywood productions now had
available railroad equipment within 30 miles.
At first, Clark leased only three miles of track, but it grew to include hundreds
of available miles. Eventually the business separated into three separate locations,
and most of the equipment was able to travel by rail to “shoots” outside
of southern California. In a period of over 20 years, Clark’s business
worked with hundreds of movies all over the country.
The biggest selling point of the business was that Clark went out on location
to Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico — wherever the location was. He not only
suggested and found what type of train was needed, but he could coordinate stunts.
Often, Clark was “in costume” as the engineer in many of the films.
Clark helped design the stunts and was the engineer in the movie “Swithback” in
1997. He also worked on the 1999 movie “Wild Wild West,” starring
Will Smith. That movie was supposed to be an extension of the 1960s TV series,
and the train needed to be of Civil War vintage. Clark found a locomotive from
1856 in a museum in Baltimore, Maryland. The engine hadn’t run for 40 years,
and his crew took six months to restore it and even to build a few parts, like
brakes. That particular model didn’t have brakes, which just won’t
do for a Hollywood production.
For that same movie, Clark was asked to design a train that resembled a tank.
He did. And it blew up beautifully. (Let’s face it, most people want the
movie train to either blow up or fall off the bridge.) Clark says the key to
stunt work is preparation, and more preparation. He says, “Everything,
to the smallest detail, needs to be planned out.”
But planning does have its limits. When Clark was working on the TV series “The
Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.” the shot called for the actor to ride
a horse at full speed toward a moving train so the actor could vault aboard.
The horse was supposed to be left in the dust, and Clark — in engineer
garb — was supposed to take the train to full throttle and speed away.
Someone forgot to tell the horse, because it kept going and overtook the train
in take after take after take.
One of Jim Clark’s greatest friendships involved the Sacramento Railroad
Museum, where some of the vintage locomotives and rolling stock were available
to Clark for various film projects. He cherishes his 30-plus year relationship
with the museum’s recently retired curator, Steven Drew, and with the museum’s
past director, the recently-deceased Walter Gray. Clark adds, “The museum
staff was always helpful.”
After selling his California interests, Clark moved to Tombstone, Arizona, where
he continued his film and train work. He also organized six film festivals there
centering on western movies and cowboy stars.
In 2007, Clark returned to his favorite scenery and bought a home in Virginia
City, Nevada. He loves northern Nevada almost as much as he loves western movies.
I’ve been to Clark’s home, and the walls are plastered with photos
and signatures of famous movie stars. He even has a signed Mae West poster — now
that’s rare — in one of the bathrooms.
When I asked what his official title is, the train man didn’t hesitate
to answer: “Coordinator and stunt man for films involving railroad scenes.” His
latest project is coaxing Hollywood to build a working movie set in Virginia
City near the Virginia & Truckee rail line. Of course, it has to involve
the historic railroad and, naturally, Jim himself.
This page and its contents ©2009
Metropolitan News Company, Inc.
