Every year, at this time of year, it's time to mark Christmas with some meaningful commentary from your humble blogger about something other than trains, not related to trains, not even tangentially related to trains, nor things loosely connected to trains...okay it's always about trains here on Trackside Treasure! A favourite Christmas movie (with a train in it) is the 1946 Frank Capra classic It's a Wonderful Life. Though unsuccessful at the box office and the Oscars, it is highly-rated in several American Film Institute rankings.
Life's themes of desperation and guilt, romance and redemption, sin and salvation, and good ol' "What if I'd never been born?", make those of us sitting-in-a-room-lit-only-by-twinkling-Christmas-lights-beverage-in-hand-when-it's-screened-in-the-late-evening susceptible to its timeless charms. Not surprisingly, I tend to then blur the plot with the equally schmaltzy and Jimmy Stewartzy 1954 The Glenn Miller Story. In both films, Jimmy is cast opposite equally dutiful and misty-eyed wives: Miller Story's June Allyson and Life's Donna Reed. The two plots differ; the ending of the prolific bandleader's notable life story is not as wonderful as we would have liked.
Though I haven't been through situations that made me want to jump off a bridge like Jimmy Stewart's character George Bailey was tempted to, it's fair to say that every life comes with low points. We can only hope then to be saved by a guardian angel like Clarence who shows us that we do matter and that we can get our life back on track.
We can also be our own personal Clarences, practising reflection and taking action. In the screenshot from Life (below) that could be me in the snow asking myself, "Is it time to stop blogging? Or should I just transition this to a blog about flashlights (Bring a Torch), raising Australian shepherds (While Shepherds Watched), or sheep (All I Want For Christmas is Ewe) or even George Clooney movies (We Three Kings)?"
No, I'll wander off that virtual bridge, back home, thankful for family and friends, and these 2025 sidebar blog partners who are neither bragadocious nor boastful enough to toot their own horns, so I will:
- Steve - I met Steve for the second time at Real Rails 2025
- Stephen - modelling Toronto with the UK always in view
- Dave - honouring the lasting legacy of railroader Rolly Martin
- Michael - autonomous Ottawa-based author always building readership
- Matthieu - awesome modelling toujours
- JD - always something new in the loop
- Jim - JSSX is a well-weathered 'road
- Chris - one of Canada's model railway true gurus
- Marc - modelling and mining Manitoba's north
- Don, George and Keith - a panoply of model/proto subjects...
...and commenters, readers and Googlers who find themselves here.
I'll raise a mug of non-egg nog to all and wish you...
Merry Christmas!
Season's Greetings!
--Eric
Let's leave this post with some spoilers from the films. Neither the Modernaires nor Frances Langford ever sang with Glenn Miller (above). Union Jack does not the United Kingdom make - filmed Stateside:
Dancing on top of a covered swimming pool is not always a good idea:
It's talking to Uncle Billy at the station that we find out what George's favorite and most exciting sounds are, and unsurprisingly he lists "anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles". Filmed in July! You are now in Bedford Falls, or...AT&SF's Lamanda Park station in Pasadena, California.
"Janie, would ya stop playing that piana??"
Life's plot is at turns dark and depressing. A polar opposite from the listings-populating Hallmark-inspired Christmas movie plots that pop up this time of year faster than Salvation Army kettles. Example: bakery owner girl serves boy. Boy and girl fall in love at the Christmas tree lot. Girl realizes boy is the son of a greedy developer intent on bulldozing the town's treasured community centre to put up condos. Boy and girl fall out of love. Realizing it was all a misunderstanding, boy [stays in town - they never leave!] and girl live happily ever after. Or at least until New Year's!
How did this get in here?
Let's finish festively with Christmas greetings arriving from near and far.
Lance Gleich:
Chris Mears:
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