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starting in 1996 with, I Love You, I Love You Not, with Claire Danes (Reflector Volume 6 Issue 3). Later, it would become the focal point of the independent movie The Station Agent, starring David Dinklage in 2003. That movie was an off-beat comedy filmed at many New Jersey locations, including the PortlandDelaware bridge near our current steam operation, but the station was the star location. It has since been sold to someone not a member of our Society. The current owners have a website that notes it has also been used in J. Crew advertising. Maywood Station, after its renovation, has been used for many photo shoots, including ones by Vanity Fair and for several weddings. It is the subject of The Maywood Station Story, narrated by Carl Quintanilla and is the source of an HO scale model that appeared in an episode of 30 Rock. It is also the focal point of an Images of America series book. After purchasing 142 from the Valley Railroad in Star David Dinklage in the film “The Station Agent” filmed on location at the NYS&W Newfoundland Station. escape of a detective and a damsel-in-distress from a serial killer. It used one of our crews to operate a Bel-Del train. The second college level film briefly used our train Connecticut, it appeared in the major motion picture Cider House Rules with Tobey McGuire in 1999. Labeled “Bangor and Aroostook” for the camera, it was the very first scene in the film, shot in Vermont. After moving to the Bel-Del and starting our regular operation, another independent film was shot there. I recall it being shot in either 2004 or 2005 but we were never to hear from it again. If you look on the Independent Movie Data Base (IMDB, found at imdb.com), it shows a release of The Mercy Man in 2009. It’s as good a time to mention that, according to a friend of mine in Los Angeles, there are three times the films released in theaters there than anywhere else in the country. It would explain both its absence (here) and yet showing a release date. The scene shot was about the convenient passing of a freight train for the in Lehigh Junction for their work. Again, I have little information on the details of this project and, again, we never got to see the results. Polar Express came out in 2004, our first year on the Bel-Del. We were asked if we could provide 142 for Tom Hanks to “arrive” in several major cities across the country on a steam train to tout the film, but that would have been a logistical nightmare and so never became a serious inquest. Two years later, we became a licensee of the name and it has become our most popular event, this year selling out in just a few hours. Since then, in 2010, Becoming Santa was filmed, listed as a comedy. The story follows a man through Santa School, learning all the nuances of the role. His first stop (about 20 minutes into the film) was at our Polar Express ride, where we had him scheduled on one of our four-trip evenings. If there was any doubt The cast and crew of “Figs For Italo” including Society members John Stocker, Chris Cotty, Dylan Vieytes, Martin DenBleyker, Nick Zisa, and Rich Butterworth. Not pictured here as they worked on another day of shooting, members Paul Weinberg, Don Young and Myron Biggar.

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