Happy April Fools Day! Doing something like last year’s WES post would be too much work (besides, I don’t really have anything new to add), so instead, here’s a fake train. I’ve mentioned how a MAX train was featured in the movie The Hunted, except it’s actually an articulated bus made to look like a Type 1. Reader Mr. K had been able to take some fantastic photos of that mock-up train and sent them here to be posted. I’ve been meaning to get these up for a while, keeping with the theme of a perspective that most people don’t get to see.
These photos are posted here with Mr. K’s explicit permission.
Please do not claim for your own use.
As with nearly all the pics on my blog, all of these can be clicked for larger versions.
Rooftop shots, including fake Hawthorne Bridge
Under the bridge shots & close-ups
Compare that with a real Type 1 – the mock-up looks pretty good!
As an added April Fools Day bonus: Restroom oddities of the Green Line!
This is in the Clackamas break room. I mean, break oom.
So naturally, someone did the obvious to the janitor room sign:
Then over in the Jackson turnaround:
I’m not really sure how that’s an accessible bathroom despite the sign, given that there are 5 steps up to the platform and then another step into the doorway…
Bonus #2 – Exclusive at Portland Transport, a first look at the new Type 5 LRVs! Exciting!
Camelopardalis
MAX FAQs 
Holly Sh*t. How much that mock LRV must have cost?! Seems like they could have just rented one from TriMet for a few days and shot it in a different environment like the West Hills tunnel, or just had a second unit in Chicago where there are plenty of fast moving transit and girder bridges. This must be why movie budgets are so much today.
My understanding (and Mr. K’s as well) is that that artic was one of the old Crown-Ikarus 286 of TriMet, so I imagine that saved some of the cost. I had zero involvement with the filming of this movie so I don’t have any insight as to why this was the method they chose.
Some more pictures of the “train”; I’ve read it was actually two buses spliced together. Overall, some filmmakers will go to great lengths to get things presented how they want them.