This 2 part episode from 1970 featured a steam loco, tender but just a baggage car and a single passenger car (well much of the drama of course occurs). I couldn’t tell - what kind of loco was it? Also was it by chance the Durango Silverton narrow guage (with snow on the ground I couldn’t recognize the San Juans well from other ranges)
I saw the show a while ago. It looks like a 2-6-0 if I remember correctly.
Jim H
I suspect that this is the same train used in the Hooterville shows - Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and the Beverly Hillbillies, as well as The Wild, Wild West. I did a search on The Wild,Wild West tv show and on wikipedia there is a note that the train interiors were used on an episode of Gunsmoke? A while back I found this website about the Canonball from the Hooterville shows, and it indicates that the train was also the one used in The Wild, Wild West - at least the actual train cars were…
http://www.tvacres.com/trains_cannonball.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Wild_West
Look under trivia on the wiki - entry. Of course, Wikipedia is wrong about as often as it is right!
Jim: I have watched all of the original Wild Wild West,
Petticoat Junction, Beverly Hillbillies and noticed that
the loco on the Wild Wild West is a 4-4-0 and the
Hooterville Cannonball is a 2-6-0. I think there is a bit
of subliminal messaging at work by the writers of the
shows. James West was a Secret Service agent in the
service of his country (America) and his loco (4-4-0) is
an “American” whereas the loco for the Hooterville Ca-
nonball (which was a shortline owned by the folks in
Hooterville) was a “Mogul” (2-6-0) maybe to play on the
“big business” of railroad ownership. Factoid: The Hooterville
Cannonball also starred in “Green Acres” w/Albert&Gabor.
That picture sure looks like the train on Gunsmoke.
Jim H
Yeah - the cars were dummies made for television/movie work - I’m betting those were the same ones on all these shows. Not sure about the locomotive - if it was the 2-6-0, then you think was probably the same one used in GAcres/PJunct, but if 4-4-0 then TWWWest? Man, I grew up watching all these shows. I’ve gotten the first season on TWWWest and the 2nd season comes out in a month or two - will get that on dvd as well. I have the first 3 seasons of Green Acres on dvd as well. Love to watch these shows with my kids - much better and funnier than stuff made nowadays. Just found out that the first 22 (?) episodes of Petticoat Junction were released in a set, so will get those when deepdiscount has another 20 percent off sale - should be in May 2007 (every 6 months or so). Loved Gunsmoke as a kid - I really liked one episode with an old miner and all the guy wanted was some crackers - he craved crackers!
I believe the episode was filmed in the Black Hills (South Dakota) and the train was the 1880 train that runs from Hill City to Keystone!