Can anyone offer any information on the train “CannonBall Express” from the TV show Petticoat Junction.
I am also looking for any other information as to the buildings and stuctures found on the series.
I have set the railroad bug on my wife and I would enjoy modeling that era and area with her.
Thank you.
I’ve found several sites dedicated to the show, and a couple for the RR and the later models used on the show.
Just Google Petticoat Junction, Hooterville, Hooterville Cannonball, Cannonball Express be surprised what you find
[#welcome] Loose Caboose
The locomotive was Sierra Ry’s 4-6-0 Rogers #3. The combine was a Sierra Ry Overton car. Mantua used to produce a model of a Rogers ten wheeler, and MDC/Roundhosue had a Sierra Overton Combine. Both of which you can find on Ebay from time to time.
The Locomotive was in the show was lettered for the C&FW. IIRC that stood for Chicago & Ft. Worth. The network did all the filming of the train at once at the beginning of the series, and used recycled shots throughout the show. Closeups of the loco and comb. were props, and in fact the locomotive was a one sided prop.
Nobody knows where Hooterville is, because it was never stated in the show. I’m sure if you google it, you can come up witht he blurb about catching a plane and then a bus that they used in the show. Anyhow, all of the info I gave you was off the top of my head, so some of it is probably wrong, and I’ll be corrected soon. I’d also like to be the first to welcome you to the forum’s, and tell you that you’ve come to the right place for help.
As you may or may not be aware already, Caboose, TYCO offered their Rogers Sierra ten-wheeler (a very close match to the Petticoat Jct. locomotive) painted and lettered appropriately with “C&FW Railroad” on the tender and “Hooterville Cannonball” on the cab of the loco, circa 1967. Likewise, as a train set, it came with three short period passenger cars suitably decorated to an approximation of the show’s cars (particularly the lead shorty combine). Several websites provide images of the TV location sets and there are also some devoted to scale models of same.
CNJ831
The locomotive as has been said was made by Mantua/Tyco. The Mantua line has been bought up by Model Power so it should be available.
Check at model RR swapmeets the locomotive is usually common at the swaps I attend. The cars are best matched by the MDC/Roundhouse Overton Combine and Coach.
In any case a trip to the paint shop is going to be necessary for all the equipment. Research the colours and warm up the airbrush.
I loved teh show when it was on TV. At the time I was a high school kid. It was the perfect show, Girls and Trains
The perfect structure for Petticoat Jct is IHC stock # 3512 “Old Time Water Tank”. Its not listed at Walthers now, but may be available on Ething or train shows. What makes this “Perfect” is it’s an open top water tank, and includes a figure to put into the “water”!! You could exchange the included figure for a couple of Prieser “bathers” or “models”, to stand-in for the PJ girls!![:)]
In fact, the Rogers ten-wheeler is not currently part of Model Power’s Mantua Classics line (and probably is unlikely to be). And I don’t believe a locomotive actually decorated for the Petticoat Jct. TV series has been available from TYCO/Mantua for decades.
The passenger cars that came with the original TYCO Petticoat Jct. set are as close to the ones in the TV show as the MDC examples. Actually there were three TYCO Petticoat Jct. sets over time, with varying colors for the loco and cars. Only the early set had the colors correct for the TV version of the locomotive and tender, while the cars themselves were never a match. So, if one can find one of the early sets, repainting the engine and tender, at least, is almost totally unnecessary.
CNJ831
Hooterville was part of the “Beverly Hillbillies” universe, and IIRC, was not far from the Clampetts’ hometown of Bugtussel, which I believe was supposed to be Arkansas. I somehow got the idea that the Clampetts came from the Ozarks, so would Hooterville perhaps be somewhere in the vicinity of Branson?
I dont ever remember Hooterville being connected with the Beverly Hillbilies - rather Hootervilie was referenced extensively - and even featured on a few episodes of - Green Acres. Green Acres was an offshoot of Petticoat Junction and featured some the same characters (i.e. Mr. Drucker the grocer) Green Acres was supposed to be rural New Jersey (not sure there is a rural New Jersey) so I would assume Hooterville was in rural New Jersey.
Amazing the detail one remembers of some old TV shows when I cant even tell you what I ate last night for dinner!
Well, according to Wiki, there was some crossover between Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction/Green Acres (which were definitely tied together).
[quote user=“Wayzata Modeler”]
Green Acres was s
An Iowa location also works for being “400 miles from Chicago”. And in at least one episode of Green Acres, they mention my home town of Cedar Rapids as being the nearest large metropolitan community. Plus, in those days Iowa was the best bet to find an operation like Fred Ziffel’s. Just follow the smell of hog manure. The C&FW was probably the remnant of a line that once ran from Chicago through south-central Iowa to Kansas City, and then south to Texas.
Here’s an informative site about the trains:
This thread got me to looking around on the IMDB site. Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and the Beverly Hillbillies were all created by the same people. Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies did visit (twice accroding to the IMDB site) but I don’t think Petticoat Junction was “back home” for the Clampett clan.
I read a while back in a RI related publication (I can’t remember if it was from the RI Tech Society or the Remember the Rock magazine) that one of the creators of Petticoat Junction spent some time while growing up around Eldon, Missouri. There was a hotel/inn there, that may have been run by relatives of his, that supposedly was the inspiration for the Shady Rest. Eldon was a RI division point, not too far from the Lake of the Ozarks. I’ll have to look for the issue, but my “archives” aren’t has orderly has they should be.
One time when TV Land was airing the series, I happened to see what I think was the pilot episode. They showed Homer Bedloe (the actor who portrayed him also had a small part in “It’s a Wonderfull Life”) talking to his superiors in an office about the Cannonball. In the office was a model of a streamlined passenger train. It was unlettered, but you could see the warbonnet markings just the same.
Jeff
I was basing my rural New Jersey on what I remember some signage during the opening credits for the show. I cant remember specifically what - but I think there was something indicating New Jersey. I might be wrong. Did the Agricultural Extension agent (“It a beautiful day well not exactly a beautiful day just kind of a okay day now that I think about it might rain later so that would mean its not a beautiful day but more like a a rotten day”) have anything on his car indicating a state?
I swear there was something indicating New Jersey - but maybe my kool-aid had gone hard that day.
This was a fun old discussion and I do recall an episode or two where the Clampets visited the Shady Rest hotel. I think during the same “trip” from California they dropped in on Silver Dollar City which puts them in Branson. I always pictured Hooterville as somewhere in southern Missouri. Funny thing though, you could argue it’s in Tennessee pretty well. There is a real CFW railway that runs from Tullahoma to Mcminnville. The countryside around there is a dead ringer for what Hooterville was supposed to be – agriculture, small farms, small towns, and long way from the big city. Though there were in the 60s and still are today, a lot of places that meet that description.
I remember that episode, I agree that it was probably the pilot. IIRC The man in the office was trying to figure out what exactly the Cannonball was, and where it was located. Apparently, that portion of the railroad, had managed to slip through the cracks and was forgotten about until a requisition of some type reached headquarters from the Cannonball crew. But I could be wrong, I have been before, and will be again. [:D]
Luckily YouTube comes thru with the opening credits of Green Acres . Nothing particularly Jersey-like to me in that intro.
Now, sporadically during the run of the show, Olivier would be shown driving that Lincoln of his along some paved county road, but I’m thinking those ‘location’ farm shots were probably filmed in the Imperial Valley or some other (then) agricultural area of Southern California.
I remember Hank Kimball’s vehicle being a yellow or beige Ford Bronco (the original open convertible SUV style), but I don’t remember any seal or anything on it (watched when TVLand ran the Green Acres marathons a few years back, but didn’t pay attention to such details so they could be there).
Like any Hollywood thing, PJ was pretty much your representative backwoods place that could be Anywhere, USA, it emulates a reality but is not exactly any one place. Because of their Southern Drawl I have to place them like your Kentucky/Tenessee idealism.
Chicago and Fort Worth, theres been many the railroad with city names and never got to any of the such named towns in their name.
Thank you all for such an overwhelming reply.
I have googled, surfed and scanned so much information I feel that I now belong on the show.[:P]
I agree Hooterville is anywhere USA full of good people who help one another as yaw have, [;)]
The wife and I are going to enjoy this. By the way our town used to be called Bowdil (no kidding)
sounds like it’s right next door to Hooterville and the gang.
With your help I have found an original Tyco Petticoat Junction Train set still in the box unopened and a complete DVD collection of all 222 episodes. ( Were’s my wallet)
We will be modeling our own ten wheeler as the Tyco is too much of a collectors item and we do not want to open it.
The Shady Rest, Drucker’s, and the infamous water tower complete with petticoats will soon be part of the Bowdil Line.
Thank you.