Surviving Full Sized Movie Prop Equipment

boilerwash · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 7:55 am

Found this picture of a couple of passenger cars which appear to have been shoved to the "back 40" of the Texas State Railroad and mostly forgotten about:

http://sonicandthomasfan7.deviantart.co ... -535312212

A quick look around google found that they were built for use in the Jesse James western "American Outlaws" made back in 2001. I found it interesting that props like these could sit around in obscurity for well over a decade.

It got me thinking as to just how many pieces of "prop" rail equipment have managed to survive after the film they starred in has come and gone. I'm taking about stuff purpose built like in the pic above and not actual historic equipment that got back dated or dressed up for filming.

So far what I can think of is the "Lone Ranger" props which were stored at the Filmore & Western, Doc Brown's time train from "Back to the Future III" down in Florida, and a prop steamer that was used in a couple of westerns and then used on the Universal Studios, California tour.

philip.marshall · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 8:03 am

One famous piece of "prop" railroad equipment is the Emma Sweeney, a wooden mock-up of a narrow gauge 4-6-0 (modeled after RGS 20) that was used in the 1950 film "Ticket to Tomahawk". It's now in the care of the Durango Railroad Historical Society.

http://www.drhs315.org/blog/projects/emma-sweeney-2/history/

-Philip Marshall

Dennis Storzek · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 8:19 am

Nowhere near as large, but I seem to recall the California State RR Museum has a collection of several fake stacks at Jamestown, that had been worn by Sierra 3 at one time or another. They also have several fake latticework "umbrella shed supports" that had been used to make the platform at Jamestown look like a big city terminal for some close shots.

I'm surprised the Emma Sweeny looks as good as it does after all these years in the weather, considering that props are typically constructed of wood with a limited intended life. On the latticework columns at Jamestown, the glue was letting go and all the fake rivet heads were falling off.

Randy Gustafson · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 2:47 pm

Wasn't Strasburg's one open car originally built specifically for "Hello Dolly?"

Not just used in the movie, but purpose-built, if there's such a distinction, between an operating prop and a piece of equipment that appears in a movie.

I've often wondered what happened to the 4449 replica that was used in "Tough Guys". Last seen in this 2002 Trainorders thread in a garage.....
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,125477

That was one first-class model. For railfans, it deserved an NC-17 rating for graphic destruction of what looked like a priceless artifact!

wesp · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 3:02 pm

Perhaps Sandy Mitchell can confirm the existence of the Baltimore streetcar prop used in the film Avalon.

Wesley

Texas Chaz · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 5:27 pm

boilerwash wrote:

Found this picture of a couple of passenger cars which appear to have been shoved to the "back 40" of the Texas State Railroad and mostly forgotten about:

http://sonicandthomasfan7.deviantart.co ... -535312212

A quick look around google found that they were built for use in the Jesse James western "American Outlaws" made back in 2001. I found it interesting that props like these could sit around in obscurity for well over a decade.

These are still located about 200' from the main shop in Rusk, I think they were originally US Army plywood box cars, converted by the movie production crew in 2001. I would imagine running on an old freight car frame might make for a rough ride haha!

Chaz

Texas Chaz · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 5:31 pm

Here is a pic of the Sierra 3 model used in Back to the Future 3 if anyone was wondering how they managed to crash it at the end, I believe it was mostly made of fiberglass:

scottychaos · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 9:08 pm

Ward Kimball's Grizzly Flats depot was originally built as a Disney movie prop:

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/scotty ... index.html

Scot

eze240 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:29 am **Posts:** 318

The Cannonball tourist train in Florida uses three cars that were built from flats for movie service.....they were recently in True grit, Appaloosa, etc.....

Jim Vaitkunas · **Posted:** Thu May 28, 2015 10:57 am

On the streetcar side, there are several museums that have loaned/rented streetcars for movie use. I know Seashore Trolley Museum and the Shoreline Trolley Museum (Branford) have rented out a car or two for a movie. The most famous example are the shots of Boston No. 396 running down a Cambridge, Mass street in the Cardinal (and using the positive trolley bus wire for the current). The same car was also seen in a TV movie scene which was shot in Brooklyn, NY.

I'm sure Orange Empire Railway Museum has many examples of this. They actually have a Pacific Electric single truck Birney that was used in the musical Singing in the Rain back in the early 50s. And then there's the Who Shot Roger Rabbit flick that featured those "red cars" running on rubber tires!

Thanks!

sc 'doc' lewis · **Posted:** Thu May 28, 2015 3:14 pm

I'm confused...I understood the initial posting to be 'equipment/scenery' that originated as props for a movie and ended up being preserved. Postings have turned to equipment that have been in movies...not the same thing IMHO.

Heber Valley received with the #75 Movie Train a stock car that was a prop built for the movie 'Geronimo'. It remained on the property for a number of years, but I believe the wood structure has been scrapped, returning it to a simple flat...so it no longer 'survives'.

sc 'doc' lewis

Gregslaton · **Posted:** Thu May 28, 2015 3:32 pm

In Lake Charles, LA is the Dental Depot, a rail themed pediatric dental practice.

The good doctor acquired a rail car prop built for an episode of Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman.
You can see the car and read about it here:

http://www.thedentaldepot.com/

click on "depot story"

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Fri May 29, 2015 2:10 am

The "Emma Sweeney" had some other work after "Ticket to Tomohawk," if this note from Wikipedia is correct:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooterville_Cannonball

Quote:

Mock - Up for Studio Use[edit]
The history of the mock-up train is believed to be as follows: Originally it was built for a 1950 Dan Dailey, Walter Brennan, Rory Calhoun and a (almost unknown) Marilyn Monroe 20th Century Fox movie production called "A Ticket to Tomahawk" as a double for an engine called the Emma Sweeny, for use in scenes where it is pulled by a team of mules. The original 1950 cost of the elaborate studio mock-up was $40,000. Later in the 1950s, Fox sold the wooden/metal/fiberglass engine to Harvey Dick, who wanted it to promote his Barbary Coast bar in his 1890s gas light style hotel in Portland, Oregon, called the Hoyt Hotel. In the 1960s, the train went on to be used in the Petticoat Junction TV series, from 1963-1970 - the Hoyt Hotel is given credit in the end titles of each episode. It was also used in the Wild Wild West TV show for scenes of the engine and tender.

After the TV studios were done using the engine, the train movie prop became the property of Sacramento restauranteur/collector Sam Gordon. Gordon displayed it in the parking lot of his Sam's Stage Coach Inn (Sam's Town) along Hwy 50 in Cameron Park, California, about 30 miles to the east of Sacramento. Later the mock up fell into disrepair. In 1979 it was purchased by John Queirolo and Rick Stevenson. Later they gave the care and custody of the train to Amador County Museum, and it was then restored. The train ended up in its present location at the Amador County Museum in Jackson, California. In August, 2011, the locomotive mock up was acquired from the Amador County museum by Durango Railroad Historical Society in Durango, Colorado, and was shipped there in November 2011. As of December 2012 it is undergoing restoration to its original state as the Emma Sweeny.[1]

If this is accurate, then the mock up was also used in at least one episode of the TV series, "Iron Horse," which starred Western veteran actor Dale Robertson:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Horse_(TV_series)

The pilot film for "Iron Horse," "Scalplock," made for TV, 1966--curious that it has an adult viewing advisory!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7HvpAFRdlo

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Jun 01, 2015 12:55 pm

wesp wrote:

Perhaps Sandy Mitchell can confirm the existence of the Baltimore streetcar prop used in the film Avalon.

It doesn't.

I never saw said prop, but the anecdotes I was told indicated that what was fabricated, using a variety of plywood, sheet metal and actual PCC spares riding on rubber tires, barely stayed together long enough to finish the movie scene, and was quickly disassembles to return the spares to safe storage. The actual surviving 7407 was also used in filming the views of riding the car as well.

p51 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 01, 2015 2:22 pm

I found some shots of the 4449 “Tough Guys” mockup, which I was shocked to find still apparently exists!

Surviving Full Sized Movie Prop Equipment

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