After getting a good night's rest sleeping within view of Delicate Arch in Moab (yeah, really), a friend (Pete Lerro) and I returned to the town of Moab, UT to find an assortment of steam engines and both freight and passenger cars in a lot adjacent to a hotel.

I went down for a closer look and later got a shot from the roadway.

All the equipment was for use in the new Lone Ranger movie but other details were
much more sketchy.

I prayed these were borrowed from a local museum and hoped they were getting a
"free" restoration but maybe instead they are actually Hollywood props?

Details?

Enjoy the pics and feel free to fantasize on this discovery before anyone possibly
confirms they are anything but props.

/Mitch









/Mitch

Mason moved out of Taunton? That must explain the increased production!

Nice props.

Yep, nice props.

The loco sitting on a comparatively lightweight two axle trailer says that there is no weight to it.

"The loco sitting on a comparatively lightweight two axle trailer says that there is no weight to it."--Mark Jordan

The same goes for the "ore cars" on the trailer next to it.

also worth noting is the lack of a steam dome on any of the engines.

Some of the individual parts look moderately legit, such as the couplers and the air compressors.

Ant ideas as to what production these are from?

Good job! They are nice looking stand-ins.

Those dang trains!

Train props pushing movie over budget:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-lone ... bly,81295/

/Mitch

I'm impressed with the running gear especially. Once all the equipment is in place on these, I'd be willing to bet they'll make quite convincing 'steam engines'! I just hope they don't get scrapped after the movie is done...If you look closely, you can see the holes for the domes to be placed, along the top of the "boiler" in this photo:

I meant the actual dome of every engine that's part of the boiler shell. THAT part does not come off too easily.

I knew what you meant, but seeing that they were clearly replicas, I'd think some might question on if they even had fake domes in mind.
Seriously, they made one look like "Jupiter"? You'd think that the makers of the movie would know there were more 4-4-0s in the old west than the two that met at Promontory for drive the golden spike...
I'd like to see what the tenders look like, and I can't wait to see them all completed for filming.

Two-Hundred-and-Fifty Million Dollars for that movie's budget!!

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS!!

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION !@!!!@#$%^&*#$%!!@#$%!!! DOLLARS!!

Never mind foundation money for questionable art or government grants for transportation enhancement programs, don't bother with the steampunk crowd--just bamboozle--er, convince a movie studio into your next restoration project!!

Seriously, where did that money go? This thing is costing about double what James Cameron's "Titanic" did years ago, and he built a three-quarter size replica of that ship, and a custom artificial studio pond for it, too. On top of that, this is for a Western--one that was originally a radio and later a television series aimed at kids--and even by those standards, had a modest budget.

At the very least, someone should have told the director he could get at least three appropriate operating locomotives, and possibly the rolling stock, from a number of tourist roads and museums. Based on what is in the photos, we have a 4-4-0 and two 4-6-0s, all of which look to be of a period later in the West, perhaps the 1890s (both in proportion and in appliances, such as knuckle couplers and air brakes) yet at least one of them has a Mason Locomotive Works builder's plate for what would have had to be a much older and smaller engine, and Mason is now in Philadelphia!! Grrrrrr!!! I can think of at least three operational engines that would have looked like these that could have been used; Sierra No. 3, Wilmington & Western No. 98, and The Grapevine's 2248. That's just matching to wheel arrangements; toss in other machines like

http://www.valentine-photography.com/Tr ... 49&k=LARBF

http://www.valentine-photography.com/Tr ... ARBF-L.jpg

https://www.grapevinetexasusa.com/Porta ... 3da2e3.jpg

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 89&nseq=11

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 773&nseq=0

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 16&nseq=15

http://billbrownphotography.aminus3.com ... 10-26.html

That's just matching up wheel arrangements; throw in other power that looks like it would go with what this director has, and you would include Nevada Northern's 94 maybe the 40, and the Fillmore & Western's 14, and who knows what else, and that's just trying to stay in an 1890s time frame.

http://www.steamphotos.com/Railroad-Pho ... 59&k=dy4vm

http://www.fwry.com/The_FW_14_steam_eng ... ngine.html

Gee, for that kind of money, how well could we adapt something like Hollister Noble's "One Way to Eldorado?"

I tell you, I'm in the wrong line of work. . .

Maybe the studio justified the cost with the mindset that they get to keep the 3 engines for rental, lease and future movies?

Or maybe you just do what ever you are told by the director, lol.

Sure would have been nice to have 3 new "old" steam engines in service.

/Mitch

The genuine article looks classier too, those replicas seem kinda trashy....

I suspect that look is very intentional. While filming "Runaway Train", the first thing they did was a have a team of painters spend days painting the loco to look like she'd spent 6 months at the bottom of a swamp.

As for why use replicas, we've discussed that before. Easier, safer, and you can do whatever you want with them. Have your star drive the engine, gunfight on the boiler, explosion or train wreck straight out of the Adams Family, and if the dang thing falls over on that cheesy temp track, you're not stuck repairing a priceless artifact, you just send craft services on a Home Depot run.

That said, I am a bit confused, since I know somebody who's steam qualified that got a job on this production. Wonder why that was?