On an excursion in 1953. Wasn't this the one in the movie "It Happened to Jane", that lasted until 1958 before being cut up after no on-line town wanted it?

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?o ... y_1953.jpg

Bob:

I seem to recall that the 2-8-2 used in the movie was NYNH&H #3020. I may be wrong though.

Les

Bob,

3016 was used for the movie It Happened to Jane, according to the book New Haven Power. Lots of good run by and cab shots in that movie.

Mark

There were 3 J-1 2-8-2s saved for snow melter steam supply use after steam power died on the New Haven in 1952. 3020 was the Providence (RI) engine, and was last used in March 1956. 3016 was assigned to New Haven, and 3006 to Boston terminal. All were retired (in New Haven parlance, "condemned", with a big "C" painted next to the road number) in mid-1956, but they somehow stuck around until early 1958, when Hollywood came calling.

After the movie was finished in July 1958, 3016 shed her movie "Eastern & Portland 97" makeup and was relettered NH 3016. That summer. Bob McKernan, the NH PR Director, offered the 3016 to Essex and New Haven, CT for display, and also offered her to Joe Leahy, owner of the Danbury Fair (where 1863-built Boston & Providence 4-4-0 "Daniel Nason" was on display-- in 1982, it was sold to St. Louis MOT after the Fair was closed). The two Connecticut trolley museums were apparently not interested in a New Haven steam locomotive.

The towns and Fair said "not interested", so the three engines were shipped dead-in-tow to Luria Brothers at South Modena, PA. Two weeks later, Leahy called McKernan (apparently, he had second thoughts about the engine), and after a mad scramble on long-distance telephone lines, it was ascertained that 3016 was already partly cut up. This info came from personal interviews in the 1980s with Bob McKernan and others involved.

The movie is a humorous and sometimes sly look at "New England" as it was once perceived, and many of the railroad scenes were filmed on what is now the Valley Railroad, in Chester and Essex, CT. Other sequences were shot on NH lines at Hartford ("Marshalltown") and Plainfield, CT. E&P President Harry Foster Malone was based (and not loosely) on the notorious Patrick B. McGinnis. The great Ernie Kovacs played Malone.

It's not "Citizen Kane", but it is a cute film.

Netflix has this movie available.

I suppose the trolley museums would have been a tough sell for this mikado. Can you imagine hauling that big engine by truck (in 1958) to either museum?

I just watched this movie, and it has some quality steam shots. It also has what appears to be a coaling tower shot in New Haven or Hartford. There is also a shot of the engine arriving at the Hartford Union Station. The capitol dome is clearly visible in the background, just as it is today.

Coal dock shots were at Lamberton St. Shops in New Haven, the "downtown" passenger engine facility. This is the location of Amtrak, Metro-North and Conn DOT's shop facilities today.

The crossing shot with the new FL9s on the two passenger trains is at Plainfield, CT, now operated by Providence & Worchester. The semaphores are gone, but the diamond remains.

"Cape Anne" was a false-front set station, built at Chester, CT. The location is about 100 feet from the current Chester station (actually, the relocated and restored staion from Quinnipiack, CT).

Folks,

It did rather surprise me that there were not steam museums in Connecticut until recently.

A friend of mine who is a founder of the Connecticut Trolley Museum and the Connecticut Valley Chapter of the NRHS tells me that the main problem was that the New Haven had Al Perleman as President and he managed to scrap every single New Haven steam engine.

It was not until many years later that the Danbury and Connecticut Eastern Chapter groups got going with by now historic New Haven Diesels that the main line museums were added to the two existing trolley museum in the state.

Ted Miles
Nutmeg State.

Um, Ted, you're a bit off here; Alfred Perlman was President of the New York Central, and at least 5+ NYC steam locos exist.

The notorious Patrick B. McGinnis was head of the New Haven from April 1955 to mid-1956; all NH steam power besides the three "snow-melters" had been scrapped before PBM arrived.

The Conn Trolley Museum had a small group of members in the early 60s who were interested in steam locos, and had gotten a Hartford Electric Light Co 0-4-0T #5 steamed up at the Warehouse Point location. That group formed the nucleus of the Connecticut Valley Railroad Association in 1966, which operated a number of trips over the New Haven, using Steve Bogen's 2-8-0 #97 (now at Valley Railroad). CVRA became one of the three groups that founded the Valley Railroad in 1969, and in 1974, CVRA became the non-profit CVRM. A name change was made in 1988 to Railroad Museum of New England.

Danbury and Ct Eastern NRHS groups were outgrowths of RMNE's search for a permanent location-- RMNE spent much time and money trying to develop both Danbury and Willimantic as viable sites. After we passed on each, the locally-based members at each place formed a new museum group (1991 for Willimantic, and 1994 for Danbury).

The primary group of authenic New Haven locomotives, rolling stock and equipment belongs to RMNE, and most of it is on the RMNE's Naugatuck Railroad at Thomaston and Waterbury, CT.

Howard P.
Who has literally "been there, done ALL that" regarding CVRM and RMNE.