Trains on old TV series

The Fonz and the gang from Happy Day going from Milwaukee to California via the Pennsylvania. (w/a GG1, no less...) 

Rusty

I clearly recall the Dukes of Hazzard episode called "The Ghost of General Lee", where Boss Hogg almost got nailed by a SP Daylight train at a grade crossing... in Georgia, decades after the last Daylight ran.

Mind you, there was a full Daylight re-creation which ran with 4449, one time, to New Orleans from Portland and back, but that was 5 years after the episode aired.

I know it makes sense, but it isn't "right" for the location, and, in the 1960s when the episode aired, a lot more people probably realized it wasn't an Eastern road than would today.

My favorite was the first episode of "The Fugitive." They board what appears to be a streamlined Santa Fe San Diegan at LAUPT, but the "wreck" involves Pullman Green Heavyweight models. Another bit of trivia, the final episode (they got the on-armed man and cleared Dr. Richard Kimball) was filmed at Pacific Ocean Park in Venice, CA (near Santa Monica). P.O.P. had been closed for a couple of years but the rides were still standing, so studios did filming there for a while.

In the movie "White Christmas" I think that there is a Santa Fe passenger train going to Vermont.

Right. If you watch carefully, you might even see the palm tree in the background. I also remember someone from that movie tell the story about being all bundled-up in heavy winter clothing in the station in "vermont", trying to make it LOOK LIKE it was winter.

Actually it was the ATSF to NYC and SP to Pine Tree Vermont.( SP F3 in Black Widow makings pulling heavy weight passenger cars)

The Hooterville Cannonball.

Iron Horse

Rusty

The skipper was in the Casey Jones TV show? 

It's the Skipper's father.  Alan Hale Sr.

Rusty

It seems like that Sierra Railroad steamer and coach/combine consist probably had the most TV time of any steam railroad equipment until the internet and tourist railroads met up.

I believe the Skipper and Casey Jones are the same Alan Hale.

I stand corrected.  Alan Hale Sr. died in 1950.  Junior was a pretty much a chip off the old block.

Rusty

Wild Wild West used an old 1800's style 4-4-0 and a couple old wooden coaches. Funny how no matter where they were, it was still the same dusty siding they parked in..

That was the Serra Railroad, if I'm not mistaken. 

The Wild, Wild West used ex-V&T #22 (the Inyo,) for most of the series, which was owned by Paramount Studios at the time.  It was renumbered 8 so the image could be flipped and the number still appear correct.

Sierra #3 was used in several early episodes and appeared in some stock footage in later episodes and this publicity photo.

Rusty

At least the old shows used real locomotives, whether they were in the correct setting or not. I enjoy a modern show, "Hades on Wheels" , which is about the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, and yet they use fake plywood steam locomotives that are moved around by diesels. If the story wasn't so good (considering it is TV fiction), I'd pass on it just because of the fake locomotives.

That last shot was in front of famous movie locomotive, Sierra # 3. You can compare the pilot with the shot above it and see the difference, among other things.

When visiting the Sierra RR roundhouse, they have a corner filled with pilots, smokestackes, loco names and numberboards from various film and tv productions.

Yep, lots of fake cabs, depot signs, etc. They even had the fake back of the caboose from the 3rd Back to the Future movie which had been mounted on a flatcar.

I went there around 2005. Such an amazing place if you're ever in the area.

Like Jim Hutton (Ellery Queen) and Tim Hutton (Leverage).

I also like the story, but am equally irked by the railroad scenes. Just a real snorting steamer once in a while would really help, instead of the sterile stage-like mobiles.

Firewood,

   I can understand your thinking, but the show was great and the Train a true Classic!

Nothing today rivals it on TV anywhere.  The Western setting with Agents fighting crime while traveling the country aboard a Train, man what a series for television! 

One of my all time favorites.  James West with with Arty Gordon, and all this great looking ladies, traveling thru the USA aboard old #5 & #8, you got to love it.

Some of the best TV ever done.

To bad the Wild Wild West's cast is long gone, could you see them staring in the Wrecker, man what a continuing TV series that would have been for us to watch on TV today.

PCRR/Dave

I recall many trains (mostly being blown up) in Hogan's Heros.  I think the ones being blown up were mostly the same shot used again and again.  Although If I remember correctly, when they traveled on trains, the interior shots were standard European style coaches, but the exterior shots were stock film of American trains.

I have to admit that all the same, the work done on the styrofoam and wood 1:1 models for H--l on Wheels is quite impressive. Reminds me of the fake aircraft built for the WW2 phony airfields. Here's a behind-the-scenes video.