Steam & Excursion > 2 Movie Stars Working Together One Last Time!

Pictured here are 2 special locomotives that appeared in more movies than most folks can even count.  On this special train they worked together for perhaps their last time.

We are at Ralph, California on the Sierra Railroad in October 1950 and around the curve comes Sierra #3 and #18 and their train of ancient wooden passenger cars.  Wil Whittaker captured the fine photo.

While Sierra #3 had formerly been in a number of movies she was retired many years earlier and sat unused in the Jamestown yards through the 1930's and most of the 1940's.  During this time the movie work fell to Sierra 2-8-0 #18.

In 1948 it was decided that a second movie engine was needed and Sierra 4-6-0 #3 was towed into the Jamestown roundhouse where she was put back into serviceable condition.  For the next 2 years both #3 and #18 appeared in movies separately.

This excursion to Tuolumne may have been the last time the 2 "movie stars" worked together.  #18 was finally retired in 1951 and assumed #3's former role as a rusting relic in the Jamestown yards.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/16 03:22 by LoggerHogger.

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Is the 18 still around?
Luke

Posted from Android

Martin:

Thanks for posting the nice photo on the Standard curve. That location is just west of the road crossing which is itself, just west of the Standard Depot.

As to the #3 and #18 working together this a 1950 film (Wyoming Mail) in which they both appear. Much of the filming was done in Tuolumne County from Standard to the Stanislaus River. The Sierra depots used were the Jamestown (west end) freight building, with glimpses of the roundhouse area and yards in the background as well as the old buggy/vehicle shelter on the side of the parking lot behind the Jamestown depot. The passenger depot is also used (albiet as a different town!) and there is a brief shot of the track-side of the Standard depot with #3 pulling passenger cars #2 and #6 as well as a baggage car.

The film plot is people trying to stop the US Mail being carried by rail and thus lots of scenes with passenger consists. They all involve the baggage car (sorry no #) and coaches #2 and #6. The 18 and the 3 are both featured and in once scene the #18's train is stopped, has its baggage car blown up when the #3's train full of railroaders comes to the rescue. The 18 sports a diamond stack and the #3 her "Petticoat Jct." stack. In one scene the two locos appear nose-to-nose.

Later there is a turnabout in rescues when the #18 comes to the rescue of the #3 being held up. The 18 comes flying along in reverse (the little 42 in drivers make her look like she's doing about 50mph) and a posse jumps off and shoots up the bad guys.

The film offers some interesting scenes of the Freight depot when it was a working depot in which the details of the west end and the track layout just west of the depot are pretty clear. Also some nice scenes in the Red Hills (just west of Chinese Station) and so on. The film offers a rare glimpse of the Sierra's right of way in 1950 as well as some important facilities.

I caught the film on Turner Classic Movies about 5 years ago. I believe you can find it on VHS/DVD as well.

John

Sorry, the first line should read there is and not "this is". Thank you spell checker...

I will have to check that movie out

Martin

Posted from iPhone

LJohnson Wrote:

> Is the 18 still around?

The 18 is still around, but her tender is not: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,2309217

Thank you, Martin, for the wonderful photo! Anything Sierra is greatly appreciated. 

Yes,Martin thank you 

This is not Ralph. This is the big curve coming into Standard and approaching the Standard Road crossing. At lower left you can see water coming out of the culvert under the track. This is Curtis Creek emptying into the Pickering log pond about 100 yards to the left. Photo taken October 22, 1950.  This is a Railfan excursion train; not a movie train.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/16 18:19 by SierraRail.