Railtown 1897 State Historic Park

Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, and its operating entity, the Sierra Railway, is known as "The Movie Railroad." Both entities are a heritage railway and are a unit of the California State Park System. Railtown 1897 is located in Jamestown, California. The entire park preserves the historic core of the original Sierra Railway of California (later reincorporated as the Sierra Railroad Company). The railway's Jamestown locomotive and rolling stock maintenance facilities are remarkably intact and continue to function much as they have for the last 100-plus years.

The California State Railroad Museum (CSRM), headquartered in Old Sacramento, assumed responsibility for Railtown 1897 State Historic Park on July 1, 1992.

The Sierra Railway served the West Side Lumber Company mill at Tuolumne. The West Side operated an extensive narrow gauge (36") logging railroad in the Sierras. It operated into the 1960's, and was the last of the narrow-gauge logging railways operating in the American West.[1][2]

In addition to seasonal steam and diesel-powered train rides, the Railtown experience includes tours of the circa 1920s locomotive roundhouse and machine shop and related exhibits. Movie paraphernalia used in filming train sequences is on display.

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Movie heritage

Since 1929, when The Virginian (the first talkie filmed outside a movie studio) was filmed with the Sierra locomotive number 3, the Sierra Railway properties have been a major resource to the motion picture industry. Sierra's tracks, locomotives and cars have long been seen on the silver screen; film credits include Go West with the Marx Brothers, High Noon with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, 3:10 To Yuma (1957) featured #3 in the end of the movie, as well as Back to the Future III with Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. Television programs that regularly used the Sierra property include Wild, Wild West, Iron Horse, Tales of Wells Fargo, and perhaps most famously, Petticoat Junction.[3] The Sierra No. 3 locomotive and Sierra's coach number 5 were the Hooterville Cannonball. Locomotive No. 3 was also used in Season 2, Episode 17 of Little House on the Prairie.

Proposed for closure

The Railtown 1897 State Historic Park is one of the 48 California state parks proposed for closure in January 2008 by California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of a deficit reduction program.[4]

But Railtown is still open as of October 2011. Its closure now seems doubtful with Jerry Brown, who is highly pro-rail, as governor again.

See also

References

  1. ^ Ferrell, Mallory Hope, West Side: Narrow Gauge in the Sierra, pp. 1-32, 293-312, Pacific Fast Mail, 1979.
  2. ^ "West Side Lumber Company," Tuolumne City Memorial Museum Web site (http://tuolumnecity.wordpress.com/4-museum-exhibits/westside-lumber-company/), Retrieved 9-22-2011.
  3. ^ Petticoat Junction at the Internet Movie Database
  4. ^ CBS5.com: List Of Calif. Parks To Close In Budget Proposal

Warwick Frost (2009). 'Projecting an Image: Film Induced Festivals in the American West'. Event Management 12:2, pp. 95-103.

External links