Tag Archives: Annie Oakley

Annie Get Your Gun 1950

Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Pull! It’s a Technicolor musical extravaganza, featuring Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show — which happily for us, traveled by train back in the day. Annie Oakley (played by Betty Hutton) and Frank Butler (played by Howard Keel) star as a pair of sharpshooters which is based on a true story.

According to Larry Jensen’s “Hollywood’s Railroads, Volume One”, MGM used their ex-Virginia & Truckee 4-4-0 #11 (The Reno) for studio train scenes. Unfortunately, the editors saw fit to only give a glimpse (see above) of Reno’s TENDER with “Transcontinental & Western” script lettering – concentrating instead on a string of bright yellow coaches.

Other train scenes utilized a model train for the credits (see top) and lifted footage of Sierra Railroad #18 directly out of Dodge City 1939 (see bottom).

A well-lit broadside of ATSF #18 (Sierra #18) 2-8-0 Baldwin 1906 pedaling furiously along. Close ups of this engine were used as bridging shots in Annie Get Your Gun.

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Annie and the Brass Collar 1954

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Annie Oakley Productions, Inc.

Train Robbers are afoot causing all sorts of havoc along the SP&W Railroad. Famous western sharpshooter Annie Oakley (played by Gail Davis) is called in to help bring the outlaws to justice.

Filmed along Southern Pacific Railroad’s bucolic narrow gauge line (SPNG) in the Owens Valley of California, the picture stars SPNG #9, a 4-6-0 Baldwin built in 1909. Annie and the Brass Collar was the first episode of the Annie Oakley TV show which ran for three seasons (81 episodes) until 1957.

Lots of train action in this short (30 minute) show, so let’s get started.

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Old #9 is pedaling along furiously on its 44″ drivers as the bad guys make their move.

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