Tag Archives: Lippert Pictures

Train to Tombstone 1950

Lippert Pictures

Oh boy, another C picture from Lippert Studios. Yippie yi yo ki yay!

Don’t let the title fool you. The star attraction is a Virginia & Truckee steam locomotive and two car passenger train filmed in Nevada in that road’s last days of operation. I was able to find several color pictures of this movie train as well as extensive details about the engine.

Coming in at less than an hour run time (56 minutes, 47 seconds), there’s plenty of action including TWO Indian attacks and a motley assortment of passengers including dance hall girls, a man of the cloth, a wheelchair-bound, but nubile young woman and her elderly, straight-laced companion, a traveling corset salesman and various ruffians and rogues.

Is there really $250,000 worth of gold (GOLD!!) in the baggage car? Read along and let’s find out!

V&T 2-8-0 #5 leads mail-baggage #23 and combination car #18 in an establishing shot that will be seen repeatedly throughout our feature. Judging from the snow-capped mountains and arrow-straight track, (and a quick peek at one of my Larry Jensen books), I believe the location to be somewhere between Carson City and Minden, Nevada. Lots of pacing shots, so there’s undoubtedly a paved road paralleling the railroad.

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Western Pacific Agent 1950

Lippert Pictures, Inc.

What better way to showcase Western Pacific Railroad’s spanking new streamliner (the California Zephyr) than shoehorning train footage into a Noir B picture?

The opening credits and first three minutes of this movie feature the CZ both inside and out with location shooting on Altamont Pass, Feather River Canyon and the WP Sacramento station.

This 72 minute potboiler tells the story of WP Special Agent Rod Kendall (played by Kent Taylor) who is tracking down the mad killer Frank Wicken (played by Mickey Knox).

All Aboard!

Is that Jack Benny talking to the statuesque blonde in the Vista Dome? ………WELL! Nah, no idea who he is, but his gal pal is actress Vera Marshe; Led by WP #801, an EMD A-B-B set of 1947 F3 locomotives worth 4500 hp, the California Zephyr glides into Sacramento. Quite a crowd on hand ready to board.

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