Metro Goldwyn Mayer

The famous vaudeville comedy act, Laurel & Hardy starred in this early talkie short (19 minutes). Early scenes are filmed at Santa Fe Railway’s La Grande Station in Los Angeles.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play, well, themselves with a series of sight gags at the depot and onboard a heavyweight passenger train (partially filmed in the studio). They have tickets for a Pullman “section” set up for night time use (even though it’s broad daylight for the entire trip to “Pottsville”).

Motive power for the train is ATSF #1373, a 1337 class, Baldwin-built (1913), 4-6-2 Pacific. Santa Fe #1373 even has its own locomotive.fandom.com web page!

Will the boys make it to their destination in one piece? Let’s take a peek and see.

The majority of the plot consists of the duo attempting to get into their upper berth, well-illustrated in this movie poster; Not seen in the movie, but in this publicity shot is Stan & Oliver between a pair of outside-braced box cars. The car behind them is lettered “P.E.” for Pacific Electric, a subsidiary of Southern Pacific Railroad.

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