Tag Archives: Randolph Scott

Jesse James 1939

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20th Century Fox

Nineteen Thirty Nine was a big year for train movies. Union Pacific. Dodge City. Even Gone With The Wind. Adding to the pile, is today’s feature, Jessie James. In Technicolor, no less.

Of course the star of the show is Dardanelle & Russellville #8, a 4-4-0 built by Cooke Locomotive and Machine Company in February 1888. Originally constructed as Fort Worth and Denver City #9, in 1899 it came to the Dardanelle & Russellville Railroad, a five-mile Arkansas short line between its namesake towns.

In 1933, D&R #8 was retired with mechanical problems and left on a siding at Dardanelle. Hollywood came calling in 1938, sending the 4-4-0 to Missouri Pacific’s North Little Rock, Arkansas shops for a rebuild. The locomotive (and 3 D&R passenger cars) then made its way to Neosho, Missouri where train scenes were filmed along the Kansas City Southern Railway.

(Many thanks to Larry Jensen’s “The Movie Railroads” pages 196-197 for data on the engine.)

D&R #8 is still with us. As of 2024, it is a resident of the Nevada State Railway Museum in Carson City. Image by William Acord taken May 1992 at NSRM from RRPictureArchives.net

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Rage at Dawn 1955

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R.K.O. Radio Pictures

Randolph Scott stars as James Barlow, a special agent sent west to infiltrate and break up the Reno brothers gang. To that end, Scott/Barlow stages a fake train robbery to get the Reno’s attention. Once taken in the gang, Barlow stages another train robbery…but it’s all a set up, to capture the Reno’s with a spectacular trackside shoot-’em-up.

Sierra Railroad 4-6-0 #3 (built in 1891 by Rogers Locomotive Works) is the real star of this picture along with its 3 car consist. Engine and coaches are decorated for the fictitious “Ohio & Mississippi Railroad”. As a plus, both train “robberies” are filmed in wonderful low-light on the sunny side of the consist.

Come enjoy Sierra’s 10-wheeler going through its paces as Randolph Scott once again brings law and order to tame the Wild West.

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“Come ride the little train that is rolling down the tracks to the Junction…” Oops, sorry. Rage at Dawn was filmed 8 years before Petticoat Junction appeared on the scene.

Having said that, Sierra #3 and shorty coach/combine #5 in this image did indeed serve as the Hooterville Cannonball for 1960s television’s most famous train.

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