Tag Archives: Sierra Railroad #18

Annie Get Your Gun 1950

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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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The Texas Rangers 1951

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Columbia Pictures

Sierra Railroad #18 is the star of today’s feature film. This 1906 product of Baldwin Locomotive Works is painted up in a pleasing maroon and gold “Texas Central” scheme. Numbered #44, the little 2-8-0 was back dated with a box headlight and cabbage smokestack. Sierra #18 is still with us having recently (2021) been purchased with the Fred Kepner collection by the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad.

The real train action doesn’t get started until the last 10 minutes of the movie. It’s a little fuzzy (free on YouTube dontcha know), but packed with action including a big fight in the cab of the locomotive. Train robbery? Check. The payroll on board? Yep. Posse of lawmen waiting in ambush? You betcha. Innocent women and children blown to bits? Well….no. That’s Blazing Saddles.

Can a reformed outlaw find true love alongside a steam locomotive at the depot? Let’s find out!

Undercover Texas Ranger Johnny Carver (played by George Montgomery) makes his way along the tender for the final showdown with the bad guys. All that wood is just for show as I’m pretty sure #18 was an oil-burner.

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My Little Chickadee 1940

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Universal Pictures

Sierra Railroad 2-8-0 #18 along with combine #5 and coaches #1 & #2, stars in today’s feature. The little Baldwin Consolidation, built for Sierra Railroad in 1906, received just 13 minutes of screen time, but what a cameo. A spectacular Indian attack highlights its trip from Little Bend to Greasewood through the untamed West.

Onboard, Flower Belle Lee (played by Mae West) and Cuthbert J. Twillie (played by W.C. Fields) ham it up in this spoof of western movies giving us a good look at the spartan but classic interior of the coaches (studio set).

It’s a wild ride under western skies for Sierra #18. Let’s check it out.

A. P. & S. Railway #8 (Sierra #18 in disguise) is pedaling furiously as it tries to outrun the Cleveland Indians. As it pulls out of Little Bend, we get a closeup of the tender and cab in this rods-down pose.

Does that short combine #5 look familiar? It is, if you’re a fan of Petticoat Junction. Combine #5 along with Sierra #3 was the entire consist of the “Hooterville Cannonball”.

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