Large Scale Central

Aristo Craft short Overton 3 car set, prototype?

Modeling
#1

Hi Guys:

I am aware of the Sierra 9 window coach prototype.

Is the Aristo Craft Overton coach complete fiction or is there a prototype coach ?

I once viewed an American Western which featured a steam locomotive hauling a private car of similar appearance to the Aristo Overton coach.

The film featured an evil railroad president who was tracked down by some cowboy he had wronged.

The evil railroad president was wheel chair confined.

Anyone know the name of the Western film?

Norman

#2

Whoops! Wrong post.

#3

I’m guessing Henry Fonda in “Once Upon a Time in the West”
He didn’t play the RR Baron; an Italian Actor had that role.

#4

Norman;

Was that wheel chair steam powered? If so, then the movie was “Wild, Wild West” with Will Smith and Kevin Kline in the key rolls. The fellow in the wheel chair was not a railroad president, but he was a “never give up” supporter of the Confederate States of America and an evil inventive genius. His giant steam-powered mechanical spider was very impressive.

Best,
David Meashey

P.S. Not sure whether there ever was a shorty prototype for the early vestibule style cars featured by Aristo. There were full length versions of those cars in service.

I watched an old Petticoat Junction episode recently, and observed that the combine on the Hooterville Canonball seemed even more abbreviated than either my Aristo or Delton shorty passenger cars. I suppose the Hooterville combine could be a justifiable prototype for very short passenger cars on a standard gauge railroad.

#5

Dave,
You’re right! That’s another one with a “handicapped” baron. I forgot about that one.

#6

The Engine for the "Hootervill Cannonball was the “Emma Sweeney” from “Ticket to Tomahawk” fame… It is a mock up built for the movie… A nearly identical copy to the RGS 20. it is currently back in Durango CO where the movie was filmed and undergoing a complete restoration to it’s "Movie Star status by the same people that restored to running condition the D&RG 315. I Have parts to it that I am reconstructing to the 20th Century Fox’s original blue prints. Yes there is a prototype for most everything.

#7

Hi John and Dave:

That might be the Western. Classic gun slinger actors. Two of those actors were physically born in appearance for the part. These are the type of Westerns that hooked me onto the American 4-4-0 loco. Monument valley footage always featured. These films usually never show the train for a long enough period but this film did. I found the opening sequence but cannot find the sequence of the film featuring the short business car. That section of the film had long and detailed footage of the business car. Maybe I will be able to find it later on the internet.

Norman

#8

Hi guys:

This video clip at 0:02 seconds frozen, you can count 9 window on this passenger coach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ow1b9ChvA

Norman

#9

Hi John Bouck:

You are exactly correct! Thank you.

Making of Once Upon a Time in the West on YouTube

interior of the Sierra business car footage 8:53

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYBB0SdcLiI&feature=related

Norman

#10
Norman Bourgault said:
Hi guys:

This video clip at 0:02 seconds frozen, you can count 9 window on this passenger coach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ow1b9ChvA

Norman


Norman, check the video clip at the 2:08 minute point… The passenger car she got out of, was a middle door car… The porters can be seen taking her luggage out of the car… At least, that’s what it looks like to me… when the clip started, the steps she walked down on were totally different from end passenger car steps…

#11

You All might want to check out a book - ‘Sierra Railway’ by Dorothy Newell Deane published by Howell-North in 1960. There is shown the the Combine No.5 that was built to run on the Angeles Branch along with a Coach No. 6. Binkley Models had a HO model of the combine, I used to have one. I made a look alike by cuttng a Bachmann combine and removed 2 windows and a bit of wall between the windows and door.

Paul

#12

Sierra Railway #3 (originally built in 1891) is the engine used for the opening, closing and miscellaneous live shots of Petticoat Junction’s Hooterville Cannonball. Sierra Railway Angels Branch combine #5 is the ‘passenger’ car. I don’t believe the matching passenger car #6 appeared in the series.

As Dave Taylor wrote above, an in-studio mockup of the Colorado engine, along with custom built mockups of the car were used for most of the filming, all done in Hollywood. There were only a few film crew visits (beyond the original filming) made to Jamestown. One of those occasions was when the series was changed from black & white to color, thus requiring re-shooting of the ‘on location’ footage. Also, only a couple of cast members (the engineer & firemen) ever went to Jamestown.

Here is a link to lots of information about the Petticoat Junction train and series:

http://petticoat.topcities.com/hooterville_cannonball.htm

Be sure to follow some of the links that are on that page. There are numerous photos of the Petticoat Junction ‘train,’ with #3 leading combine #5. There are also links to stories and pictures of the recent 100% rebuilding of #3 (completed in 1911), along with recent pix of combine #5 and coach #6 in the Jamestown Roundhouse. I was last inside those cars last year, just before #3 was returned to service. The cars appear serviceable, but are sorely in need of restoration. They are not currently in use.

Happy RRing,

Jerry