Railtown Visit

Although it was cool yesterday morning (low 50's), it was sunny, so we decided to take a trip to Jamestown and see the Railtown 1897 State Park. Railtown is a historical location for steam powered locomotives that dates back to 1897 and represents one of two locations in the country (the other is in PA) where there is still an operating roundhouse. We took the over 1 hour guided tour and it was a very informative and fascinating. Between 1919 and the present, the Sierra Railroad (Railtown's real name) would "star" in more than 200 motion pictures, television programs and commercials. You would probably recognize some of these - High Noon, Back to the Future III, Rawhide, Death Valley Days, Little House on the Prairie, Petticoat Junction, Unforgiven and many, many more. We took lots of pictures and some of them are below, beginning with the entry board at the waiting station:

Then there was this sign about some of the movie history of the railroad:

As the history points out, the engine # 3 is the most used of any of the engines in the shows and the following picture shows that engine in the roundhouse, being outfitted for another event that will take place on July 4th:

It is difficult to see the detail in the state that it is in above. It was also difficult to get to where a good picture could be taken because of the caution tape. The engine below is # 18 which is another of the big stars in motion pictures and TV:

The next two shots are of the roundhouse, taken from outside and the turntable itself:




The tour then went into the shop area where they had displayed many different pieces of special decor that were used in all the shows. The following are lists of movies and TV shows that the engines have appeared in. The list shows the name, the year it was filmed, the engine used in the film and the actors that appeared in the show:

There were so many names of shows on each of the lists that it was difficult getting a picture that clearly shows the names. Sorry about that.

The last shot is taken at the train station itself and we could imagine all of the scenes that were shot here for the movies and TV shows:

It was a fun trip and represented more of the interesting history that is everywhere in this area.

We woke up to another dusting of snow this morning. It seems like the weather is going backwards. Instead of getting nicer it's getting closer to winter. It should be gone by noon though as the temperatures are already near 40 degrees.

Today begins our 5 day stretch of work days, so the play days will be on hold for another week...