Hooterville Cannonball - Mock - Up For Studio Use

Up For Studio Use

The history of the mock-up train is believed to be as follows: Originally it was built for a 1950 Dan Dailey, Walter Brennan Rory Calhoun and a (almost unknown) Marilyn Monroe 20th Century Fox movie production called A Ticket to Tomahawk. The original 1950 cost of the elaborate studio mock-up was $40,000. Later in the 1950s, Fox sold the wooden/metal/fiberglass engine to Harvey Dick, who wanted it to promote his Barbary Coast bar in his 1890s gas light style hotel in Portland, Oregon called the Hoyt Hotel. In the 1960s, the train went on to be used in the Petticoat Junction TV series, from 1963-1970 - the Hoyt Hotel is given credit in the end titles of each episode. It was also used in the Wild Wild West TV show for scenes of the engine, and tender. After the TV studios were done using the engine, the train movie prop became the property of Sacramento restauranteur/collector Sam Gordon. Gordon displayed it in the parking lot of his Sam's Stage Coach Inn(Sam's Town)along Hwy 50 in Cameron Park, California, about 30 miles to the east of Sacramento. Later the mock up fell into disrepair. In 1979 it was purchased by John Queirolo and Rick Stevenson. Later they gave the care and custody of the train to Amador County Museum, and it was then restored. The train ended up in its present location at the Amador County Museum in Jackson, California. As of November 2, 2011 the locomotive mock up has been sold to the train museum in Durango, Colorado, and is being shipped there via tractor trailer.