On a recent trip through Northern California with my wife, after a great weekend of exploring Yosemite National Park, I was perusing a local attractions guide for the area. I stumbled upon a little place nearby called Jamestown that boasted about a state-run historic train depot and museum there called RAILTOWN 1897. I was surprised to read that it housed train-related Hollywood movie-memorabilia including some items from Back to the Future Part III!  Armed only with my HD Flip Camera, I took the liberty of checking the place out and am glad to share this as an impromptu episode for BTM.   Enjoy!

Just West of Yosemite National Park in historic Jamestown, CA

Railtown 1897 is located in Jamestown, California.  This one-of-a-kind attraction lies in the heart of California’s Gold Country (locals call it the “Motherlode”).  About 100 miles southeast of Sacramento, Railtown 1897 is a State Historic Park that is home to the Historic Jamestown Shops and Roundhouse—an intact and still-functioning steam locomotive repair and maintenance facility. Railtown combines industrial heritage and railroad history with the history of Hollywood’s film industry. Besides the fact that portions of Railtown date back to 1897, which is quite impressive itself, they also offer seasonal steam and diesel-powered train rides. Now I’ve visited train museums all over the country, but arriving at  Railtown 1897, I was not expecting that this little out-of-the-way dot-on-the-map would take my breath away. I was offered a private tour of the facilities with Railtown 1897 volunteer, Jeanette Foster, who truly loves her job and really had some fun taping this episode.

Known as “The Movie Railroad,” Railtown’s fame and financing has had a lot of help from Hollywood. Walk into the Tourist Center and one of the friendly volunteers will gladly boast that Railtown 1897 and its historic trains and railroad cars have appeared in more than 200 movies, TV shows, and commercials. It all started back in 1919 with the first known film production there, a silent serial called “The Red Glove.” What’s impressive is that the Roadhouse is still active due to the fact that Railtown is still a popular location for filming today.

The Sierra 3, the “Movie Star” locomotive of RAILTOWN 1897

The resident “Movie Star” residing at Railtown 1897 is their Sierra No. 3 locomotive. It has been called “perhaps the most widely seen locomotive in the world.” It’s film credits include The Virginian (the first sound motion picture filmed outside a sound studio), the western classic High Noon, Go West (with the Marx Brothers), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), along with Pale Rider and Unforgiven, both directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. TV shows that regularly shot at Railtown and used the Sierra 3 were “Petticoat Junction”, “Death Valley Days”, “Wild Wild West”, “Rawhide” and “Little House on the Prairie”. Of course I was most excited to learn that the railroad sequences in Back to the Future Part III were all filmed at Railtown … which may be why this recent episode leans a bit more towards some of those particular props and trains.  (For those who don’t know me and most of the BTM staff, we love everything about the Back to the Future Trilogy).

Rest assured, there are a lot more pieces of Hollywood movie memorabilia housed on-site to see at Railtown 1897. It was a thrill for me to now have sat in both Back to the Future Part III trains  (the one Doc returns in from the future at the end of the film – it resides at Universal Studios Florida), and now the Sierra 3 (redressed in the film as the No.131).  This locomotive pushed the DeLorean on the tracks up to 88 mph in 1885, once again sending Marty back to the future.

BTTF 3 Props: Blown Train Smoke Stack and apparatus used in simulating rivets blowing off the boiler of the Locomotive

The Railtown 1897 Interpretive Center, authentic roundhouse and shops, and the Depot Store (a railroad specialty gift shop) are among the Park’s unique year-round offerings. Railtown 1897 State Historic Park is open daily (April-October, from 9:30 to 4:30 p.m.; November-March, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.), except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. For more details check out their website by visiting http://www.railtown1897.org or give them a call at (209) 984-3953.

SIDE NOTE 1: The State of California has announced that in the near future, it intends to possibly close Railtown 1897 along with about 40 other proposed state parks. Employees there hinted at that possibly happening sometime in July of this year.  We are told more information about a possible closure will soon grace the front page of their website, and on how people can donate or become members to help support the park. Until then, go pay them a visit and say hi to Jeanette for us.

SIDE NOTE 2: A few hours before this post went live I was contacted by an official representative from Railtown 1897 who wrote me this; “Our curator states that although there are many rumors surrounding the red hand car, there is no evidence that it is the one used by John Wayne in Conflict, nor are we even certain it was on the site at the time.  Unfortunately, stories like that sometimes take on a life of their own.”  Though our episode is already locked and running, we do show the red hand car in the piece, so whether it’s authentic or not we thought it was still important to pass this bit of information on to our viewers.

Jeanette Foster (RAILTOWN 1897 Volunteer) and the Sierra 3

Here’s an extended look at some of the clips featured in this episode featuring the trains of Railtown 1897…