Hooterville cannonball

[West Coast S]

For once we minority S scalers trump the HO gang! New Zealand Fine Scale produces said  4-6-0 in kit form, available in Sn3 or standard guage,  mine are for conversion to SP T-3 class engines, very common branch line locos for my era, also we have been known to cut down Bachman On30 passenger cars to S scale size, so one too could replicate the Cannonball in S scale.

 

Dave  

[shayfan84325]

I pay homage to Petticoat Junction in subtle ways.  I left the roof off of my water tank, so that I can add the girls to it.  I haven't gotten around to that step, yet.  As I recall, they were depicted such that you could not rule out skinny dipping, right?

The other little salutes to the show are Betty Joe's Boarding House and my own "cannonball".  I know that the girls' mother (Kate?) and uncle Joe ran the Shady Rest Hotel; my idea is that Betty Joe grew up and established her own business.  My daily passenger train is lovingly nicknamed the Blackwater "Cannonball."  It's a string of 4 pikers and an oscar, pulled behind a Forney.

[AztecEagle]

I know this is off the subject,but I hate"It's a Wonderful Life"!!!

Now before you accuse me of being"An Ol'Poopyheaded Commie Who Hates God;America and Jimmy Stewart!!",let it be known that I love my country;beleive in God and always liked Jimmy Stewart!!
I just wish that they had a lost ending where he goes over to Mr.Potter's house and sticks a '73 Winchester to his head and tells him"Wh-why YaYa Old Cheap SOB!!YaYa See This??This is a Winchester'73!! I'm gonna be carrying it in an upcoming movie!!Now yaya better give me back my money or else I'll use it on ya!!".

[AztecEagle]

OhOh!!You said the"C Word"*(*Cute)on here!!You know most serious modelers don't allow the C word used on here!!

Just yankin'your chain!! I remember Petticoat Junction very well.I watched it nearly time it was on tv as a kid*.(I'm 52).Kinda had a jones for Billie Jo;Bobbi Jo and Betty Jo.

Getting back to modeling the Hooterville Cannonball.

If you look on EBay or some other online auction site,you might find one pretty reasonable.Back in the 60's,TYCO made models of the Petticoat Junction train and The Iron Horse*as well.*(*The Iron Horse was a western that ran on ABC from 1966-68 and starred Dale Robertson as Ben Calhoun,a gambler who won the bankrupt Scalplock&Defiance RR in a poker game.If you have an AntennaTV affiliate nearby,they sometimes show it on Sunday Mornings along with other Columbia/Sony Pitcures series as"Gidget";"The Flying Nun";"The Monkees";"Soap";"Mad About You";"Three Stooges"and"Married With Children".).

Also,next time your'e at a train show/swap meet,someone might have one for sale.

Some alternatives:Bachmann has a 4-6-0 in HO.It's a little pricey-about$150.00.

Model Power has an"Old Timer"set with an 0-4-0 with an 1880's style smokestack and a set of period cars.I know that an 0-4-0 isn't quite what your'e looking for,but if you want something relatively inexpensive,it'll do in a pinch.

Anyway,hope that helps.

 

[petticoat juntion]

yes they did come with interchangeable stacks, and wood/coal inserts for the tenders. there were 2 tenders available, one black and one red.

[petticoat juntion]

hello train nut, in 66 & 67 tyco issued two sets of this series one with a black tender and one with a red tender.  now the dates of production are questionable, as i recieved mine for xmas in 65???? and still have the set in operating condition today.  as rare as many say this set is, over the years i have gotten about 8 of these sets, so.....  one boxed and complete.  the hooterville cannonball was used in petticoat juntion, green acres and also the beverly hillbillies, as all of these sitcoms were a family.  yes i am modeling the set, going from hooterville to beverly hills and have the watertower and all. very far from finished.  this was made from an actual train, the sierra #3, which is back in service in railtown california, they send emails to me as to the progress of this train.  it has been in several movies as well as the tv series, unforgiven, back to the future, etc.  ur in olka?? well i am too, and have several of the set should u be interested.  thank you and will chat on this one later.

[Anonymous]

The engineer was played by Smiley Burnette. We fans of vintage westerns have enjoyed Smiley from films dating to an era long before most of us were born. He was a beloved sidekick to Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, working mostly at republic films.I beleive Peticoat junctiion was his last acting role. He died a year or so before the show ended.

[randybc2003]

Check out these links:
://us.imdb.com/title/tt0056780/
http://petticoat.topcities.com/page1.htm
[:D]

[ericsp]

Here are some relevant links.
http://www.csrmf.org/railtown/default.asp
http://www.csrmf.org/railtown/doc.asp?id=14

[railman]

Green Acres..it was so funny, we couldn't turn it off.

[PennsyHoosier]

What a fun thread! This really takes me back to my childhood. My sisters FORCED me to watch whatever they wanted on the TV. Happily, at least Green Acres and Petticoat Junction featured trains from time to time.

[Anonymous]

One of my favorite TV shows was Green Acres. I also watched Petticoat Junction a lot, so when I decided to join our church's train club that my husband was in I chose to make a Green Acres/Petticoat Junction layout. It took a lot of research, work and time, but I love it, and it gets rave reviews at train shows. You would be surprised at how many people loved those old shows. Even teenagers who watch TV Land get to see Green Acres. (Thanks TV Land for putting it back on). And by the way dknelson, I do have the girls in the water tower. After the first show I took my layout too, I decided it needed Pixley added, so I extended the layout and added the town. I first bought a Spirit of 76 Mantua 4-6-0, which was a duplicate of the Tyco Cannonball, and painted it to look like the Cannonball. But it didn't run well, so I kept watching e-bay and just last week bought a Tyco Cannonball. It arrived on Friday, and we had a train show yesterday (Sunday). After cleaning the wheels and giving her a little push she ran great. I'm always thinking of things to add. It's been great fun.

[Noah Hofrichter]

Dave, Welcome to the forums and thanks for the link, those are some cool models!!

Noah

[Anonymous]

Take a look at this site
http://www.maggiore.net/greenacres/ScaleModel.asp
Dave

[dknelson]

Is OTN going to include the three girls in the water tank that opened the Petticoat Jct show? It just wouldn't seem like Hooterville without the, um, the .... um. Is this Forum monitored?
By the way i just remembered that when Tyco came out with the Sierra 4-6-0 they included interchangable stacks, and if memory serves a choice of wood or coal for the tender -- at the time that was considered a jaw droppingly fantasic bit of detail.
Dave Nelson

[Noah Hofrichter]

Should be real neat. Make sure you show pics when you get the stuff together. I'd definately be interested in seeing them.

Noah

[Anonymous]

I am going to try and get some used equipment from the train show in a couple months.

[CNJ831]

RE: tatans' post, while fun to do for your home layout as an inside joke, the problem with specific "tv prototypes" used on display layouts at shows is that unless the viewer were a real fan of that particular tv show, they are unlikely to recognize what the model represents.

Worse yet are modules representing specific movie/tv scenes, especially if the film/show is no longer current or in wide spread reruns. The public's memory today is very short. MDC once made a replica of the circus train that appeared in an Indiana Jones film - but I haven't seen an example of the model yet! I also recall a truly excellent HO module based on the town in "Fried Green Tomatoes." Would anyone recognize that today?

Perhaps the most successful choice with this sort of theme would be one based on a truly classic film that appears repeatedly on tv. An excellent example I saw presented in RMC some years ago was the town of Bedford Falls from "It's A Wonderful Life." All the key structures from the film were represented and the setting was Christmas eve, the ground covered with snow, and all the Christmas lights on the town's main street illuminated. Displayed around the holidays, I'm sure that one caused quite a stir among its viewers.

CNJ831

[tatans]

To OTN: What a great idea, it's about time someone created an obscure train idea like this, this is called thinking out of the box (regardless of the theme) I think a lot of model railroaders take themselves just a bit too seriously at times and will scoff at your project as foolishness. Wouldn't it be great to attend some big train show and see the look on some faces in the crowd when instead of another Mallet, shooting out of a tunnel came the "Hooterville Cannonball" Carry on and have a few laughs and good times, best of luck.

[twhite]

Probably right, there, Dknelson, as I remember, looking at it many years ago in my LHS case, it was a BIG loco for HO. But I suppose, if you're going to model a fictional train, you mght as well start with a fictional loco. For myself, I wouldn't mind seeing an actual Rogers #5 4-6-0 in true HO scale. One of my pet peeves is that Sierra sold their other 'movie loco', a handsome 2-8-0 to a used car dealer here in Sacramento, who stripped it down, applied red paint and turned it into a junkyard. This is the loco that appeared in classic films such as "Dodge City," "Santa Fe Trail" and "Duel in the Sun."
long before #5 was even heard about. I think it was built by Baldwin about 1900, but I'm probably mistaken. I don't even think that the chassis is around, anymore. Talk about waste!

[dknelson]

The Tyco/Mantua engine was made close to 1:76 proportion, more or less OO on HO track. Thus it would be oversize compared to a scale model of the Sierra RR original (which I think was produced in a metal kit by Arbour). In fact I seem to recall the original Model Railroader review of the Tyco engine suggesting it might be used for Sn3 1/2.
Dave Nelson

[randybc2003]

Tyco locos were taken over by MANTUA, and they went under and were taken over by Model Power (I think). They are running some of the old Mantua production(see their web-site.), but I didn't see the Rogers 4-6-0 or their GENERAL. I ask them via e-mail if they were going to and they said "no plans at this time". pity. I got my "Cannonball" at a Swap meet. Runs OK. It is on my "to do" list to upgrade it, even with a decoder maybe. Motors and Flywheels are available for it. The Mantua Combine is closer than the MDC shorties to the Cannonball. Look for CF&S Rr. on letterboard & tender.
Check Swap Meets. Those Tyco/Mantua units are tough little beasts, and I often see fleets of them at the meets. [:)]

Check the mag. index. NG&SLG ran an article a year or two ago about the replacement of the Johnstown Water Tank. IHC has a delightful plastic Old Time Open Top Water Tank. (See MR''s Alkai Central project RR.) Give it a paint job per Kalmbach's Loco Serv. manual. The petticoats you will have to secure yourself, although Cambell/Weston does make a pile of ladies clothing! [;)]

R.B.C.

[vsmith]

I had one of those old TYCO 4-6-0's it ran just ok, not a great "slow" engine though...but hey, its the "cannonball" right?

[twhite]

Actually, as I remember, some years back TYCO actually merchandised an HO trainset called the 'hooterville cannonball'. The TYCO 4-6-0 was based upon the Sierra Railroad #5 Rogers 4-6-0 that pulled the train on the TV series. Does MDC make a 4-6-0 other than the Harriman? All I've seen in their 'old timer' series is a 2-6-0 and a 2-8-0, and they're both D&RGW prototypes (or close enough). I think that whoever is now distributing Mantua may still distribute that ex-TYCO 4-6-0. Have no idea how well it runs, though I've heard it was a pretty good loco. And it would be fairly authentic. As to the coaches, MDC still makes the "Sierra" shorties, and that would be what you want behind the loco. As I remember, it was the combine. You're right, though, Oklahoma, the train would be cute as all get-out.

[vsmith]

A search of the forum would bring up several discussions about this, the history of the show and the history of the engine and combine from the Sierra RR. Yes this tends to be a popular topic.

[Anonymous]

wasn't this brought up like 4 months ago as well? I remember reading about this before.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone considered modeling that train on the TV shows: Green Acers and pettiecoat junction. all you would need is an MDC old timer steamer and one combine. I am going to try to model this funny little train. has anyone else tried this ? any pics ?