I am requesting assistance in identifying a locomotive that appears in a 1962 episode of the television series "Lassie." In a 3 part episode entitled "The Odyssey", which is available on You Tube, Lassie is walking on a railroad bridge and is endangered by an approaching train. (This occurs about 22 - 23 minutes into the video, at the beginning of Part II.) The long distance side shot of the locomotive is fuzzy, but it does not seem to have any exhaust stacks. The clearest shot is a head-on view. I have tried to identify it; I believe it may be either an EMD or a Baldwin. Can anyone assist me with identifying the locomotive? (The scary image of that approaching locomotive haunted me as a child, and contributed to my interest in trains!) Thank you.
Hi Eizabeth! I looked for that You Tube "Lassie" segment you mentioned and found it. It looks to me that the locomotive in question is a Baldwin, possibly a V0-1000 series unit or something similar, it certainly had the Baldwin profile and doesn't resemble any EMD unit I'm familiar with.
I can see how you'd be haunted as a child by that segment, who wants to see Lassie get squashed?
Personally, I preferred the later "Lassie" shows with Robert Bray as Ranger Corey Stuart. I found Lassie in the national forests a lot more interesting than Lassie on the farm.
Robert Bray was cool, but of course he had to be, he was a Marine like me!
In agree a Baldwin VO-1000.
Guess: I think it might be a Western Pacific locomotive. In the front view there appears to be a added metal plate on each side of the headlight which is a WP feature on their VO-1000's and the emblem on the side of the cab (too blurry to make out) appears to be a rectangle.
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
Based on the roundhouse sequence in part 1, it's a Sierra Railroad S12. The bulge behind the headlight is a clincher on the S12, and the tender numbers in the roundhouse match Sierra's engines. If that wasn't enough, the "Petticoat Junction" combine is in one of the scenes. Sierra had three S12s, 40 and 42 bought new in 1955 and 44, built 1951 for Sharon Steel.
The Sierra Railroad would make sense, it was Hollywood's "go-to" place for years when they needed to film a railroad segment.
Firelock76 The Sierra Railroad would make sense, it was Hollywood's "go-to" place for years when they needed to film a railroad segment.
Good point. Could be a Sierra RR Baldwin S-12
Thank you everyone for your help! I went to the Sierra Railroad website, and the Baldwin S12 does indeed look like the Lassie locomotive. Sierra RR had three S12s, so perhaps one of the three may even have been the very locomotive in that episode. Finally the mystery is solved - thanks to all of you in the great Trains community!
Any time, dear lady, any time. That's why we're here!
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