Exhibit to Highlight Shared History of Film and Railroads

SACRAMENTO – The California State Railroad Museum is set to debut a visually appealing exhibit titled “Rails and Reels: Hollywood, Trains and the Making of Motion Pictures” on Friday, July 2, 2010.  The upcoming exhibit will feature a variety of railroad-related artifacts, such as scale models of train cars used for special effect crash scenes in the 1939 epic Union Pacific, a full-size smokestack and headlamp used to “backdate” steam locomotives to represent the “old west,”, and station signs used in movies, including “High Noon”; a costume from the 1979 television movie Orphan Train; plus sheet music, movie posters, lobby cards, original film scripts, and other Hollywood-themed promotional items from railroad related films dating from the early 1900s.

The focus of the exhibit is to demonstrate how railroads have played an important role in television and film productions since the very early days of Hollywood, and how they continue to play starring roles in today’s increasingly “virtual” productions.  In the early days of motion pictures America was fascinated with westerns, and locomotives often starred alongside leading actors and actresses such as Gary Cooper, Grace Kelley and Paul Newman.  Eventually, westerns gave way to different popular culture genres such as science fiction productions and today’s action-packed thrillers, many of which continue to incorporate locomotives into their scenes and backdrops.

The opening of this new exhibit in Old Sacramento is timed to coincide with the completed restoration of the 1891-vintage steam locomotive Sierra No. 3 at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown, California.  A star in its own right, Sierra No. 3 (also known as the “Movie Star Locomotive”) has appeared in more than 100 Hollywood movie and television productions.  Some of the films No. 3 starred in will be chronicled in the “Rails and Reels” exhibit at the Museum.

View News10 Report about the Sierra No. 3 

Located in the Railroad Museum’s Mezzanine Gallery, the special exhibit will continue through May 31, 2011. 

Operated by California State Parks with financial assistance from the non-profit California State Railroad Museum Foundation, the California State Railroad Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Widely regarded as North America’s finest and most popular railroad museum, the complex of facilities includes the 100,000-square foot Railroad History Museum plus the reconstructed Central Pacific Railroad Passenger Station and Freight Depot, 1849 Eagle Theatre, and Big Four and Dingley Spice Mill commercial buildings in Old Sacramento. For 24-hour information call (916) 445-6645.