Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Railtown 1897 in Jamestown, CA is home to one of the last fully functional original steam era roundhouses in the United States. Much of this old infrastructure survives due to the Hollywood movie industry. The Sierra Railway (later reincorporated as the Sierra Railroad) had a very healthy movie business from the silent era all the way through the Golden Age of cinema. This tradition continued into the early 2000s with frequent movies and TV shows featuring the railroad’s structures and locomotives.

The most famous of these engines is number 3, a 4-6-0 ten wheeler built by Rogers Locomotive & Machine Works in 1891. This locomotive has been known as the “Movie Queen” as it has been the main locomotive chosen for Hollywood productions for many decades. Most notable film and TV appearances for this engine have been in High Noon, Petticoat Junction, Rawhide, Bonanza, and Back to the Future Part III.

This video was taken on September 8, 2018, and showcases the 3 wearing a balloon stack and sporting wood on the tender for the first time since the 1990s. This was edited and photographed by Hunter Lohse.