HEBER CITY -- The "movie train" is making the scene here.
Four cars from a 92-year-old, 10-car train used in 31 motion pictures arrived Wednesday and Thursday on extra-long flatbed trucks, joining the Heber Valley Historic Railroad fleet.Coming in the next two weeks is the head of this new class of rolling stock for the railroad -- a coal-fired steam engine called No. 75.
"It's a 'handbomber,' meaning no mechanical stokers," said Craig Lacey, executive director for the Heber Valley Railroad, adding with a laugh, "It'll help our firemen keep their girlish figures. It takes about two tons of coal for one trip through Provo Canyon.
"You move this baby one scoop shovel at a time."
The No. 75 will join its much-loved sister steam engine, No. 618, already in service for the Heber Creeper. But 75 is a smaller, more petite version of the brawnier 618 and also is distinctive because of its glitzy, storied past.
"Right here," Lacey said, striding down the aisle of one of the just-arriving chair cars and pointing to the ceiling, "is where the guy looks up at the human fly on the ceiling and pokes him in the stomach in 'Devil's Brigade.'
"This is kinda like climbing into a 1961 Ford Fairlane -- look at those vinyl seats," Lacey said. "But it was refurbished in the 1950s and it's in pretty darned good condition."
Due to arrive soon is a wooden car with mahogany inlays and leaded glass. It was used in "The Cheyenne Social Club" with Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda and "Breakheart Pass" with Charles Bronson.
"We're hoping it may be the star of the show among the new passenger cars," Casey said. "It needs work -- the roof and so forth. But it should be a beauty when we're reworked it."
The train, which operated for much of its career as part of the Great Western Railway out of Loveland, Colo., made its movie debut in the Lee Marvin film, "Cat Ballou." It has appeared in such other familiar movies as "A River Runs Through It," "The Professionals," "Frisco Kid," "Far and Away" and "Geronimo."
Casey's plans include many future films for 75. It comes with 18 whistles, four smokestacks, four different era cowcatchers and 12 different sets of headlights.
"We can make her look anywhere from 1880s to 1960s," Casey said.
The train also includes a diner/combine called The Molly Brown; an 1880 bunk car; two baggage cars; a wooden caboose built in 1900, and two chair cars, both 1915 vintage, called the Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell.
But it's not just the train. It's the terrain that encourages Casey about movie prospects.
"We can give creative people the pastoral look, the wilderness look, the canyon look -- almost any look they want," Casey said. "And we're so much more accessible than a class one train. We're very easy to work with here."
The Heber Valley Railroad already has established ties to the production community, with engine 618 appearing in television programs "Touched by an Angel" and "Promised Land" and feature-length films such as "The Dream Catcher" and "Sheperd."
"This new train ought to be a natural for film companies," said Ken McConnell, Heber Valley Railroad marketing director, who also has acted in several feature-length films and episodes of "Touched by an Angel" and "Promised Land."
No. 75's first order of business, however, is to help relieve passenger demands for the Creeper, which has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. Casey said the railroad hauled 51,000 passengers last year, up from 34,000 the previous year.
"This gives us some flexibility. When one steam engine is down for maintenance, the other'll be in service. And it gives us several more protected cars during the winter, when we were over capacity," Casey said.
Though the Creeper also has diesel engines, the steamers attract most attention. And it's the longstanding love affair with steam that moved Casey to acquire a new train.
The original stimulus came from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympics. They asked the Creeper to be ready to carry passengers to the Soldier Hollow cross-country and biathlon venues.
But SLOC specified it wanted the Old West look.
"It's the sizzle with the steak," Casey said.
So he went looking for a train. Through contacts of Craig Drury, chief mechanical officer for the railroad, Casey discovered John Pikar, son-in-law of legendary train-movie expert Everett Rohrer, was interested in selling 75.
Relatively cheap.
"You can't even find a junk train for $175,000," said McConnell, also an engineer for the railroad. "This was an absolute steal."
"What made the market right was increased storage costs," Casey said. "The Pikar family had the train in a Colorado storage facility for $3,000 a month. That's an incentive to sell. Fortunately, we had the financial footing to borrow the money to get it."
There've been hairy moments getting the first four cars into town. On Wednesday night, the truck hauling the first 79-foot, 80-ton car snagged the top on a main power line. It caused an outage here and in adjoining Midway.
The other cars arrived without incident, with workers reattaching the cars to the 4-wheel trucks on which they ride.
Onlookers watched 50-foot cranes lift the cars and set them down perfectly on the one connecting pin binding the two parts together.