A while back, I subscribed to AT&T Uverse cable TV service, mainly because I wanted the DVR capability so I could record programs and watch them later, blowing through the commercials. I accidentally discovered the Encore Westerns channel, which runs old TV westerns and classic western movies. I set my DVR to record Gunsmoke--the early 30-minute episodes from the late 50's. I usually watch an episode in the evening before retiring.
Yesterday I was watching an episode entitled "Letter of the Law", which originally aired in October of 1958. The plot had marshall Dillon travelling from Dodge City to Witchita on official business, and in order to cinematically convey the trip, the director spliced in a 4-second "on location" scene from a library of stock film footage. Having grown up in Los Alamos, I immediately recognized Black Mesa in the near background. That placed the train south bound on the Chile Line, about a mile or two north of Ottowi. The consist was typical of train 425, with a baggage car and two coaches, however, it was clearly a movie train, as the locomotive (a T-12, probably 169, though no numbers or lettering was visible) had the obligatory fake diamond stack and extended wood pilot, and the fireman was doing his best to make smoke, though on that flat ground running at about 25 mph with only three cars, he was unable to achieve the heavy, oily, billious clouds that the Hollywood directors seem to like so much.
The scene was shot from the southwest to the northeast, with the snow-capped Sangre de Cristo mountains, in the area of Truchas, barely discernable in the far background, and must have been shot in the final years of the Santa Fe branch, as the cinematography was quite good and spliced into the episode nicely. Matt Dillon got on the wrong train somewhere and must have been some disappointed when he ended up in Santa Fe instead of Wichita.
This is the only motion picture footage I have ever seen anywhere on the Chile line, and left me wishing for more.
In another episode from a year earlier, marshall Dillon had to get someone put on the eastbound train from Dodge City, and when they showed the "depot", there was the 463, freshly painted, probably having just been purchased by Gene Autry.
The problem with these little gems is that they're way too short, and if you're not recording them, you barely have time to identify the location or the equipment.
