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Rio Grande Southern No. 20 named, Emma Sweeny is a Ten Wheeler type (4-6-0) narrow gauge (36") locomotive built at the Schenectady Locomotive Works in 1899 for the Florence & Cripple Creek Railroad, played the part of Tomahawk & Western #1. It was equipped with a false funnel stack, long wooden pilot, link and pin coupler, oil or kerosene headlight box over the electric light with a set of six-point antlers on top, and adorned with a colorful paint scheme, including three-masted sailing ships on both sides of the tender.
In order to save the railroad franchise, the "Emma Sweeny" has to be pulled on forty miles of dirt road over the Rocky Mountains using a team of mules. A replica "Emma Sweeny" was built for these scenes at a cost of $40,000.
In the 1970s, the replica was bought by Sam Gordon who displayed it in the parking lot of his Sam's Stage Coach Inn in Cameron Park, CA. In 1979, it was bought by John Queirolo and Rick Stevenson who gave it to the Amador County Museum in Jackson, CA.
In 2011, the museum sold the replica to the Durango Railroad Historical Society in Durango, CO. The society have restored it to its original state as the "Emma Sweeny".
It is now on display in Santa Rita Park on S Camino Real.
Trivia[]
- The model was used for shots off the tracks, pulled by mules along Blair Street in Silverton, on the airfield on Reservoir Hill (now Fort Lewis College) in Durango, and on the single lane gravel road at the top of Molas Pass. Then the model was taken back to the studio and used in camp scenes in October.
- Later, Fox sold the replica to Harvey Dick, who placed it in the lobby of his Hoyt Hotel in Portland, OR. Dick loaned the replica to the producers of "Petticoat Junction" to substitute for the "Hooterville Cannonball" in studio scenes.
- It was used for still shots in the show, while Sierra Railway No. 3 was used for the moving scenes.
- In exchange for use on the television series, a prominent screen credit appeared at the end of each episode: "Train furnished by Barbary Coast, Hoyt Hotel, Portland, Oregon". It was also used in the television series The Wild Wild West for scenes of the engine and tender.
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