Sleeper "Norfolk County", a little touch of fame

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Kind of further to this subject, I'll bet there are some out there who have or have access to railroad equipment - cabooses seem to be popular.  I do work in movies and TV around the Atlanta area which is a hotbed of film activity, mainly due to Georgia being a RTW state.  Every now and then production companies are looking for equipment of different kinds - for example, on casting call came out just today for "old heaps" (as in before 1990) cars.  Every state has a "film production assistance" department to help find locations, old cars, etc. for use in movies and TV.  They pay pretty good.  I passed this information on to a former colleagues who has a few old 1920-1930's dump trucks in Massachusetts and he leased one of them for a day or so at $500.  I guess hard to do with a caboose or other railroad car but for interior shots there might be a chance to pick up some money for maintenance over the years.  And if you have a groovy old house that could work as well - the "orphanage" in The Three Stooges was a Civil War era farm house in Clarksville GA and the production company used it for days.

Just a thought....good luck.

Ed Svitil
Alpharetta

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Subject: Sleeper "Norfolk County", a little touch of fame

The sleeper "Norfolk County"  earned a brief few minutes of fame in
1978 when it was used in a PBS TV show titled "The Golden Honeymoon"
which was based on a short story by Ring Lardner. At the time, the car
was owned by the late W. O. (Bill) Savage who lived in Tampa. FL. Bill
also owned the ex-SCL office car "Jacksonville" (ex- Pullman
"Pioneer") at that time.

One day, I got a call from a Hollywood producer asking if it might be
possible to put together a 1920's train for a film that was going to
be shot here in Tampa. Oddly enough, it was entirely possible because
not only was Mr. Savage willing to lease his cars but there was also a
fully operational steam loco based here. That was the ex-Reader RR
2-6-2 no. 11 which was owned by Frank W. Pollock. He had it stored at
a closed steel plant in south Tampa. After negotiations with SCL were
positive, a train consisting of the 11, an ex-Southern baggage car,
Frank's ex-MKT coach, the "Norfolk County" and the "Jacksonville" was
assembled for filming at Tampa Union Station. To get action shots of
the train, it was run to Brooksville and back, about a 110 mile round
trip. (No diesels were used.)

The "Norfolk County" appears in several scenes and some filming was
done inside it with actors James Whitmore and Theresa Wright. The film
ran on PBS around 1979-1980. It is also available on DVD through
Amazon. They show only 1 copy in stock, price $17.99.

All the train scenes are in the opening and first few minutes of the
show. Frank Pollock let Mr. Whitmore actually run the engine on the
way back to Tampa that day.

Mr. Savage died in the mid-1980's and his cars were sold. Both the
"Norfolk County" and the "Jacksonville" eventually ended up with the
Indiana RR Museum at French Lick, IN where they remain today in poor
condition. Frank Pollock moved his engine to the Hartwell RR around
1982 where he started a tourist operation. Later, he was killed in an
automobile accident and the engine went to the New Georgia RR but they
never ran it, instead they sold it to the NRHS chapter at Lexington,
KY and it was moved to the TTI RR at Paris, KY where several
excursions were run with it until CSX discovered it and put an abrupt
stop to that. The engine sat neglected for several years until a few
years ago when it was bought and moved to Flemingsburg, KY where it is
now stuffed and mounted.

-Jim Herron
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