Baskets

[JerryC]

I'm a fan of the FX - TV series "Baskets". Don't ask me why, it is one of the most off-the-wall TV shows i've ever seen.

In some recent episodes, Baskets and his band of "traveling performers" were hoping trains to get from town-to-town. You could tell by the freight car makes that these weren't modern day rolling stock, so it had to be filmed at a museum somewhere. Also in the background there have been several BNSF powered passenger trains with more modern cars. I'm assuming this is filmed in northern California? Can anyone who may have seen the show tell me what museum they were filming at?

[Bananarama]

I haven't seen the episode, but considering it's shot mostly in and around LA, perhaps the cars were part of the Filmore Western Railway.

[JerryC]

That may be it. The GP40 looks very much like the one in one of the scenes.

[GSkid]

That may be it. The GP40 looks very much like the one in one of the scenes.

They don't own GP40s, they have GP35s. I used to stare at these tracks as a kid every time we drove to Six Flags Magics Mountain hoping to see a train running on it, but never did. Southern Pacific still owned them, but I think at the time they had long stopped using them since the citrus orchards had switched to trucking to transport their fruit. At the most SP may have used this as storage track at times for rolling stock, but my memory is fuzzy on that so I can't be certain.

[Bananarama]

SP ceased operations over the line in the late 1970s/early 1980s due to a washout at the branch junction in Saugus. Mechanical refers were stranded for several years afterward until they could be removed and the remaining track then taken up. I lived in Valencia at the time and worked for a spell at Magic Mtn and Giant Truck stop in Castaic, but this was just after the line closed, so I never did get to see trains actually roll on the branch (I saw plenty of action on the Saugus line, however).

I do remember the long lines of stored refers as I traveld 128 on my way to Pt Mugu while in the Navy, and then one day they were suddenly gone. This was about 1982 or 1983.

[JerryC]

Thanks for the info - you can learn something new about the hobby from the most unlikely of places.

For those of you who dont watch the show, Basket's luck with hoping trains finally runs out. The po-po are hot on the group's trail as they jump on the train. The leader of the group, Morpheous, is shouting with glee and giving the cops the finger as he hangs from the side of the train. He gets wiped out by a signal.

[jmslakings]

SP ceased operations over the line in the late 1970s/early 1980s due to a washout at the branch junction in Saugus. Mechanical refers were stranded for several years afterward until they could be removed and the remaining track then taken up. I lived in Valencia at the time and worked for a spell at Magic Mtn and Giant Truck stop in Castaic, but this was just after the line closed, so I never did get to see trains actually roll on the branch (I saw plenty of action on the Saugus line, however).

I do remember the long lines of stored refers as I traveld 128 on my way to Pt Mugu while in the Navy, and then one day they were suddenly gone. This was about 1982 or 1983.

At one point in time way back, there was talk of connecting the Filmore Western line with the Sunset Railroad in Bakersfield. The problem of course was getting the line over the mountains. That was the end of that.

[Bananarama]

At one point in time way back, there was talk of connecting the Filmore Western line with the Sunset Railroad in Bakersfield. The problem of course was getting the line over the mountains. That was the end of that.

There's also been yammerings about restoring the mainline from Filmore to Saugus in order to run Metrolink, but I doubt it'll happen since there's just not enough people living along the route.