1880 Train's Vintage Steam Engine To Star in Epic Spielberg/TNT Series

HILL CITY, SD (2/1/05) - One of America's oldest operating steam locomotives is destined to leave the tracks in the Black Hills of South Dakota on Wednesday and make its way to New Mexico for a starring role in a new Steven Spielberg-produced television mini-series.

Turner Network Television has engaged the 1880 Train to provide its classic Engine No. 7, its tender, a rare drover's way car and local personnel to assist in its new 12-hour epic of the American West called Into the West. As a result, two massive cranes will arrive in Hill City Wednesday morning to lift the 174,000-pound steam engine and tender onto heavy-hauler trucks for its 800-mile journey to New Mexico.

"TNT is actually using this vintage steam train that operates regularly in the Black Hills to portray western expansion and the role of the rail in the 1800s," said 1880 Train President and General Manager Meg Warder. "We're extremely excited to be playing a role in a major new television mini-series produced by Steve Spielberg and featuring an all-star cast."

The story of the opening of the American West will be given an epic treatment in this original limited series produced by TNT in association with DreamWorks Television and Executive Producer Steven Spielberg, according to Michael Wright, senior vice president of original programming for TNT.

"The six-part series weaves a dramatic tale of the adventurous exploration of the American wilderness, the clash of two cultures, the rush to riches in a new land and the building of a new civilization," Wright said this week from TNT's Atlanta offices. "Into the West is the most ambitious original production TNT has ever undertaken."

The series follows two multi-generational families, one settlers and the other Native American, each telling the dramatic stories of the development of the West from their distinct points of view, Wright explained. One family is the Wheeler clan, a Virginia family of wheelwrights making their trek westward. The other family is a plains Native American family hailing from the Lakota tribe. Throughout the series, the families experience the cultural and historical events that led to an epic clash of culture, often coming into contact with notable figures and events from the era, Wright said.

The dramatic series, slated for broadcast beginning in June, features an all-star cast comprised of Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings, 50 First Dates), Tom Berenger (Platoon, Training Day), Beau Bridges (Evel Knievel, The Agency), Josh Brolin (Hollow Man, Melinda and Melinda), Gary Busey (The Buddy Holly Story), Graham Greene (Snowdogs, The Green Mile), and Keri Russell (Felicity), among others.

The 1880 Train's Warder said she was pleased that one of the Black Hills' stars would be playing a role in the new series. She noted that Engine No. 7 has previously appeared in the Gunsmoke episode Snow Train, the film Orphan Train, and the daytime soap General Hospital.

Engine No. 7 is recognized as one of the oldest operating steam engines in the U.S. The 52-foot-long, 105-ton engine was built in 1919 by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Ozan Graysonia Lumber Co. and was later sold to the Prescott & Northwestern Railroad in Arkansas. The Black Hills Central Railroad acquired it in 1962, and it has been in operation ever since, Warder said.

Mike Grimm, the 1880 Train's chief mechanical officer, will accompany the locomotive to New Mexico and assist in its use in filming, which will occur on the Ford Ranch near Santa Fe. The engine will be joined by a rare drover's way car, used by stockgrowers to accompany their cattle to market. Warder said only two drover's cars are known to still exist in the U.S., and the 1880 Train's original is the sole one still in use. The engine and drover's car will return to the Black Hills in early April, Warder said.

"We've always been proud that our Black Hills attraction is restoring authentic steam engines and other railroad cars and preserving a small slice of Americana," Warder said. "Of course, our engines are our business and if something would happen to them, it could be devastating. But, we've balanced that with the exposure of having this unique piece of railroad history appear in a film that likely will be broadcast numerous times over several years. That's good for the 1880 Train, the Black Hills and, indeed, all of South Dakota."

For more information, contact:
Meg Warder, 1880 Train - 605/574-2222
Michelle Sisco, TNT - Atlanta - 404/885-4784
Tom Griffith, TDG Communications - 605/722-7111