TWO FOR TUESDAY - THE HOOTERVILLE CANNONBALL 2

And now here’s part two of our look behind the scenes for a particular TV train……

‘PETTICOAT JUNCTION’
“THE VERY OLD ANTIQUE”

From the IMDb:
When Kate unexpectedly sees Homer Bedloe in Hooterville, she knows trouble is in store. Because of the continual problems he has faced trying to scrap the Cannonball, Bedloe states he has given up on that idea. Instead, he plans on selling the Cannonball - a seemingly one-of-a-kind antique locomotive - and he has a buyer on hand. He is millionaire retired train man and antique train aficionado, Phillip Waterhouse. Waterhouse, who comes with his personal secretary Cassidy, is an old, ornery and snobbish man who generally gets what he wants. Bedloe plans on giving Waterhouse a test run on the train. Instead, Kate manages to be Waterhouse's fellow passenger, leaving Bedloe behind in Hooterville. With Charley and Floyd's help, Kate hopes she can convince Waterhouse that the train is in such disrepair that it's not worth buying. But by the time they arrive at the Shady Rest, Kate learns Waterhouse's true motivation in wanting to buy the train, which was not as she expected. She hopes that with the family's help, she can get through to Waterhouse the necessity of the train to the valley, which may not be an easy task seeing that Waterhouse is not the type of man to listen to anyone's opinion except his own.

By the end of the episode, Mr. Waterhouse had been softened up and swayed by Kate Bradley.  He changed his mind about buying the Hooterville Cannonball and told Homer Bedloe that he was instead in the market for a 1892 Porter train.

From Wikipedia:
H.K. Porter, Inc. (Porter) manufactured light-duty railroad locomotives in the US, starting in 1866. The company became the largest producer of industrial locomotives, and built almost eight thousand of them. The last locomotive was built in 1950, but the company continues to produce industrial equipment to this day.

Porter was known for building locomotives that were much smaller than those normally used by the larger Class I railroads. The company's locomotives were small enough that they were often operated by only one person. Porter built mostly steam locomotives, but they also built some powered by gasoline and diesel engines, and some that ran on compressed air.

This H.K. Porter train is still in operation in Finland.

1890: Porter built their first compressed-air locomotive, for a coal mine in Pennsylvania. Air was stored in two tanks, and used to drive the pistons instead of steam. This allowed locomotive use inside mines without the fumes of burning coal, or the dangers of high-pressure steam. Porter went on to build over 400 compressed-air locomotives for use in mines, plants, and the street railways of New Orleans. Others built compressed-air locomotives, but by 1900 Porter had captured 90% of the market.  

For more - LOTS more! - on the H.K. Porter company, click here.

In both this and the previous mention of the Rogers locomotive, the writers of the sitcom had certainly done their homework, for both were real companies.  

BCnU!