TV: The Dukes of Hazzard

In an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard called Welcome Back Bo and Luke (the one where they get off the NASCAR circuit). The Dukes chase the bad guy, Joey, to a railroad track in "Hazzard County" which is actually Los Angeles. When they chased Joey ot the tracks, there was a circus train parked on the track that had been "abandoned" in Hazzard. When looking at the train, I noticed reporting marks on the end of the boxcar that said the car was registered to the Southern Pacific (SP or Espee). Ironically enough, when the camera went to the side of the boxcars, they were all SP cars with the Hydra-Cushion logo painted on the side. One of the boxcars was even a Cotton belt with SSW reporting marks. Now isn't that dumb, a western railroad found clear out in "Hazzard County, Georgia." I think the producers would have been better off finding some Southern (SOU) or some Norfolk and Western (NW), wouldn't you think?

Or maybe even some NS cars too, lol. The episode aired in 1983, and NS had been around for about a year by then. I think some Southern or NW cars would be better, but you know Hollywood, they really don't care about those "small" details...

Agreed!! The NS would have been prototypically accurate but how many people watching The Dukes in 1983 really gave a damn about fresh railroad mergers. Most people might have recognized the name Southern on those cars instead of SP and SSW.

It's a TV show. They were lucky to even get real RR equipment for the budget that show had. The first season was filmed in Georgia but they quickly moved production to CA (the town set has also been used in "Back to the Future" and now "Gilmore Girls". The RR nearby had SP or SF equipment so they used it.
They also had a scene once where Boss Hogg almost becomes a test subject for Operation Lifesaver, with a SP Daylight train bearing down on his car! Clearly is was sotck footage, but they needed that film to match the landscape, so there you are.

I have a similar complaint about the movie "Ray" in this forum. That error is even more blatant than misplaced RR cars. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Brian

Speaking of which. I was watching a couple old episodes of the Dukes. two of them had an old EMD unit that said HS for "Hazzzard Southern" I belive and another one where SP #4449 almost hits Boss Hogg.