The Hooterville Cannonball is a fictional railroad train featured in Petticoat Junction, an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from 1963 to 1970.
"[3] The most unusual "character" in the Petticoat Junction cast is the Hooterville Cannonball, an abbreviated 1890s vintage train consisting of a steam locomotive and a single combination car (with a baggage and passenger section).
It operates on a long forgotten spur between Hooterville and Pixley that was disconnected from the railway's main line after a flood destroyed a trestle twenty years before the start of the series.
It is not uncommon for the Cannonball to make an unscheduled stop in order to go fishing or to pick fruit for Kate Bradley's menu at the Shady Rest Hotel.
Occasionally, Betty Jo Bradley can be found with her hand on the Cannonball's throttle, as running the train home from trips into town is one of her favorite pastimes.
Bedloe is a mean-spirited executive, and he periodically visits the Shady Rest Hotel and attempts to end the train service of the Hooterville Cannonball (and never succeeds).
It was built in 1950 by 20th Century Fox for a movie called A Ticket to Tomahawk, starring Dan Dailey, Walter Brennan, Rory Calhoun and Marilyn Monroe.
[8] Harvey Dick loaned the replica to the producers of Petticoat Junction in exchange for the prominent screen credit seen at the end of each episode, "Train furnished by Barbary Coast, Hoyt Hotel, Portland, Oregon".
In 1979, John Queirolo and Rick Stevenson purchased the locomotive and later gave it to the Amador County Museum in Jackson, California, where it was restored and displayed.