Hooterville Cannonball

Hooterville Cannonball
Petticoat Junction Green Acres The Beverly Hillbillies character
Worker(s)	Charley Pratt (engineer) Floyd Smoot (conductor)
Information
Species	1890s abbreviated train
Occupation	Train Taxicab

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, and was produced by Filmways, Inc who also produced Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies. Petticoat Junction shares some characters and its locale, the fictional town of Hooterville, with Green Acres. The shows feature rural characters in humorous and sometimes absurd situations.

The most unusual "character" in the Petticoat Junction cast is the Hooterville Cannonball, an 1890s abbreviated train with a steam locomotive and single combination car (with a baggage and passenger section). The train is operated more like a taxi service by retired engineer Charley Pratt (Smiley Burnette) and retired conductor Floyd Smoot (Rufe Davis). It operates on a long forgotten spur between Hooterville and Pixley that was disconnected from the railway's main line after the collapse of 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.

J. Homer Bedloe (played by Charles Lane) is vice president of the C&FW Railroad, the owner of the Cannonball. 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).

...
Wikipedia