the train used in back to the future 3 - Trains Magazine
Ava White
Updated on April 07, 2026
The steam locomotive used for the 1885 scenes, has become a "movie star" over the decades through appearances in several movies and TV shows. It is ex-Prescott & Arizona Central Railroad Locomotive No. 3--originally built in 1891 by Rogers Locomotive Works of Patterson, New Jersey (renumbered No. 131 for BTTF III). The 4-6-0 locomotive was originally designed to run on coal, but was converted to an oil-burner in the early 1900s after being relocated to the Sierra Railway (and apparently in BTTF II, it appears to be disguised as a wood-burner) .
The locomotive is on display at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown, California. It is currently being restored, and has thus been disassembled for the time being. Among other equipment on display are the wooden passenger cars and caboose seen in BTTF III, as well (they were lettered for Central Pacific in the movie).
The climactic 1885 railroad sequence in BTTF III was filmed on the Sierra Railway, in the vicinity of Jamestown and Sonora, in northern California. In addition to using the full-sized steam locomotive, tender, and DeLorean for close-up and wide-angle shots, the filmmakers also used 1/4 scale models of the locomotive, tender, DeLorean, and unfinished trestle for other shots. Also interesting to note on the full-sized equipment, filmmakers feared running the steam locomotive forward could derail the DeLorean (and Michael J. Fox inside of it). To aleiviate that risk, they secured the DeLorean to the front of the locomotive, and then filmed the train running in reverse--thus the train was actually pulling the car. When all of this footage was put together for the movie, the footage of the train running in reverse was reversed to make it appear as if it was actually moving forward, pushing the DeLorean.
Jumping ahead to the 1985 scene...
The only shot using scale models in the 1985 scene is at the very beginning--the overhead view of the completed bridge (rather extravagant too, woth towers and suspension cables!), as the DeLorean bursts into 1985 (which is being pulled across with a wire). Everything in that scene after that shot was filmed on-location and in full-size.
The tracks belong to the Ventura County Railway Company, a 10-mile shortline running between Oxnard, and Port Hueneme, California (in metro Los Angeles). It is actually just a couple blocks away from the coast, where the tracks terminate at a large port facility. DeLorean rolls thorugh the railroad crossing on Ventura Road in Port Hueneme (the "Eastwood Ravine Bridge" in the background is just a false facade).
The diesel locomotives that plow into the DeLorean a few moments later, actually do belong to the Ventura County Railway (and were painted/lettered for it in the movie). They appear to be Alco S-6's. Two of them were used: Locomotive #9 was the lead engine and Locomotive #11 was coupled behind, followed by a short string of boxcars.
Also of note, the filmmakers used a beat-up DeLorean that was no longer in running condition, gutted it, decorated it with "time machine" parts, and cut the frame and body in stragegic places so when the train would hit, they would get the desired effect of the car quite literally bursting at the seams (had they not done that, the locomotive would have simply pushed the car down the tracks a ways). They also used a little bit of explosives planted beneath the car to help put the car in pieces.
The "field" in the screencap posted earlier in the thread is just beyond the crossing at Ventura Road--the crossing we see the DeLorean roll through (so it would be right "behind" the camera in that photo. So the field and the crossing are all in the same place, you're just looking at it from different angles. No visual/editing trickery there.
