The Chamber is proud to announce the recipient for October Business of the Month Award. Business of the Month for October 2012 went to Fillmore and Western Railway.

A message from the President:
We are happy to honor this business, they do so much for the community and many have no idea. In Fillmore you hear the train whistle and wonder what's going on? Is it another movie shoot? I hope so, it brings business to Fillmore and that's what we like to see. When you see the school buses parked by the train depot, that would be students that get to ride the train at a discounted fare. Some of them would not have the chance to ride a train but taking a school field trip gives them that opportunity. When you see cars all in the parking area by the depot, you may wonder, what's going on? well, there's just too much to mention however, if you go to the website at: www.fwry.com you can view each event, dinner, festival, holiday and train rides they provide. The Company has been a Member for the past decade and has been a sponsor for the Chamber's annual May Festival. At monthly mixer you will find that they donate gift certificates for the drawings. They also provided the community for several years by directing and hosting the annual Sespe Creek Car Show. If you go by the depot on the weekend, you will find it to be decorated with Holiday cheer. December they host the train rides: North Polar Express, Dinner with Santa, and you can go to the Christmas tree farm and cut your tree and bring it back on the train. If locals want to celebrate New Years Eve but don't want the hassle of driving out of town, take the New Years Eve train! Your ticket includes dinner and dancing on the train with a DJ playing a variety of favorite tunes. As you can see, they do a lot of fun events and they bring a lot of people to the Community. You will find their passengers walk around town as they shop before or after their train ride. This helps our local economy and we all appreciate that. So for October, we recognize this Company as Business of the Month. Congratulations Fillmore and Western Railway!

Short Line Enterprises Fillmore & Western Railway Co. “brief” bio
Short Line Enterprises was founded in 1967. Between 1967 and 1972, the company bought, sold and traded locomotives, passenger cars and freight cars, mostly of 19th century origin. The majority of the equipment was acquired from the property departments of three major movie studios: MGM, Paramount and 20th Century Fox. This activity, combined with Short Line’s experience in buying, selling and evaluating railroad equipment led to the company’s emergence as one of the foremost appraisers in America of rolling stock and other railroad-related items. It also focused the company on its long-term path of providing movie trains for the film industry.

During this time (1985), Short Line moved its movie operations to the Newhall Ranch, placing it within the Hollywood production zone. Between 1985 and 1990, Short Line was used in over seventy feature films, television series and commercials. No Hollywood railroad location had ever amassed that number of credits in such a brief period of time. The track lease was cancelled in 1990 when the Newhall Land and Farming Company decided to develop the surrounding area in a way, which was incompatible with movie operations.

A search began for a new home for Hollywood’s “movie trains”. The only line that met the specific needs of the film industry was Southern Pacific’s Santa Paula Branch in rural Ventura County. The pastoral surroundings of the area also bode suitable for development of a passenger excursion business. The City of Fillmore showed great enthusiasm for the operation of a vintage train in conjunction with the revival of its 1920-era Central Business District. The objective—to create a major visitor destination that features the movie trains, passenger excursions and dinner trains as the master theme for the community redevelopment. To date over 400 feature films, television series, commercials and still shoots have been filmed on Fillmore & Western Railway, home of “The Movie Trains”.

The “Movie Trains” found a home, and Fillmore became known as “train town”.

In 1996, Short Line Enterprises became the film division of the Fillmore & Western Railway Company, when Dave and Tresa Wilkinson purchased the railroad from the former owners. Operations expanded from movie work and limited passenger trips to regularly scheduled daytime passenger excursions and Saturday night dinner trains, and have gone on to include widely recognized “train themed” events such as Day Out With Thomas, the first tourist railroad to present PumpkinLiners, the North Pole Express and Xmas Tree Trains. Because of the mild valley climate, Fillmore & Western is one of the few historic railroads that operates year round. Many southern California school children have ridden one of the “school field trip” trains either to the Fillmore Fish Hatchery or “Ichabog”, Fillmore & Western’s private pumpkin patch.

The antique trains of Fillmore & Western continue to attract visitors and railfans to the Heritage Valley and is as involved as ever in the magic of movies, while the company’s passenger excursions, dinner trains, private parties and corporate events provide the means of travel to a bygone era. The owners and staff of Fillmore & Western are involved in many community based fundraisers and also provide staff for the Heritage Valley Tourism Bureau.