Site of the grisly murder of Laura Palmer, the Train Car appears in only three episodes from Seasons 1 and 2 and reappears in Twin Peaks – Fire Walk With Me. For this Vacant Peaks article, I share scenes from the outside and inside the car without people present.
IMAGES OF THE TRAIN CAR
Before diving into the episodes, I wanted to share two photos of the train car that aren’t from the series or movie. The first one comes from the Japanese Souvenir Program for Twin Peaks – Fire Walk With Me. It’s a gorgeous shot of the train car that, unfortunately, no longer exists in the North Bend / Snoqualmie area.
The second comes from Richard Hoover who did production design for Twin Peaks. His sets, including the train car interior, were incredible. See more on his outstanding work on his website.
Lastly, the Twin Peaks Gold Box DVD set released in 2007 used the train car on the outside packaging. You’ll notice it’s the same image and angle seen from the Pilot episode below.
PILOT EPISODE
EPISODE 1002
EPISODE 2001
TWIN PEAKS – FIRE WALK WITH ME
Thank you for a fantastic website! Do you know the exact location of the abandoned train car during filming? I have searched everywhere without finding any answers, only that it was in the Snoqualmie area. It looks like there is/was a little sidetrack.
The car is said to be in constant use to this very day. Twin identical cars, (I believe number 215 and 218) were part of the museum collection during filming. One of those cars was sent to Oregon and demolished, the other was refurbished and in great working condition; used by tourists when they take a ride to Snoqualmie Falls. The uncertainty is…which one was the exact car used in the episode…the museum president says 50 percent chance it’s their refurbished car! As far as where it sat, I remember the film site over in the train graveyard before the fence was up, between the log and Snoqualmie Ridge Parkway…on the left if you’re driving from downtown Snoqualmie towards the falls. I remember seeing the crews there and some of the current staff (Cristy Lake comes to mind) can answer your questions further! Cheers
There was an old railyard by that time, now there´s a highway.
Location is 47°32’07.7″N 121°50’04.4″W.
Cheers Michael
The car is said to be in constant use to this very day. Twin identical cars, (I believe number 215 and 218) were part of the museum collection during filming. One of those cars was sent to Oregon and demolished, the other was refurbished and in great working condition; used by tourists when they take a ride to Snoqualmie Falls. The uncertainty is…which one was the exact car used in the episode…the museum president says 50 percent chance it’s their refurbished car! As far as where it sat, I remember the film site over in the train graveyard before the fence was up, between the log and Snoqualmie Ridge Parkway…on the left if you’re driving from downtown Snoqualmie towards the falls. I remember seeing the crews there and some of the current staff (Cristy Lake comes to mind) can answer your questions further! Cheers
The train car used for the external shot was around during the filming of FWWM, which I was fortunate enough to witness on several occasions while living in Issaquah. As I recall, the train car looked long abandoned and was physically rotting — but exact layout, look and feel as the depicted in the TV series, all of which made it exceedingly creepy at dusk. Sorry to hear it isn’t around today, but would be interesting to see its twin!.