Cimarron Strip/The Blue Moon Train

The Blue Moon Train
Season 1, Episode 21
Airdate	February 15, 1968
Production Number	0710
Written by	Jack Curtis
Directed by	Gerald Mayer
← 1x20 Big Jessie	1x22 → Without Honor
Cimarron Strip — Season One

Guest Starring: Broderick Crawford (A-1 Joe Lehigh)

Co-Starring: Kevin Hagen (Dum Dum), Donald Barry (Eliza Kedge), Robert Foulk (Ragan), Norman Leavitt (Hobo)

Plot Overview

Ex-convict Joe Lehigh arrives in Cimarron City and, despite Marshal Jim Crown's warning, Dulcey hires him to work in the Wayfarer's Inn. Crown is involved with an important trainload of convicts being transferred from Denver to the Atlanta federal prison and believes Lehigh is in town to spring his old friends. Lehigh seems to have his own friends in the form of a travelling salesman, Elza Kedge, and his assistant Dum Dum. Kedge has fake transfer papers for the prisoners. When Dum Dum tries to access Lehighs room at the Wayfarers Inn Crown puts Lehigh in jail in protective custody until the train passes through.

Crown's reservations about Lehigh are borne out when he escapes and kidnaps Crown's deputy, Francis Wilde and leaves Town. Crown, MacGregor and two other deputies follow a trail that can't be missed. Lehigh ambushes the group wounding the two deputies, Francis is also wounded, forcing MacGregor to take the deputies back to Cimarron City leaving Crown to continue the pursuit alone. Lehigh's plan all along.

Crown tracks him and Francis down to Lucre, a ghost town, that the train passes though and Lehigh offers Francis' life in exchange for Crown's help to stop the train when it passes through the deserted town and take the prisoners off using the fake transfer papers.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

Lehigh travelled to Cimarron, to dodge his fare, in a boxcar which he called a 'Sidedoor Pullman'.

To stop the train, two torpedoes (detonators in the UK) placed half a mile before the Ball and Lantern (if night) signal placed in the lower position was the correct method of stopping a train in an emergency.

Characters

A-1 Joe Lehigh is known for always helping his friends and is a KSO, prison slang for First Class Outlaw.

Trivia

Allusions and References

Trains in the US until the 1960's often used a form of signalling called Timetable and Train Order operation that used morse code or telephones between signal posts.

Quotes

• Marshal Crown "I don't fault a man for taking care of his pals, but your loyal to the wrong people. That's the difference between us, people like me have to stop people like you. Sometimes it's hard, but that's the job. It goes with the star".