Marvel's Agents of SHIELD - Filming Locations: the Train Ride through Italy

The Southern California locations where Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is filmed.

Most of Episode 13 ("T.R.A.C.K.S.") takes place on a train traveling, in Coulson's words:
"...through the Italian countryside, from Verona to Zagreb. Very rural. Very isolated."

Or so they would like us to believe...

Not surprisingly, those train scenes were actually shot right here in Southern California.

But where? Aboard the Fillmore & Western Railway, that's where.

It's a private railway that runs between Fillmore and Santa Paula, CA, on a short-but-colorful
10-mile route through citrus & avocado orchards. It's a "tourist line" offering various train rides
to the public, including a murder mystery dinner ride, weekend scenic excursions,
and various holiday adventures.

(So yes, you can take a ride on this train, just by buying a ticket.)

But more than that, the Fillmore & Western Railway is also "The Home of Movie Trains",
insofar as the railway is made up of a collection of trains formerly used in Hollywood productions.
The passenger coach cars & dining cars are from the 1930s & '40s, and locomotives are all pre-1950.

The railway is still used for filming today - on a fairly regular basis - for shows like
like "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." or whenever Hollywood needs a train for a key scene.

If you've seen the movies "Water for Elephants", "Seabiscuit", "Chaplin", "A Walk in the Clouds",
or the series "Mad Men", "NCIS", "The Mentalist", "Glee", "Chuck", "Bones", "Heroes", "Carnivale"
or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", then you've probably seen the Fillmore trains or tracks.

(They even supplied the locomotive that is seen barging down the middle
of a city street in a surreal scene from the movie "Inception".)

Fillmore & Western Railway run a number of trains from their small town depot,
with several different kinds of locomotives, including some antique steam locomotives.

The particular blue & silver locomotive seen on this episode of "S.H.I.E.L.D."
(above) was the FMWX 100, an F7(A) classic diesel from 1949.

The Fillmore & Western Railway's ticket office & train station
is located at 364 Main Street, in Fillmore, CA

So where exactly is Fillmore?

It's a small town about 20 miles west of Six Flags Magic Mountain.

( I can only guess at the exact point along the route (from Fillmore to Santa Paula) where they
shot these scenes, but based on the curve in the tracks and the orange groves right next to
them, I'd say it's likely they were filmed at the bend in the tracks near Cliff Avenue. )

Here is a Google StreetView panorama of the bend in the tracks at Cliff Street:

The photos on this page are stills from "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
(which you can buy here) and are copyright ABC/Disney/Marvel.