diff --git a/railties/CHANGELOG b/railties/CHANGELOG
index d5035a68d99..4a02b8c2265 100644
--- a/railties/CHANGELOG
+++ b/railties/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
 
+* Force RAILS_ENV to be "test" when running tests, so that ENV["RAILS_ENV"] = "production" in config/environment.rb doesn't wreck havok [DHH] #2660
+
 * Correct versioning in :freeze_gems Rake task.  #2778 [jakob@mentalized.net, Jeremy Kemper]
 
 * Added an omnipresent RailsInfoController with a properties action that delivers an HTML rendering of Rails::Info (but only when local_request? is true). Added a new default index.html which fetches this with Ajax. [Sam Stephenson]
diff --git a/railties/environments/environment.rb b/railties/environments/environment.rb
index a8dfe250740..dee175ce391 100644
--- a/railties/environments/environment.rb
+++ b/railties/environments/environment.rb
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # Be sure to restart your web server when you modify this file.
 
-# Uncomment below to force Rails into production mode
-# (Use only when you can't set environment variables through your web/app server)
-# ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'production' # Keep the ||=, don't use =, or tests will wipe production db
+# Uncomment below to force Rails into production mode when 
+# you don't control web/app server and can't set it the proper way
+# ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'production'
 
 # Bootstrap the Rails environment, frameworks, and default configuration
 require File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'boot')
diff --git a/railties/lib/test_help.rb b/railties/lib/test_help.rb
index 3f3cab8a95b..9238d1e2441 100644
--- a/railties/lib/test_help.rb
+++ b/railties/lib/test_help.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 require 'application'
 
+# Make double-sure the RAILS_ENV is set to test, 
+# so fixtures are loaded to the right database
+silence_warnings { RAILS_ENV = "test" }
+
 require 'test/unit'
 require 'active_record/fixtures'
 require 'action_controller/test_process'