What is the wheel arrangement for the locomotive pulling the Polar Express in Chris Van Allsburg's 1985 masterpiece? Although Lionel has based its models upon the Pere Marquette #1225 2-8-4 Berkshire, the book's cover illustration makes it look like a 4-6-2 Pacific. Moreover, for a story set largely in the United States, the locomotive seems to be sporting a nicely-styled British type of boiler (albeit, with a headlight up front), although the illustration makes it look much larger than the typical British locomotive: in terms of size, it seems to approach a NYC 4-6-4 Hudson (without all of the clutter spread across the boiler and running boards). Lastly, we mustn't overlook the massive cowcatcher, which looks as though it would be more at home on a 4-4-0 "American."
Regardless of what the cover art may look like, the engine in the movie was based on the Pere Marquette #1225 2-8-4 Berkshire though some artistic license was taken in drawing it.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Yes as above states it was 1225 and in the movie the kid says its an Baldwin 2-8-4 S3 type locomotive so there is your Berkshire
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
The author attended football games on the campus where Pere Marquette 1225 was on display for years. He even credits climbing on it when he was younger.
Jon
The makers of the film spent many hours (I believe they used the locomotive for about a week) recording every sound that 1225 makes and also recorded the movement of the locomotive to make sure they had very accurate detailing in their screen depiction of the locomotive. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the day that they were running the train across the frozen pond! I love the movie very much and just for the record, there ARE reports that a Shay locomotive way back when in logging days DID derail and work its way across a frozen pond. The crew never knew it left the rails and due to the nature and power of a Shay the locomotive did not seem to care! Merry Christmas everyone.
Jon........good to see you back!
Jack
IF IT WON'T COME LOOSE BY TAPPING ON IT, DON'T TRY TO FORCE IT. USE A BIGGER HAMMER.
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