"Gods & Generals"locomotive

[Anonymous]

There's a fairly realistic 4-4-0 in this Civil War movie epic, with no credit as to whose it is. The front end looks faintly like B&O; but the tender is marked "V. & T." I'm not aware of a Virginia and (something) line in the 1860s. Could it actually be a Virginia & Truckee loco transplanted and not relettered?

[Anonymous]

I haven't seen the movie, but my understanding is that the locomotive is B&O "William Mason" no.25 built by Mason in 1856. The scene was filmed in back of the B&O Museum near the Charles Carroll Mansion. The depot is just a two-sided mock-up, based on an actual station built in New York in the 1880's! The engine is indeed lettered "V&T RR." Some production company jerk thought Virginia & Truckee was in the State of Virginia. The baggage car was one of the victims of the Museum roof collapse in February's blizzard. The coach is one of two the Museum had; one of which was also destroyed and the second , which was in the car shop and undamaged. By the way, this same equipment was used by Walt Disney to film "The Great Locomotive Chase" on the Tallulah Falls Railroad in 1956.

[Piedsou]

I saw the movie and at one point the camera really zooms in on the tender. My memory could be wrong, but I think the B&O museum may have a V & T engine. The loco in the movie did not look like the William Mason engine. To be accurate, the movie engine should have been lettered for the R.F.& P. Earlier in the film, a train was shown transporting Jackson's men from the valley to Manassas Jct. I think it was lettered W & A. It should have been the Manassas Gap Railroad. Trying to be as accurate as possible on the men and the weapons of the period, they really messed up on the railroad scenes.