@Jim R. posted:Limited correlation to the trains in the book. First of all, the film uses the basic story and expands on it greatly, including in details of the train. The use of Pere Marquette no. 1225 and the heavyweight passenger cars are movie creations. If I recall correctly, the book illustrations depicted cars without clerestory roofs, though the paint scheme is similar in my later copy of the book.
I can't remember where, but I read something that Warner Bros. used one of Strasburg's closed vestibule coaches for the model of the heavyweights. Not sure if this is fact or fiction because I remember it didn't have a citation with it.
Also, there is more to the use of 1225 as the engine as people think. While it is evident that 1225 = 12/25 (Christmas day), Pere Marquette 1225 was on display at Michigan State in Grand Rapids where Chris Van Allsburg (the author of the book) grew up. In the book, the boy's house is in Grand Rapids.
In a interview with the Detroit Free Press discussing the movie, Van Allsburg stated that he "remember[s] that train on campus, I can't believe it's the same train [as the one in the movie]! I climbed on that train. I actually stood on it."
In another interview, Van Allsburg stated that playing on the engine as a child was a partial inspiration for the book and he had the engine in mind as he wrote the story. I can't find a direct quote or citation for this part so I'm not sure how much of it is fact vs. fiction.
