I'm hoping some of you movie buffs can help me to win a bet with this hot shot non railroad type.

The train wreck sequence was oviously models,interspereaced with the real circus train. The real train was used in the movie also. However,HE thinks the train wreck was real. I told him they had to be models......no Motive Power Department would use 4-6-4's on such a train!

The wreck sequence was done with models, along with some night shots of both sections of the circus train at night as establishing shots. The live action shots with the cast at the wreck were sound stage recreations as full scale sets.
When I was down in Florida a few years back the scenic shop that builds the sets and props for Ringling Bros-Barnum and Bailey had some train models in their office lounge that they said were the ones used in the movie.

JMFouchard@aol.com

There is a scene in the movie of an actual circus train pulling into South Philadelphia yard behind a PRR GG1.

Electric City Trolley Museum Association