Wonder how many people out there caught Neil Simon's little mess-up. I never knew that Erie Lackawanna went to Biloxi MI!? Also, what engine did they use in this movie? Can never get any info on it.

The train of Lackawanna trailers were prepared and painted at our Diversified Rail Services shop in New Haven, In. and sent to the filming location at Fort Smith, AR.
We painted all the cars - I don't think the filmakers re-lettered them Lackawanna.
The steamer was S & A #750. Mr. Bill Purdie and the Southern Steam Department men ran her out to Fort Smith from Atlanta and returned after a week of filming.

I may be off on this, but by the time the movie was filmed, I think 750 was back in the hands of the New Georgia Railroad out of Atlanta. Wallace Haywood, Steve Webb and John Barnett were the core of the crew (if not all of the crew) that took the engine over to Arkansas and back.
I have heard some first hand horror stories about grates falling out, very long hours, and a helicopter sitting ten feet over the track in front of the train coming out of a tunnel and barely getting out of the way in time! If you watch the opening credits, you will see that shot.

My recollection as a kid in the 1940's was that you would see all kinds of foreign road passenger cars used in troop trains. This was especially true of old cars that had come off dead lines for wartime service.

fk

You are correct--New Georgia era. I don't know about the grates falling out, but I have heard that the company that was contracted to bring coal for 750 brought a load of lignite, which 750 apparently had no intention of burning. Also, the engine slipped a tire on the way back and was limped into Birmingham. Repairs were made in the NS shop before she returned to Atlanta.

Andrew Durden
SRM

Pretty sure it was a grate that Steve told me about, among other things. Either way, I heard enough about it to think that it didn't sound very 'Hollywood' to me!!

That is quite correct. During the war, you’d have seen trains from all manners of “foreign” roads with mostly local power, which looks about right in the movie. The problem is the road name itself. Erie Lackawanna wasn’t a railroad name in existence in 1945 as they merged into one road long after the war was over (I think 1960?). The coaches are former MU cars if memory serves, but they look good enough the part for the film.
I know that at one point (the ending, if I recall), the film is reversed and the lettering is backwards. You don’t have to know anything about trains to tell that’s wrong…