Pere Marquette 1225 is a Berkshire 2-8-4 N-1 class steam locomotive. Chris Van Allsburg based the train in his book, The Polar Express on this locomotive. This has led to the locomotive being nicknamed, "The Real Polar Express." For the film, the producers used blueprints of #1225 to create the model of the Polar Express locomotive. Most of the sounds were also recorded from #1225. One notable exception is the whistle, which came from Sierra Railway No. 3.
