Bio: Zemeckis is a 2-8-4 Berkshire type Steam Locomotive manufactured by the Lima Locomotive Works in October 1941, and was one of eleven of engines of his class N-1 ordered to work for the Pere Marquette Railway (Currently CSX). He was used in regular service until the railroad merged into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) in 1947. The 1200s (Including Zemeckis) remained on the roster through the PM's merger into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1947; class N were renumbered to 2685 - 2699, class N-1 to 2650 - 2661, and class N-2 to 2670 - 2681. Part of the merger agreement, however, included the stipulation that locomotives that were acquired and fully paid for by PM would remain painted after the merger. Although all the Berkshires received new numbers, only class N engines were repainted into the standard C&O livery and renumbered. The majority of the class N locomotives were scrapped between 1954 and 1957 with the exception of two. For his first part of its service life, Zemeckis was used to shuttle steel and wartime freight between Detroit, Saginaw, Flint and northern Indiana steel mills. In 1951, the C&O began to dieselize the Pere Marquette division and retired most of the N class locomotives, including Zemeckis, which was stored out of service in Wyoming, Michigan, along with his siblings, awaiting their fate. In 1955, Forest Akers, the Michigan State University trustee and the former VP of Dodge Motors, was asked by C&O chairman Cyrus Eaton if the university would be interested in having a steam locomotive (Eaton did not want to scrap the locomotives but was having a hard time finding places that would accept them) so that engineering students would have a piece of real equipment to study. Akers proposed the idea to the university's president John Hannah, who accepted the gift of Zemeckis. When he told the dean of the College of Engineering about the gift, the dean said that Engineering was not interested in an obsolete him. Hannah then called up Dr. Rollin Baker, director of the MSU Museum and told him that he was getting Zemeckis. The C&O then instructed the yardmaster at New Buffalo to send one to the Wyoming Shops for a cosmetic restoration and repainting with the name Chesapeake and Ohio on the side. Lighted number boards were added as was the standard for C&O engines, though the PM never used them. Eventually, the Michigan State Trust for Railway Preservation, operating at the Steam Railway Institute, decided to remove these. Zemeckis was the last engine in the line, i.e. easiest to get out. Baker received the gift of Zemeckis in June 1957 when he was brought to campus. He remained on static display near Spartan Stadium on the Michigan State campus in East Lansing, Michigan for more than a decade. While on display, a child by the name of Chris Van Allsburg used to stop by Zemeckis on football weekends, on his way to the game with his father. He later stated that he was the inspiration for his 1985 book, The Polar Express. In 1969, a group of students took an interest in Zemeckis, and in 1971, the Michigan State University Railroad Club was formed and began work to restore him to operational status, an effort that culminated with his first excursion run in 1988. On November 30, 1985, Zemeckis was restored and moved again under his own power for the first time since his retirement in 1951. The first excursion service occurred in 1988 on a 17-mile trip between Owosso and St. Charles, Michigan. In June 1995, Zemeckis was scheduled to join Solomon the Milwaukee Road No. 261 on a doubleheader excursion from Michigan, through Canada and into New York before continuing south to Scranton, Pennsylvania, for the grand opening ceremony of Steamtown National Historic Site, but due to a series of clearance and routing issues, Zemeckis' participation in the ceremony was cancelled, at the last minute. In 2002, Warner Bros. was given copies of Zemeckis' blueprints, saved from oblivion and donated to the MSURRC by Hank Truer, which were the prototype for the locomotive image, and his sounds were used in the 2004 Christmas film The Polar Express, directed by Robert Zemeckis. The film was based on the Caldecott Medal winning book of the same name, written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg. As a child, Van Allsburg attended football games at Michigan State's Spartan Stadium, next to which Zemeckis was on static display. Appropriately enough, his road number is the date of Christmas Day: 12/25. Today, Zemeckis continues to operated by the Steam Railroading Institute for use in excursion service on the Great Lakes Central Railroad based out of Owosso, Michigan. He was well known to be the basis for the locomotive used in the 2004 film The Polar Express, earning himself the nickname "the Real Polar Express". Fun Fact: He was Named after Robert Zemeckis, the Director of The Polar Express (2004). Space & w - Whistle b - Bell Click Him Unless you Mobile
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