Pere Marquette 1225 prepares to pull onto the turntable to start their day North Pole Express excursions between Owosso and the Village of Ashley Country Christmas in Michigan, on December 17th, 2023. While I’d normally shoot this scene as a RAW file on my Nikon D810, on this day I was concentrating on video and drone shots. Still, I think my iPhone 14 Pro held up pretty good, all things considered!
According to their website, Pere Marquette 1225, the largest and most impressive piece in the Steam Railroading Institute’s collection, is one of the largest operating steam locomotives in Michigan. The 1225 was built in October of 1941 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio for the Pere Marquette Railway. It’s part of the National Register of Historic Structures and is renowned for its role in the 2004 Warner Brothers Christmas Classic, THE POLAR EXPRESS™. 1225’s blueprints were used as the prototype for the locomotive image as well as its sounds to bring the train in the animated film to life!
Tech Info: iPhone 14 Pro, 6.9 (24mm), f/1.8, 1/1/40, ISO 3200, in 4K video Mode.