BTW I believe the William Mason was the engine in the Will Smith movie - "Wild, Wild West". 

That is correct.  She kept that paint for about year or so, even ran a weekend of trips at the museum before being put back inside.  I would note that many of the historic locos in the collection were theoretically operable, since most were refurbished and operated at the "Fair of the Iron Horse" back in 1927, and then hardly operated thereafter.  The locos that got the most running in later years were the Mason, which subbed for the "General" in the Disney movie "The Great Locomotive Chase", along with the 4-2-0 "Lafayette",  which was labeled "Inyo" in the movie. 

Re:  Dropping off the mail--the bags were usually just kicked out the door of the RPO while the train was rolling.  The bags were usually strapped shut, and sometimes padlocked, so the mail wouldn't be flying all over. 

There were a few hayburners running around until the 1940's in remote locations.  The Live Oak, Perry and Gulf run wood-burners in Florida on "main line" runs--4-6-0's for sure.  The Mississippi and Alabama ran a 2-6-2 on a short lumber line connecting those two states.  For lumber roads, wood was usually abundant and cheaper than coal or oil.  There are some photos of both the above-named roads in Beebe & Clegg's classic, "Mixed Train Daily".  So, running a Richmond 4-4-0 as a wood-burner would not be beyond the realm, but it likely would have been a hand-me-down to a short line or logging road and should be modeled in that light.

A number of priceless historic pieces were damaged in the roof collapse, not just the "Perkins".  The collapse was a result of a very heavy, wet snowfall that overstressed the cast-iron roof trusses (from 120 years ago).  Several all-wood pieces of rolling stock were uttlerly destroyed.  The old locos suffered some degree of bumps and dents, including wood cabs that got partially or totally crushed.  The roundhouse roof was rebuilt and strengthed, and the building reopened last year.  Any fund-raising would be welcome, as there is LOTS to work on.

There has quite a spate of movies with railroad themes, especially in the 1930's and '40's.  Besides "Union Pacific", there was a movie on the Santa Fe; The Twentieth Century Limited was featured in a film by that name; a movie called "Silver Streak" was basically a movie-length "infomercial" for the CB&Q's brand new Zephyr; A movie entitled "Danger Lights" was filmed on the old Milwaukee Road; a movie called "Denver and Rio Grande" featured a head-on collision between two old 2-8-0's (real, not models!) accented with some dynamite; "Emperor of the North" was more contemporary, but filmed on the OP&E with real steam locos.  One thing to note is that the editors sometimes got lazy or cheap and would splice in stock train footage that might be of almost any railroad. 

Born at the very beginning of the Baby Boom, I've lived virtually all my life in the suburbs of the Nation's Capital.  The first train I remember was a little wooden pull toy loco and a couple of cars.  I spent some early summers with my paternal grandparents up in northwest Pennsylvania, where the PRR was still all-steam.  That probably sealed the deal for me.  After some early Marx and American Flyer toys, I got into serious HO during high school.  During a stint in the Navy I tried a little N scale, but after discharge went back to HO for a while.  However, the narrow gauge bug was strong, having bit during my first visit to the EBT in 1962.  Decided to change to On3, and now have an O/On3 pike under way in the basement.  May not get "done" before we retire and move.  We'll see. 

I have worked as a city planner, now a zoning administrator. 

Assuming the BLI P-7 is half-decent, Bachmann should look at another Pacific prototype.  The Southern Ps-4 would be an excellent choice, IMHO.  It has somewhat smaller drivers (78", I think) that would lend itself to being redetailed for a number of other 1920's-vintage Pacifics.  In the past I've mentioned the Harriman locos too.  They are, of course, specific to those western roads controlled by Harriman, but that includes the UP and SP, which is a considerable chunk of railroading. 

The CN/Amtrak units were built by United Aircraft and were gas-turbine powered.  I got to ride in one on the B&O from DC to Oakland, MD back in the early '70's.  Not a great rider, as I recall, though that probably had as much to do with Chessie's track maintenance as with the unit.  They ran several sets on the Hartford-Boston run pre-electrification.  Amtrak had a different type of turbo unit on the NYC - Albany run as well. 

While it is possible that the Royal Blue may have occasionally had a 4-4-0 on the point, IIRC that train started out life being hauled by some high-wheeled 4-6-0's.  Yes, the trains and locos were tricked out in Royal Blue paint.  For those of us of a certain age, Binkley once made a kit for a Royal Blue Line narrow-vestibule coach.  Aristo-Craft once brought in a die-cast model of the Royal Blue Ten-Wheeler, but it wasn't a great model.

Ralph:  Be patient.  I read in the hobby press that Bachmann will now be announcing new releases quarterly, when they are close to be coming available.  At that rate, expect the next announcement of new stuff around May. 

Oooops, my bad.  The E-27's got Walschearts gear when there were rebuilt, not Baker.  You can make a reasonable facsimile of an E-27 by raising the headlight on the Bachmann model to the top of the smokebox front, and reversing the position of the bell and sand dome. 

The Bachmann Connie is closest to the IC locos, but is pretty much a "standard" Baldwin engine from the 1910-1920 period.  It is really a "medium" Consol, as compared to the biggest ones on the WM, Reading, and D&H.  I would note that the original B&O E-27s were built with slide valves and Stephenson valve gear.  All were later up-graded with piston valves, superheat, and Baker gear.  Some lasted almost to the end of B&O steam.  Consolidations were supplanted on main line freights by locos with trailing trucks, which supported bigger fireboxs and hence generated more horsepower.  They were, however, maids of all work, used on local freights, passenger locals, switching, etc.

I would guess that the screw is probably a 2 mm screw.  I think most all the imported models now come with metric screws.  Mr. Bach-man??

Since On30 is O scale narrow gauge, I would recommend using the NMRA RP's for On3 as a guide for clearances.  They can be found on the NMRA web site.  You should be able to get away with using 3" track centers (12 feet in O scale), though you might want to spread it out to 3 1/4" on tight curves. 

Prototype trolleys could go around some impressively sharp curves.  IIRC, the Pittsburgh system had some curves as sharp as 35 foot radius, which is about 5" in HO.  Note that there is, or was, some ready-made trolley trackage (rails set into plastic street sections) available.  Check Walthers catalog.