When actor/writer/director/producer Tyler Perry showed up at the Chattanooga Choo Choo in early April to shoot a scene for “Six Triple Eight,” he brought with him a full crew and 400 extras from the Atlanta area.
To casual observers, it might have appeared that the production appeared out of nowhere in a matter of a few days, but in reality, there had been several meetings and discussions with city officials and local liaisons with the Chattanooga Southeast Tennessee Film Commission for weeks prior.
Perry’s team had been scouting the Choo Choo and the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum as locations for the film about the true story of the 6888th Central Directory Postal Battalion, World War II’s only all-Black, all-women unit, for some time.