Trivia

The title refers to a joke among hobos during the Great Depression that the world's best hobo was Emperor of the North Pole, a way of poking fun at their own desperate situation since somebody ruling over the North Pole would be ruling over a wasteland.

The climactic fight scene between A No. 1 and Shack took thirty-five days altogether to shoot.

Willis Kyle, President of the Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway, allowed the film company to have unlimited access to his company's rolling stock for the film.

In 2016, Engine #19, used in Emperor of the North, was sold to the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio, where it now resides.

This film was made and originally released as "Emperor of the North Pole." After initial screenings, Twentieth Century Fox executives feared that audiences might think the title indicated a Christmas movie or an Arctic exploration story and so shortened the title to "Emperor of the North," a change that made little sense in terms of audience expectations and none at all in light of the fact that "Emperor of the North Pole" is a hobo term used extensively throughout the film.