The 55-year-old star plays the role of engineer Jesse Knowlton in the film based on a true incident which happened in Ohio state 9 years ago, reported Daily Mirror online.
And it was the real-life Knowlton who taught the Academy Award winning actor how to drive a train.
"Jesse helped teach me how to drive a train. It was exciting and liberating to have all that power at your control. I spent a couple of days with him and he is a great guy," the superstar said.
However, the actor did not blindly "imitate" the real-life hero when it came to the action film.
"I really wasn't trying to imitate him in any way. But we talked for a long time and we were able to use some of the details from his life in the film," Washington said.
But the actor admitted that some sequences were "jazzed up" to make the movie more entertaining.
"There was a runaway train that was a really dangerous situation. But we jazzed it up a little," he said.