It’s time for my yearly “Christmas Card” to everyone, so here goes!
What’s better than a steam engine in the snow? How’s about TWO steam engines in the snow! And without further ado…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZH5ALizf-I
And best wishes to all of you from Lady Firestorm and myself!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Wayne and all! This year I didn’t have time for a fancy Christmas video, so I posted a video from the CP Holiday Train in 2019. Enjoy!
Thanks Harrison!
Man, the Canadian Pacific puts on a heckuva show, don’t they? [tup]
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
Merry Christmas from Kent, Ohio…
…an old railroad town (Atlantic & Great Western Ry., 1863; later Erie RR) where Santa Claus arrives every year, as he ought to, by train…or at least by a locomotive! A local stone company, Shelley Materials, allows an employee or two to decorate their engine. They then use the tracks of W&LE subsidiary Akron Barberton Cluster RR to travel the mile or so into downtown Kent, with the one-note horn playing Jingle Bells the whole while. Here’s a town that knows how to honor its railroad heritage!
The locomotive passes the old depot and arrives at Main Street, which the police have blocked off so the crowd of about 1000 people can safely mill about the engine as Santa Claus gets out, waves, and then descends into the crowd. A carol is sung, Santa makes a short speech, and then he flips the switch that turns on the downtown Christmas decorations. It’s moving as well as beautiful!
The very best part is to look, not at the locomotive as it arrives, but to turn around and look into the many faces of parents, a few old duffers (even a few railfans with tripods!), but primarily the children! Imagine, Santa Claus and a real train! They can touch the locomotive, walk around it, etc. before it heads back down the track to home. You can imagine the happy sounds they make!
Being a college town, too, each child who sits on Santa’s lap and tells him their wishes gets a book as a souvenir!
No such celebration when I was attending Kent State from 1967-70. The EL was a active main line railroad at the time.
Notice the old Erie p
Enjoy your family and friends this holiday season!
Beautiful shots gentlemen, the locomotives look wonderful!
It wouldn’t be Christmas without the late Ed Blysard’s ode to humilty. Grab a tissue.
Got a good reality check today.
Everyone has a bad day once in a while, you know, those days where you could care less about any and everything, catch a good case of the blues, and end up feeling really sorry for yourself?
Had one of those yesterday, and it looked like a repeat for today.
The yard is jammed to the gills with cars, no place to switch them to, more work than we could ever get done, knee deep in gators…that along with some personal issues keeping me down in the dumps, having a real good pity party for myself…
There is a young man, 16 now, who shows up just about every day it isn’t rain
God bless Ed.
Remember this but it was good to see it again. I got similar fellings when we let so challenged kids blow the whistle on the trolleys. Merry Christmas to all and hope you graduate from that scooter soon.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you all.
Merry Christmas to all!
Merry Christmas!
CN used to run a small Christmas train for employees and their families around Edmonton, accepting donations for the food bank and other charities as tickets. It got a different unit each year but it always got decked out appropriately, as did the leased VIA or Rocky Mountaineer cars they would use.
This shot (Steve Boer photo) is of the 2018 train crossing the Sturgeon River bridge on the west side of St. Albert, just northwest of Edmonton.
That’s a fantastic picture with the lights reflected in the water. Thanks for sharing, and Merry Christmas to all!