Tag Archives: golden ticket

Next Stop, Christmas 2021

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Hallmark Channel

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus… What? Another Hallmark Chick Flick? Well, at least it features a real, live steam locomotive, that I’ve never reviewed before. Connecticut Valley Line Hype!

Kudos to Ben Haas for providing THIS MOST USEFUL LINK describing the origin and travels of this steam engine. In a nutshell, our 2-8-2 locomotive was constructed by Alco in 1920 for the Portland, Astoria & Pacific Railroad (a proposed line that was never built). Valley Railroad #40 spent a good portion of its life on the Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad in North Carolina before moving to Essex, Connecticut.

Time travel is involved (a la “For All Time 2000”), so set your clocks back, err… forward, be flexible, and enjoy the show. Merry Christmas!

ROWF! Look at those eyes! The two protagonists on our time machine train are (left – Lyndsy Fonseca as Angie Reynolds and right – Christopher Lloyd as the enigmatic Train Conductor).

Green with gold flecks on Angie, dontcha think?

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The Polar Express 2004

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Warner Brothers

Ah, Polar Express.  A 21st Century classic Yuletide movie and the fund-raising savior of tourist railroads everywhere.  The soft-focus animated film featuring a magic train and steam locomotive on its way to the North Pole, Christmas Eve.

And WHAT a locomotive! Can you get any more Christmassy than Pere Marquette #1225, a “Superpower” 2-8-4 Berkshire built in October 1941 by the Lima Locomotive Works? Filmmakers used actual blueprints of this steam engine to assist animators along with recorded sounds made by PM #1225.

Hey, Christmas (12-25-2020) is coming up soon, so climb aboard with a bunch of other lucky kids and ride with conductor Tom Hanks to (maybe) see Santa away up North. All Abooooooard!!

How would you like to see this pull up your street? I love the rounded-end heavyweight observation car with Mars light and P.E. drumhead. Better hold onto that golden round-trip ticket real tight, son…

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