Christmas Train

Southern Unionist

First Sergeant
Joined
Apr 27, 2017
Location
NC
On-North-Carolina-Excursion1-500x337.jpg


[pic: AppalachianHistory.net]

Many Christmas trains have run over the years in various places, but any way you measure it, the Clinchfield Santa Train has to be the all-time champ.

For decades, the train was led by Clinchfield engine #1, a 4-6-0 built in 1882, long before the Civil War generation died out. Initially, it was a rather informal thing. with donated Christmas gifts for poor children being dropped off by the regularly scheduled daily passenger train in a number of impoverished coal camps of east Tennessee and western Virginia. Then the event grew, and became a dedicated special train that lasted long after the end of regular passenger service in the area. Santa rode on the train's rear platform, and was greeted in most towns by the mayor and large crowds, along a route that stretched more than a hundred miles. It eventually received national press coverage.

Eventually, Clinchfield #1 grew too old to pull the train anymore, but a clever trick preserved the train's tradition of steam. Old #1 could still safely make enough steam to blow a whistle and make some smoke, but could barely pull a single car uphill, so she received a modern control stand just to the left of the original engineer's controls, and electrical cables were run to an F-7B directly behind it, a cabless diesel that somewhat resembled a baggage car. It was the F-7B that was doing all the real work of pulling the train. (For longer summer and fall passenger excursions, a second F-7B could be added.) This is the version of the train shown in the picture above.

The #1's boiler deteriorated to the point where it was condemned by safety inspectors, and it now sleeps in the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

Several diesels have pulled the train since then, and the most notable one was restored this year to pull the 75th annual Clinchfield Santa Train, continuing on into the future as the longest and most famous Christmas train in America.

https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/legacy-locomotives/clinchfield-800-legacy-locomotive/

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/11/06-clinchfield-f
 
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Railroads are another of my interests. I feel sorry for those who have never experienced the wonders of steam railroading, including soot on one's clothing and cinders in one's eyes. I am of an age when I can well remember riding in trains pulled by steam locomotives. My house and elementary school were right next to the Philadelphia and Reading which at that location also hosted the B&O. At night, especially cold winter evenings, I could hear the steam whistle as the train went through Cheltenham Junction and I liked to imagine myself lying on the bunk bed of the red caboose bringing up the rear markers. Many of the Civil War Era locomotives were built at the close by Baldwin works in Philly. Whenever I go to a Civil War site I always look for traces, if not extant lines, of railroads whose cars were pulled by these steam locomotives, often burning wood, not coal, with their bulbous balloon stacks spraying sparks all over the countryside, sometimes burning more wood in the surrounding countryside than in the locomotive fire boxes. What a sight these must have been at night. If members ever get the chance, especially with kids, take a Ride on the Reading (or a reasonable facsimile). Now close your eyes and imagine your locomotive is the Texas and you are in hot pursuit of the General. Your locomotive's whistle is not a tourist railroad train signaling a grade crossing but the shrill warning to every whistle stop passenger to clear the right of way as it barrels through the station at a breathtaking 40mph. Or if you prefer you can be a reporter on the Lincoln train to Gettysburg or, if in a somber mood, the slow moving train wending its way through the still frost bound fields of the Great Lakes with its passenger list headed by our martyred president. For some, magic is found in the bottom of a top hat or the gurgling of a newborn but for some, like me, it's the moaning wail of a steam train on a mission.
 
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View attachment 169681

[pic: AppalachianHistory.net]

Many Christmas trains have run over the years in various places, but any way you measure it, the Clinchfield Santa Train has to be the all-time champ.

For decades, the train was led by Clinchfield engine #1, a 4-6-0 built in 1882, long before the Civil War generation died out. Initially, it was a rather informal thing. with donated Christmas gifts for poor children being dropped off by the regularly scheduled daily passenger train in a number of impoverished coal camps of east Tennessee and western Virginia. Then the event grew, and became a dedicated special train that lasted long after the end of regular passenger service in the area. Santa rode on the train's rear platform, and was greeted in most towns by the mayor and large crowds, along a route that stretched more than a hundred miles. It eventually received national press coverage.

Eventually, Clinchfield #1 grew too old to pull the train anymore, but a clever trick preserved the train's tradition of steam. Old #1 could still safely make enough steam to blow a whistle and make some smoke, but could barely pull a single car uphill, so she received a modern control stand just to the left of the original engineer's controls, and electrical cables were run to an F-7B directly behind it, a cabless diesel that somewhat resembled a baggage car. It was the F-7B that was doing all the real work of pulling the train. (For longer summer and fall passenger excursions, a second F-7B could be added.) This is the version of the train shown in the picture above.

The #1's boiler deteriorated to the point where it was condemned by safety inspectors, and it now sleeps in the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

Several diesels have pulled the train since then, and the most notable one was restored this year to pull the 75th annual Clinchfield Santa Train, continuing on into the future as the longest and most famous Christmas train in America.

https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/legacy-locomotives/clinchfield-800-legacy-locomotive/

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/11/06-clinchfield-f

Great post, thanks !!!

http://www.timesnews.net/Community/...ng-gifts-and-cheer-from-Kentucky-to-Kingsport
 
Made another steam stop today. While not really a Christmas train it's more of a winter train. It's at Loon Mountain ski resort in NH. They have a short 2 foot gauge railroad that ferries skiers from the bottom of the mountain back to the ski lifts. It's pulled by a wood burning 0-4-0 built by Orenstein & Koppel Berlin Germany in 1934.
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I stop here every year and have become quite friendly with the guy who runs it. It's usually a one man show so he's allways happy to invite me up in the cab and hang for a while. Supper nice guy and for a jar of O Be Joyful and a hand loading wood he lets me jump right in and take her for a spin. Here's a look in the cab and yours truly getting ready to take her for a ride.
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Here's a look in the cab and yours truly getting ready to take her for a ride.
Hang on...you got to...uh...er...drive...that doesn't sound right...conduct...nah, that doesn't sound correct either.

You got to choo choo that train?! Wow. That is very cool. I don't ski, but I'd ride up and down a few times for the fun of it.
 
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