(The following story by Steve Bandy appeared on the Marshall News Messenger website on September 21.)
MARSHALL, Texas — Jefferson will be among the communities in eight states to host Kansas City Southern’s Holiday Express train when it makes its eighth annual run beginning in late November.
The six-car train is scheduled to arrive in downtown Jefferson — between East Austin and Lafayette streets — at about 4 p.m. on Dec. 1.
The train will bring Santa Claus and his elves to 23 stops in 21 communities in eight states throughout the Kansas City Southern Railway company. The states will include Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Illinois.
At each stop, KCS will make a charitable contribution of Wal-Mart gift cards to a local Salvation Army chapter to provide warm clothing for needy children.
Due to contributions by KCS employees, vendors and friends, the railroad raised approximately $122,700 for purchasing the gift cards this year. This is an 8 percent increase over last year’s total amount raised.
In addition to these contributions, visits to the Holiday Express Train will be free and open to the public.
Led by KCS’ Southern Belle, the six-car train includes “Rudy”, the smiling tank car; a flat car carrying Santa’s sleigh, reindeer and a miniature village; a gingerbread box car; the elves’ workshop; the reindeer stable and a little white (formerly red) caboose.
The train was created in 2001, after more than 8,000 volunteer hours of work to a retired freight train.
Each year the train’s décor is refreshed in some way. This year the exterior of the caboose was repainted and the train displays inside the elves’ workshop were given additional holiday accents.
Festive music and lights complete the package.
The Holiday Express Train was built on the tradition of the former Gateway Western (GWWR) Santa Train, which made stops in small towns in Illinois and Missouri. GWWR was purchased by KCS in 1997.
In 2000, KCS employees recognized that the holiday train was the only Christmas some children had and some didn’t even have essential items such as coats, hats and gloves. The employees began building the tradition to the experience that communities throughout KCSR’s service area enjoy today.
The train will be arriving in Jefferson from the KCS Yard in Leesville, La. Next stop will be Wylie, then Sulphur Springs, the only other stops in Texas during the holiday tour.