A silly Christmas train idea

Okay, silly idea, but I can't get over it.

Take an AEM-7, paint it two shades of brown. Secure a big red nose on it, soft enough for FRA regulations. Re-engineer the panograph so that it is between two telescoping antlers.

Take another AEM-7, paint it red. Skin the passenger cars in between with the two shades of brown.

Have all conductors wear antlers. Have the engineer wear antlers and the nose. Have Santa monitoring from the back.

Run this Christmas car on the NEC. Serve cookies and milk to taste.

Believe the "Polar Express" copyright owners will claim "Foul" to that,figure on Santa claiming "Foul" as well!

Polar Express doesn't have exclusive use of the idea of a Christmas train.

(and in fact has lost a few contracts since they're apparently charging a lot for licensing, so folks are going with their own Christmas trains.)

They used to laugh and call it names.

Greg Moore wrote:Polar Express doesn't have exclusive use of the idea of a Christmas train.

(and in fact has lost a few contracts since they're apparently charging a lot for licensing, so folks are going with their own Christmas trains.)

They do indeed charge an immense amount of licensing fees. One of the licensee's management has indicated such to me.

Hardly a new idea (granted, this isn't Amtrak)- this was on the Morris County Central in 1997, seven years before "Polar Express".

Everyone:

In the past week the Hallmark Channel has premiered as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame a new
movie titled "The Christmas Train" about a transcontinental train journey between Washington,DC
and Los Angeles. I watched one showing of this new movie with some family members who liked it
even though I was pointing out inaccuracies of rail equipment and intermediate cities in the movie.

There were scenes filmed in what looks to be Vancouver,BC and on VIA Rail Canada equipment and
in some views BC Rail RDCs were used (I took note to BC-33 in one scene) in a part of the movie in
which the train gets stranded in the Colorado Rocky Mountains which showed an Amtrak RDC train
which at best were only used for short runs such as NHV-HFD-SPG and the defunct "Black Hawk"
train in northern Illinois (Chicago-Dubuque,IA) back during Amtrak's early years.

The movie plot itself is not bad considering the on-board cast but could have been made more real
and accurate with the use of an Amtrak Superliner train consist (a model could have helped instead
of the varied ones that were used to show the train in service) and showing intermediate cities in
which the train stopped to be more of what they and their rail stations are really like (Toledo,OH
and La Junta,CO are to me the best examples having visited both on past trips) to make it seem
even more real to those who may seek to take a similar train trip on Amtrak this season.

http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/the-christmas-train" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

See the movie on You Tube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O6aozKZnsM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Christmas Train (2017) Hallmark Channel posted by Robert McGuire - Time 1:40:02

MACTRAXX

Mr. Mactrax, if the book took the liberties it appears to, then I'm not about to bother with the movie - especially the "made for TV" varietal.

Here is prior discussion:

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8457&p=72830#p72830" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;