Polar Express 🚂 Catskill Mountain Railroad's Santa Shuttle

Transcribed by Jerome Kazlauskas

Ernie Hunt  0:03  
Alright, it's about an hour and ten minutes, something like that ... and you go up to the North Pole and Santa aborts the train, then the elves handing out a bell till they get back into the station.

Brett Barry  0:17  
North Pole in an hour and ten minutes? Where can you catch this train, you might be asking, why? The Kingston Plaza parking lot, of course, where Catskill Mountain Railroad embarks on a magical Christmas expedition every holiday season, and while Santa's schedule is booked solid this time of year, you can still ride with him through December 29th. On today's show, Production Assistant: Mollie Zoldan and I scored two coveted golden tickets to the North Pole. Come along for the ride!

Mollie Zoldan  0:46  
"The Polar Express" originates from the 1985 children's picture book of the same name or a copy from Briars & Brambles Books. The go to independent book and gift store in the Catskills, located in Windham, New York, right next to the pharmacy, just steps away from the Windham Path. Open daily. For more information, visit briarsandbramblesbooks.com or call 518-750-8599. Thanks also to the 52-mile Catskill Mountain Scenic Byway; following New York State Route 28 through the heart of the Central Catskills. For maps, itineraries, and links to area restaurants, shops, and accommodations, visit sceniccatskills.com.

Brett Barry  1:27  
Back at the Polar Express Train Station in Kingston, New York, we met up with Catskill Mountain Railroad Chairman: Harry Jameson, Railroad President: Ernie Hunt, Engineer: Earl Pardini, and some of the cast of characters that bring the Polar Express to life.

Harry Jameson  1:43  
My name is Harry Jameson. I am the chairman of the Catskill Mountain Railroad and we are here at Kingston Plaza, which is the start of the Catskill Mountain Railroad train and we are hosting Polar Express.

Brett Barry  1:59  
Can you tell me a little bit about this stretch of tracks: how they fall into the history of this train line and how the Catskill Mountain Railroad operates this portion or how much of the track is leased to you from the county?

Harry Jameson  2:14  
Well, the Catskill Mountain Railroad is actually in its 40th year anniversary this year. We originally started in Phoenicia and we operated up there until 2016. In 2006, when I became a chairman, we began work in Kingston, and by 2008, we had restored enough track to where we had our first Christmas train and started operations here. This section of track was originally the Ulster-Delaware Railroad. It ran from Kingston all the way up to Oneonta. It was operated by New York Central. It was operated by Penn Central. The last freight trains were Conrail; passenger services discontinued in '53 and freight service was discontinued in '76. The county bought the tracks. Initially, we leased the entire 25 miles in Ulster County, but now we're basically in Kingston and that's where we're running.

Brett Barry  3:19  
What's the length of track that you're leasing now or that this train is running on?

Harry Jameson  3:23  
We lease four miles of track, so it's about an 8 mile round trip and it takes about 90 minutes for the full-length of the trip.

Ernie Hunt  3:31  
My name is Ernie Hunt. I'm the president of the Catskill Mountain Railroad. I work very closely with Harry Jameson, our chairman. We're very pleased that the Ulster County Legislature ... on November 14th, voted to extend our contract for 5 additional years. It was done with no comment. It was done unanimously by the read legislature and we're really happy to have the backing of Ulster County. About 85% of our customers come from outside the county and the vast majority are from downstate, and when they come here, they usually need to stop and eat. If they're on the late train, they stay overnight, use the local hotels. We direct them to various restaurants in the local area and we want them to basically enjoy themselves while they're here in Kingston.

Harry Jameson  4:16  
We originally were ... all volunteer. Now over the last few years, we've gone to a paid crew, which we hire about 60 people just for Polar. A good percentage of them are local high school kids from the Kingston High School, so a lot of them are their first job and they play parts that are traditional with the Polar production and that is the chefs. They danced up and down the train. We have elves, we have a hero boy, we have hobos, and we have a lot of Santa Clauses.

Brett Barry  4:51  
Okay, remember how we said, "Santa Schedule is booked solid this time of year?" I mean, he can't be on every train car at the same time. He needs a bit of assistance and that's where helpers like Santa Tom step in.

Tom  5:05  
We're the Spirit of St. Nicholas. My name is Tom and I'm from Poughkeepsie and I did this last year and I wanted to learn a lot more about it, so I thought I'd download a one-hour self-help class and I ended up finding out there's a Santa School and there's many of them, but the #1 school in the world is out in Michigan and about 350 Santas from around the world attended every year and it's 3 days long. It's a very, very top notch. They have a graduation; you get a diploma; they teach you. Everything there possibly is about Santa Claus, and ... and then some. It was well worth it and I might even go back again in a few years from now, just to learn even more.

Brett Barry  5:59  
Do kids come up to you in restaurants and things to ask if you're Santa?

Tom  6:04  
They tug on their mother's dress and point and they ask and I just winked at him and keep walking. Something funny happened. I was out with my family having dinner at a restaurant a few weeks ago, and as we were leaving the restaurant, there were 2 ladies in their eighties in a booth. They looked up at me and they said, "We've been very, very good this year," and we all had a good laugh at that.

Brett Barry  6:32  
Tell me a little bit about being Santa Claus on this train. What's that experience like?

Tom  6:36  
It's heartwarming. The first 2 runs I did were autistic children and we toned it down for them. They don't like a lot of loud noise and things, so we were very quiet and soft-spoken and I left there with tears in my eyes.

Brett Barry  6:56  
I don't want to put you on the spot, but can we get your best ho ho ho?

Tom  7:00  
Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!

Brett Barry  7:05  
After the break, our train departs. All aboard!

Mollie Zoldan  7:10  
Kaatscast is sponsored by the Mountain Eagle, covering Delaware, Greene, and Schoharie counties, including brands for local regions like the Windham Weekly, Schoharie News, and Catskills Chronicle. For more information, call 518-763-6854 or email: mountaineaglenews@gmail.com; and by Ulster Savings Bank, stop in and meet the friendly staff at their Phoenicia and Woodstock locations. Call 866-440-0391 or visit them at ulstersavings.com. Member FDIC Equal Housing Lender.

Brett Barry  7:44  
After chatting with the crew, we climbed aboard coach #5, where we were shown to our seats and offered a hot holiday beverage and a bit of song and dance.

Announcer  7:54  
YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE! Are there any Polar Express passengers in need of refreshment?

Brett Barry  8:14  
Then, golden tickets were collected.

Conductor  8:17  
Golden tickets!

Brett Barry  8:17  
More song, more dance, storytelling, and eventually, the North Pole where we visited Santa himself.

He and his elves handed out bells to everyone on the train, including me and Mollie. Of course, he wanted to know if we were good boys and girls before giving us those bells. Very much so. Yes, please. That holiday merriment and lots of jingling bells continued all the way back to Kingston Station, where our 400 fellow passengers disembarked.

Mollie and I lingered though, so we could have a word with our 4 dancing chefs. Alright, do you guys want to introduce yourselves?

The Chefs  9:11  
Hi, I'm Piper. I'm Jalen. I'm Morgan. I'm Amy. So we just really like to try and stay energetic for the kids, so there's not really much preparation. It's more just like ... in the moment ... whatever feels right. Besides like the dances and stuff like that, but even that we just kind of think up and do. Yeah, it's ... it's nice to come in and just be here because seeing people leave happy. It's just really ... it's fulfilling. Yeah, especially when the kids hug you goodbye and things like that. I mean, we have spontaneous dance breaks in the morning before at any train, so that is true. That's vital preparation. It's just like seeing the kids happy is just all that matters and it's like whatever you feel in the moment like when you see a kid happy, you're like you want to keep doing it. It's amazing!

Brett Barry  10:04  
Any fun standout stories that have happened so far this season?

The Chefs  10:08  
I remember I was in this car and they handed me a baby and the baby stuck their entire fist in my mouth and I was like ... oh, oh ... and the parents were just smiling, taking photos, and I was like ... and I was like I shouldn't dance with the baby and they just kept seeing their hands further. So ...

Brett Barry  10:34  
So anything for a smile?

The Chefs  10:36  
Yeah, I think genuinely because if someone looks like they're not having fun, then it's just not fun for us. We like coming in here and everyone on here is amazing and they're so fun and they're so lively, so it just ... it's ... it's fulfilling.

Brett Barry  10:51  
We were curious to see who had actually gotten us to the North Pole and back in one piece and we're invited up to the engine to meet longtime engineer, Earl Pardini.

Earl Pardini  11:01  
Here we go!

Brett Barry  11:04  
Nice and toasty in here.

Earl Pardini  11:05  
Yeah, sure. Engineers and those suckers, you know. Alright, well, this right here is the automatic brake valve. This controls the brakes on the train and this one controls the brakes on the engine, and then we have the reverse of this here and this is the throttle. Well, there is.

Brett Barry  11:39  
What's it like running this kind of train as opposed to what you used to do as a full-time job?

Earl Pardini  11:45  
I would say that most modern locomotive engineers could not run this engine because of the way the brake system is. This is an early style of automatic brake valves and being that we're on a 2% grade, which is considerable for a train and we're trying to go at slow speeds and we got passenger cars and freight cars. It's ... it's tricky. It really is tricky. It's 100% safe, but takes a while to cut your teeth, you know.

Brett Barry  12:20  
It's hot and loud in that engine cab, but we wanted to hear more from Earl, so let's adjourn back to the true trailer.

Earl Pardini  12:28  
My name is Earl Pardini. I'm the superintendent of operations of the Catskill Mountain Railroad and I've been in with us since the beginning of 1982/3. This is a culmination of many years of extraordinary effort and a lot of people, and for so many years, we'd have volunteers come and go when people would learn how to do things and we actually ... I can say that I trained at least 20 people that went on to be professional railroaders, but this is the culmination now where we have an event that pays for itself. You know, in the past, we would be scraping our pockets to find money to buy insurance or get a little fuel for the engine or anything and this is really wonderful and what's most important about it is, is that we have become a community of people who really love doing this and there's ... I don't know how many folks we got out here now ... probably close to 50 and we've worked together like a well-oiled machine. It's just really such a joy to be doing it and the best part, of course, is to look at all these kids and parents and everybody else running around their pajamas and just having a great time. So I am personally very grateful. I praise God for it because we know that he's involved in this and it's been just a great time.

Brett Barry  13:50  
Speaking of well-oiled machines, tell me a little bit about the train that's an operation for these events.

Earl Pardini  13:56  
Well, a locomotive, I just put it in for medicare. It's 73 years old and still functioning for us. We have done pretty heavy maintenance on it at different times, but it's still functioning. It's still pulling our train for us.

Brett Barry  14:12  
I'm guessing there's gonna be at least one train who is listening to this. Can you tell us the specs on that locomotive?

Earl Pardini  14:19  
Oh, yeah. It's a 1950 Alco RS-1 and it's got the 539 engine, which is a great dear to a lot of old people and still runs.

Brett Barry  14:33  
Diesel?

Earl Pardini  14:33  
Yes, diesel-electric. Yeah, the electrical capacity is pretty amazing. It's 1,000 horsepower, but it generates 846 kilowatts of power, so you could ... you could run half the Kingston off of that locomotive. Yeah.

Brett Barry  14:47  
But I imagined they don't serve us them anymore, so it's up to you.

Earl Pardini  14:49  
Well, Alco is no longer in business and the Alco plant is now a casino, so that tells you how much servicing we're getting it from them.

Brett Barry  14:59  
Along with the challenges of maintaining a 73-year-old locomotive, Catskill Mountain Railroad's Harry Jameson explains how the very tracks it runs on, present their own set of challenges.

Harry Jameson  15:11  
There were 3,000 ties a mile and initially we try to replace at least 1 and 5, so that we can get ahead and operate at a class 1 standard, which gives us the ability to operate at 15 miles an hour. We have spent about $500,000 in the last 5 years, just restoring track and keeping everything together. We've also gotten two new crossings in with the help of DOT funding. We have a new crossing at Route 209, which is a state highway, and also last year, we were able to get a grant for the protection, which is a crossing box and flashers, and DOT went ahead and just paid for a new crossing at Washington Avenue, so these are major, major improvements. We're hoping that we're gonna have gates and flashers on Washington Avenue this year.

Brett Barry  16:06  
The Polar Express isn't Catskill Mountain Railroad's only ride; there are seasonal events throughout the year.

Harry Jameson  16:12  
We also start the season with the Easter Bunny train. After Easter Bunny, we roll into the Catskill Flyer on Sundays. Throughout the summer, we have ice cream sundaes, where you take a train ride and get an ice cream, and then fall foliage comes up along with the Pumpkin Express. Our Catskill Flyers are pretty much train rides on Saturdays throughout the summer, but we're going to try to include more special events. We did a couple of Twilight Limited train rides this past summer, which the train takes off about 7 o'clock and you get to take a train ride to hear some live music and watch the sun go down.

Brett Barry  16:53  
And the schedule this year goes until?

Harry Jameson  16:56  
December 29th is our last run. We run 3 days after Christmas because it's just so popular that, you know, if people don't have a chance to, you know, do it before Christmas, still do it afterwards. We usually put our ticket sales on in July because people are just really, really chomping at the bit to really, you know, get the tickets, you know, so and it's a self-marketer. I mean, all of our other events, we pretty much have to do the marketing and the advertising, whereas the Polar Express sells itself has just become so much of a part of everybody's Christmas.

Brett Barry  17:32  
Kaatscast is a biweekly production of Silver Hollow Audio. Production Intern: Mollie Zoldan. Transcripts by Jerome Kazlauskas. Many thanks to the Nicholas J. Juried Family Foundation for their generous support of this podcast. This concludes our 2023 season and we hope you'll join us on January 2nd for the 1st episode of our 5th year. I'm Brett Barry. Thanks for listening and happy holidays!

Tom  18:09  
Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!