Steam Railroading Institutes North Pole Express

Every year at Christmas, the S.R.I runs a series of excursions called "The North Pole Express" to the Saginaw County Fairgrounds affectionately known as "Santa' Village". I refer to it as the North Pole since I don't have to pay royalties to Warner Brothers. They run it for about six weekends on Saturdays and Sundays twice a day. If you're lucky enough to score tickets to this you will be very pleased. It is a very nicely run trip run by a great group of people. You get to ride behind the magnificent locomotive1225 for about an hour and fifteen minutes in each direction and get to spend about an hour and a half at the North Pole. The North Pole is located at the fairgrounds and is set-up like a mini carnival complete with rides, food, a nice model train display, crafts, and (of course) Santa. My only regret is that I wish I had more film to take more pictures of the village instead of just the train. The kids had a blast and I think mom even enjoyed it. The only thing that I think they could have done better would be to have a professional photographer there for the Santa Pictures. We decided that it would be more authentic if we had the kids get their pictures taken at the North Pole so I took them. Lighting wasn't so hot and they didn't enlarge so well. At any rate, it was still a first class operation. As I'm sure many already know, the 1225 was the locomotive that was used to base the animation and sounds from in the movie "The Polar Express." The only bummer for steam fans is that they use a diesel to pull the train back to Owosso because there is no place to turn the locomotive at the fairgrounds. Still, it's nice on the way out. You are able to stand in the windows of the open areas between the cars. It's quite impressive to hear such a large steam locomotive pull such a heavy train at speed.


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