About the Author J. D. Santucci (a.k.a. "Tuch") began his railroading career in 1978 as a trainman on the Missouri Pacific. After a round of lay-offs in 1985, Tuch embarked on a railroad odyssey, working in many different situations for different roads. This column tries to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the job and also demonstrates what we have to deal with on a regular basis within and without the industry. Tuch currently works through freights out of Chicago for Canadian National/Illinois Central. ©1999, 2003-2007 JD Santucci. Logo ©2002 The Railroad Network. By J.D. Santucci

December 23, 2002
The weekend of December 14th and 15th was the 32nd annual run of CNIC’s Santa Train. Our usual cast of elves was present to assist Santa as he greeted all the kids and took the requests of toys and goodies they wished to get for Christmas this year.

The train has evolved tremendously from its infancy when Engineer Arvid Cook started dressing up like Santa tossing candy off to the kids along the way while working his assignment on the Bloomington Local. With its evolution, the Santa Train has drawn more interest and attention each year. Numerous railroad employees request to participate in the train’s operation. Various communities along the CNIC have asked (or perhaps begged) to become a Santa Train stop.

For those of you unfamiliar with the train’s operation, for many years we normally have had a pair of Geeps on one end to pull the train around. We use two passenger cars from the Maintenance of Way fleet, one of them being the old safety car. This car contains a kitchen where goodies are prepared to for Santa and his helpers to feast upon, several tables and benches and a restroom for all the elves. Santa’s car is a parlor type car that contains a dressing room and restroom. The elves fashion Santa’s car up with various Christmas decorations.

The visitors all board the train and enter Santa’s car. As the work their way through, the visitors all get to view the decorations before visiting Santa who is perched near the middle of the car on his special seat. Christmas music is played in the background adding to the festive spirit. Every child who visits gets the opportunity to meet with Santa and receives a bag of goodies from him. We do not leave any town until all the kids who have come out get to visit with Santa. While we do have a schedule we try to follow, we won’t depart any town with giving all the kids their opportunity to see the jolly old elf. This, along with the normal operations of a class one railroad, tends to throw us a bit off track sometimes. We’ll discuss railroad operating policies in a bit.

While efforts are made to try to keep the flow of visitors moving, plenty of opportunity is provided for all the kids to get pictures taken with Santa as well as make their Christmas gift requests. Nobody is rushed or pushed through.

After visiting Santa, everybody has the opportunity to walk through the engines and blow the whistle on the lead unit of the train. They get to sit in the Engineer’s seat and take pictures their too. With some of the kids, I think this is even bigger than seeing Santa. Even the big kids like their moms and dads seem to really enjoy this. As I tell them, we allow all the kids, even the big ones to blow the whistle.

We used to give them the opportunity to pull the throttle and rev up the engines, but got away from that aspect this year. We found the line would get too backed up. In trying to encourage this, most kids are obviously unfamiliar with the locomotive and its operation. So we had to show most of them how to rev it up. This could really slow things down causing a long line to quickly form outside on the catwalk.

A tremendous amount of gratitude go to the CNIC and the Operating and Mechanical Department Managers of the Midwest Division for making it all possible. Without them, the train would never happen. They provide us the train itself, the equipment needed to make for safe walkways, fuel to power the train and generators, the goodies on the train for the helpers and Santa to eat, the time on the rail head, trip preparation and even some of the gifts Santa hands out.

Rick Tracy, Dennis Cowger and many of the employees at Woodcrest Shops do their part to make the train safe for the large crowds we encounter each year. They install safety netting to assure nobody can slip and all off while traversing the catwalks and front and back porches. They also add safety platforms where needed to cover the unneeded stairs on the locomotive ends. While certainly not an old man, Rick is not a youngster. You certainly wouldn’t realize this when you watch him at work around the train. He seems to be tireless with all his efforts to assure everybody of the mechanical soundness of the train and safety equipment. His behind the scenes actions would make some of the strongest people you know drop with exhaustion. These efforts pay off as we seem to avoid failures and breakdowns.

We have the on train staff as well as volunteers from the local communities that provide plenty of assistance to assure everybody of getting a chance to board the train meet with Santa and go through the engines and blow the whistle. The communities that get a visit from the train go through great lengths to provide the visitors with a pleasurable experience that will be remembered for a lifetime. Like us the helpers from the railroad, they all seem to be having a great deal of fun. In talking with some of them, they look forward to the yearly visit from the train as much as we do in bringing the train to them. These communities also provide some of the handouts each child receives from Santa as well.

I should mention that all the railroaders that participate as helpers on the train do so at their own expense and on their own time. We donate our time and receive no compensation from the CNIC. We also provide for our own hotel rooms and away from home meals. The Super 8 in Gilman, IL is kind enough to provide all the Santa Train helpers a reduced rate on rooms. Should you find reason to stay overnight in Gilman, I would heartily recommend them as the place to seek your lodging. They are friendly folks and the place is very clean and well kept.

Some of the elves are not railroad employees but are the spouses and friends of the railroaders. In the case of this year, we even had one railroader come out of retirement to work the train both days. How’s that for dedication? Without their combined efforts, we would be hard pressed to accomplish what we do each and every year. They too, donate their time and pay their own way as well.

The method of operation has remained essentially the same for quite a few years now. While we get a different set of locomotives each year, they have remained as a pair of Geeps over the years. And up to this point, they are always IC units and not those repainted into CN colors and markings.

This year though was quite different from the railfan perspective though as we did something different with the power. After several years of trying, we got one of the coveted business fleet E9A’s to take part. The IC 100 was on the point of the train this year as we headed north. While many of little kids didn’t take too much note of the change in motive power, the big kids certainly did. While we generally have a good crowd of railfans shadowing and chasing the train, this year, it almost seemed like as many of them as there were kids visiting. The railfans were everywhere. Once again, my image was captured in more Kodak moments than that guy residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The IC 100 is an old passenger locomotive that began its career with the Chicago. Burlington & Quincy Railroad back in the mid-1950’s. It survived the merger of CB&Q into the Burlington Northern in 1970 and the creation of Amtrak in 1971. After being rebuilt by Morrison Knudsen in Boise, ID in 1973, this unit went on to work over eighteen more years in suburban commuter service between Chicago and Aurora, IL before coming to the Illinois Central for use in pulling their business cars.

Being this locomotive has no outside catwalks, to get from the front to rear or vice versa, one must walk through the engine room. While there is room to make it through, it is dark, noisy, dirty, and oily, a bit cramped and presents many the slipping and tripping hazards. Needless to say, there was never any consideration given to allowing the visitors to get aboard this engine. We certainly did receive many inquiries about coming up inside of it though. And oddly enough, most of those requests came from the big kids.

The cab of the 100 is also a bit cramped. It is certainly not conducive to allowing many visitors up there. And it has a ratcheting type throttle that is pain to handle when you know what you’re doing. It would certainly be difficult for the kids to deal with.

But it sure looked great leading the train north.

We received many compliments on having it there. We were also asked about zillion questions with regards to it. It is amazing what interest a forty-something year old locomotive can create. I wonder if this forty-six year Engineer can create that kind of interest?

As I mentioned at the top, we have to deal with the real and uncertain world of class one railroading. This can wreak havoc in our schedule not to mention what we do the Train Dispatchers trying to manage their world. Many of the places we visit allow us to get in the clear of the main track to allow the passage of trains. Some of our stops have no place to clear so this can present a dilemma to the Dispatchers.

The Dispatchers may require us to wait in the clear where we are before heading to the next station that has no place to clear if they need to run trains. We had this situation happen Saturday. We were ready to depart Paxton and head to Loda. There no longer is any auxiliary track at Loda as it came out some years ago. The Dispatcher had a train to move before we could head up to Loda and hold the main track. We patiently waited for train 271 to head south and then it was our turn.

At stations like Onarga, we have the advantage of double track railroad. We spot the train on track one and main line traffic can pass us on track two provided they have our permission. All trains received a General Bulletin Order (GBO) in this case number 3897 on their Tabular General Bulletin Order that reads as follows,

"Saturday Dec 14 2002 between 0830 and 2000 hours all trains must reduce speed to 10 mph when passing the Santa Train between Ludlow and Gilman unless authorized by a member of the Santa Train."

All trains that were required to pass our location would contact us via the radio for instructions. Based upon the situation for each location, we would advise them of what speed to pass us and remind them to make lots of noise, that is use the whistle and bell freely.

On Sunday we had more traffic to deal with. We wound up waiting at Ashkum for quite awhile on the siding after we were ready to head up to Clifton. When we finally departed Clifton to head to Chebanse, we had to pass through Chebanse itself and get into the clear at the grain elevator just north of town, and let train 338 pass. 338 was waiting at South Otto about three miles to the north for us to clear. Once he passed and cleared we were then allowed to back out of elevator and into town to begin allowing the visitors to come aboard.

So as you can clearly see, the Santa Train can put a real wrench into operations. But year in and year out, we somehow manage to make this all work.

After our final stop at Kankakee, we close up shop and head to Aurelio’s Pizza in Bourbonnais for our annual pizza feeding frenzy. Totals of the visitors are read out as well as any other bits of information. We laugh, eat and have a great time commiserating about the events of this year’s weekend adventure. We are also given some sort of commemorative for our efforts. This year we got really nice travel mugs with a drawing of a locomotive and "Santa Train 2002". In addition, this year we also paid tribute to the retirement of both Benny and Freddie as well as the Rick Tracy’s lovely bride Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. We munched on a nicely decorated cake honoring our retirees. A good time was had by all before the time requires us to part company and head back to our respective homes and families and, in my case, run the train back up to Markham and Woodcrest Shops.

For this year’s Santa Train Dave Allenson and Sheila Edmonds partnered with me in handling the duties of Santa Train Engineer. Sheila has been part of the Santa Train for many years. Dave joined up with us in 2001. The train crew consisted of Benny Gardner who returned to us from the wonderful world of retirement, Fred Taksas who as of this Thursday past joined Benny in the retirement game and of course, "Sponge" Bob Carreon.

There is a whole litany of other CNIC employees who participated in the Santa Train. I’m certain I cannot begin to recall and name them all, but they were every bit important to its success. Many of the employees’ spouses took part as well. The beautiful bride could not be part of it, as she had to sing with the choir group she belongs to at our church. The LifeTeen Choir took their act on the road to visit another church and she had to be there for it. But maybe next year we might get her out there with us. I’ll start working on her in about two weeks.

Many friends of the Santa Train who join us every year to make it the success it is. While not railroaders, these folks certainly fit right in to our little group of little off centered folks who know how to have a great time and make lots of kids smile. They too are important reasons the train works so well.

We also owe a great deal of thanks to the train’s keeper, John Childs and his lovely wife Susan. They put a tremendous amount of time and effort in throughout the year to make the train a success. When John is not working on some facet of Santa’s Train, he is the 0700 to 1500 Desk Two, Train Dispatcher Monday through Friday. You can hear him on a scanner near you as he attempts to thwart the poison arrows and lightening bolts the railroad gods constantly thrust upon us to keep us from getting over the road.

Finally, we owe a tremendous amount of thanks to Midwest Division Vice President Peter Marshall, General Manager Tom Goodwine and Division Superintendent Jerry Peck for their cooperation and support. Without them, none of this would be possible.

I would like to thank all of you readers who put forth the effort to come out and say hello. We had one fellow that made the trip all the way from Roanoke, VA to visit after he read the schedule information I put out. I met more faces to go with names of some of the people I converse with on this technological medium. I also made some new friends as well as seeing many old ones.

Who knows, with all the photographs taken this weekend, maybe I’ll wind up with my picture in TRAINS Magazine again. If so, I’ll take a few copies to send to relatives. Ya, that’s it, to send to relatives. Hear that Mr. Hemphill?

I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a safe, healthy, happy and blessed Christmas. I wish upon you all a happy New Year for 2003 as well.

I’m going to take a couple of weeks off to enjoy the Holidays and do some catching up. The railroad gods have smiled upon the Santucci household this year and I will actually have Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and even New Year’s Eve off. The beautiful bride and I will get to see how you civilians live it up during the Holidays. Of course I’m certain the gods will seek the proper restitution for my good fortune all throughout the coming new year. And that will certainly give me fodder for more Hot Times on the High Iron in 2003.

And so it goes.