All Aboard!

 

Signaled by the popular children’s story, The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, and the 2004 Academy Award-winning film adaptation starring Tom Hanks, the Berkshire Scenic Railway Polar Express Train Rides hope to transport children and adults through a winter landscape fit for a fairy tale. Part of a nationwide holiday celebration of the Christmastime classic, the trains are set to depart beginning November 28 from the 1903 station in Lenox, Massachusetts, on a journey to visit Santa at the “North Pole” (the 1893 Stockation). The experience, which includes old-fashioned ticket punches, hot chocolate, and an onboard reading of the book, is enjoyed on a series of vintage parlor and standard-class Pullman commuter coaches, including Coach 341, which makes its return to the tracks after a two-year, top-to-bottom restoration to ring in the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum’s twenty-fifth anniversary. And, just like the kids in The Polar Express do, passengers are encouraged to arrive in pajamas. [NOV/DEC 2009]

 

THE GOODS

Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum
Polar Express Train Rides
Nov 28 & 29; Dec 5, 6, 12 & 13
Departures at 3:30 and 7
Lenox, Mass.