CSXTHS - Rail Fanning - CSX Santa Train

CSX Santa Train - 2023

Rail Fan Adventure --

1. The schedule for the 81st running of the Santa Train on 11-18-2023 wasn’t any different than last year. Santa Train schedule 2022.

2. After leaving Shelby at 6:00 AM the first stop was Marrowbone KY (Regina post office) at the KY 195 road crossing. There was a large crowd, but local police and CSX had the event under control. I had heard “3323” on the radio at Shelby, but I thought it was probably another train ready to depart after Santa. It wasn’t. CSX Santa Train.
After leaving Shelby at 6:00 AM the first stop was Marrowbone KY (Regina post office) at the KY 195 road crossing. There was a large crowd, but local police and CSX had the event under control. I had heard “3323” on the radio at Shelby, but I thought it was probably another train ready to depart after Santa. It wasn’t. CSX Santa Train.

3. CSX Santa Train. Marrowbone KY.

4. CSX Santa Train. Marrowbone KY.

5. A side door was added to the new “Santa car” so boxes of gifts could be unloaded to volunteers on the ground. CSX Santa Train. Marrowbone KY.

6. CSX Santa Train. Marrowbone KY.

7. CSX Santa Train. Marrowbone KY.

8. CSX Santa Train. Marrowbone KY.

9. CSX Santa Train. Marrowbone KY.

10. It was “all hands on deck” for CSX employees. Groups would skip to every other stop to provide security. A local engineering employee I spoke to went as far as Fort Blackmore VA. CSX Santa Train. Marrowbone KY.

11. P001-18 departs Marrowbone for Elkhorn City. CSX Santa Train. Marrowbone KY.

12. It starts getting daylight at Elkhorn City. P001-18 picks up speed passing the former Clinchfield’s Elkhorn Yard behind 3323-3411-CSX 1-CSX 2 with 13 cars. One of the passenger units had mechanical problems on the way north, and two GEs were commandeered off a passing manifest. Last year this train had three F40s which would have provided extra protection. CSX Santa Train. Elkhorn Yard.
It starts getting daylight at Elkhorn City. P001-18 picks up speed passing the former Clinchfield’s Elkhorn Yard behind 3323-3411-CSX 1-CSX 2 with 13 cars. One of the passenger units had mechanical problems on the way north, and two GEs were commandeered off a passing manifest. Last year this train had three F40s which would have provided extra protection. CSX Santa Train. Elkhorn Yard.

13. CSX Santa Train. CSX 1 - CSX 2. Elkhorn Yard.

14. CSX 994362 “David M. LeVan” probably provided extra storage. CSX Santa Train. Elkhorn City KY.

15. CSX 994528 came with the recent merger with Pan Am Rail. It was built as a diner for N&W by AC&F in 1914. N&W rebuilt it as an office car in 1934. Delaware & Hudson got it in 1976, and it passed through Guilford Transportation to Pan Am Rail. It replaced 994310, the “Jervis Langdon Jr.”, which had been used for decades as the familiar “West Virginia.” CSX Santa Train. Elkhorn City KY.
CSX 994528 came with the recent merger with Pan Am Rail. It was built as a diner for N&W by AC&F in 1914. N&W rebuilt it as an office car in 1934. Delaware & Hudson got it in 1976, and it passed through Guilford Transportation to Pan Am Rail. It replaced 994310, the “Jervis Langdon Jr.”, which had been used for decades as the familiar “West Virginia.” CSX Santa Train. Elkhorn City KY.

Train images used by permission of Everett N Young