New Hope Valley Railway

The New Hope Valley Railway in New Hill is only 30 min from our house, yet I don't really know anyone who has done this before.  Every December, they turn their train museum into the Santa Train.  It runs 5 times a day on a few weekends before Christmas and it was so, so fun.  The railway owns 9 miles of track, which hasn't had a commercial train on it since the 1960's.  It's an all-volunteer crew and these guys are passionate about trains - it shows.

For the Santa Train, you head on down 30 min before your scheduled departure, enjoy the old trains they have in the outdoor museum area, use the porta-potty, and then get in the line for the train.  You can pick from a steam or diesel engine (we chose steam) and there are 4 open-air train cars, all decorated for the holidays.  Santa starts at one end and works his way down the train, stopping at every seat to talk to the kids and ask what they want for Christmas.  The whole ride takes about an hour.  Santa has a helper with him who passes out candy canes and shows the kids what a lump of coal looks like...  We were told that for our ride, Santa didn't have his coat because he had been busy working on the trains that morning and it got dirty.  What a guy!

We had a great time and would definitely do it again next year!

Above, the diesel train before ours pulls into the station!

Notice Matt above doing The Choo Choo

p.s.  A blog update/move to Wordpress is in my future for 2013...