It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and The Valley Railroad's 2:30 PM "Santa Special" is charging north across Deep River Creek, enroute to Chester, Hadlyme and points beyond. The passengers today are mainly families with young children, all eager for a meeting with Santa Claus and his helpers. The former Aberdeen & Rockfish #40 hauled the 9-car consist up the route twice this afternoon and while that service would be adequate to cope with the daylight traffic, the night-time "North Pole Express" would be a different story. Sales for those runs were so strong that the railroad was forced to add a B-section for the 5PM run, and for the first time in my memory at least, there were two steam-powered trains out on the line simultaneously!
