What Flash Triggers Are For. Based on past experience, I expected the meet between the two sections of the Polar Express to look like this. Wrong! #40 stopped much f... (more)

Valley Railroad fireman Mike Ozaruk shovels coal into No. 3025's firebox as the locomotive pulls a sold out North Pole Express north through Chester, Connecticut. Taken with an infrared modified C... (more)

Anticipation - Valley Railroad Mikado No. 40 crosses over the Railroad Avenue crossing, her headlight illuminating about a half mile of track between that crossing and Dock Road, visible in the fo... (more)

Valley Railroad veteran Mikado No. 40 hauls a sold-out North Pole Express train through Centerbrook, Connecticut on a cold December evening.

Deck the halls! The Essex Depot is all aglow with Christmas trimmings as the Valley Railroad operates its North Pole Express Trains for the 2015 Holiday Season. There are 4 such trains per... (more)

At North Pole Station. Engineer Ken Blandina gets the lantern signal from his Conductor that his locomotive has been decoupled from the passenger consist, and he may now pull forward to beg... (more)

Choosing sides at Deep River Creek. Under a pretty mackerel sky, Engineer Brian Messinger takes Valley Railroad Mikado #40 and the 2:30 edition of the Santa Special across Deep River Creek,... (more)

Valley Railroad fireman Mike Ozaruk shovels coal into No. 3025's firebox as the locomotive pulls a sold out North Pole Express north through Deep River, Connecticut. Taken with an infrared modifi... (more)

And the days get short, when you reach....November. My, the days are darn short when you get into the holiday season. It's not even 3 PM yet and the New England Sun is already doing a swan... (more)

Now departing Essex..... With her cylinder cock steam stirring up the last of the fallen leaves, the Valley Railroad's Mikado #3025 slowly eases 9 heavyweights out of the Essex Yard to begi... (more)

Flag Stop - Hadlyme. The Valley Railroad's 1PM "Santa Special" passes the Hadlyme Station as she enters the Ferry Road crossing on her run to North Chester. Decades ago, when th... (more)

Valley Railroad Mikado No. 40 shoves the second section of the North Pole Express back south over Waterhouse Brook in Chester, Connecticut with a sold-out trainload of families visiting with Santa... (more)