Kansas City Southern (KCS) annual Holiday Express train will be in Joplin on Sunday, December 15 from 4:30 PM to 8 PM. It will be at the Union Depot, just east of “B” and North Main Street. Please access this location from “B” and North Main Street.
Visitors can board the train, tour the inside of three of the festive six-car train, then visit with Santa and his elves. The event is free and open to the public.
In addition, KCS’ Holiday Express has a charitable component. Over the past 18 years, the project has raised over $2.1 million. At each stop donations are made to The Salvation Army to help provide warm clothing and other necessities for children in need in the local community.
The KCS Holiday Express was built on the tradition of the Santa Train, which ran on a segment of the network bought by KCS in 1997. In 2000, a group of warm-hearted KCS employees noticed that the Santa Train was the only Christmas some kids had, and that some kids did not have essential items like coats, hats and gloves, so they committed to elevating the project. In 2001, volunteers transformed a retired freight train to the KCS Holiday Express experience that thousands enjoy every year.
Led by KCS’ Southern Belle business train, the Holiday Express train includes a smiling tank car “Rudy”; a flat car carrying Santa’s sleigh, reindeer and a miniature village; a gingerbread boxcar; an elf’s workshop; the reindeer stable; and a little red caboose. Each car is dressed in lights.
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