CHUGGING AWAY
` The Polar Express' Train Ride chugs back into Oklahoma after two-year absence
“The Polar Express” Train Ride returns to Oklahoma after two years
Despite the themes of the namesake story, seeing will be believing for local merrymakers as what's billed as an improved “The Polar Express” Train Ride makes a return trip to Oklahoma.
“It's not just a train ride and a cup of hot chocolate. There's a lot more that's involved in terms of the quality of the actors that we're hiring and the quality of the production staff. ... It's quite a production that rolls into town with three to five semi trailers to get that train all decked out for the season,” said Jamie Ryan, marketing manager for Rail Events Inc. and Rail Events Productions, which are bringing the yuletide event back to Oklahoma.
Two years after
leaving Oklahoma, “The Polar Express” Train Ride chugs back into the Sooner State from Nov. 22-Dec. 31. After previously boarding in Stillwater and Bristow, the storybook journey is changing tracks to Oklahoma City, where it will be hosted at the Oklahoma Railway Museum.
“They had the right facilities and the right train,” Ryan said. “There's a special feeling about getting on board a vintage train and taking it on a special trip.”
New flagship
Like the previous experience in Oklahoma, “The Polar Express” Train Ride offers an hourlong round-trip journey based on Chris Van Allsburg's 1985 children's book and the 2004 computer-animated movie version. Passengers are encouraged to come in their pajamas and will have their golden tickets punched, be served hot chocolate and cookies by dancing chefs and hear the book read.
Ticketholders should arrive one hour before their departure times to check in, take part in festive activities, encounter characters from the story and board the train, Ryan said.
Officially licensed by Warner Bros. Consumer Products, “The Polar Express” experience coming to OKC is produced by Rail Events, a different operating company from previous events in Stillwater and Bristow.
Popular attraction
Premier Rail Collection, owned and operated by Iowa Pacific Holdings LLC, first brought “The Polar Express” Train Ride to Bristow in 2014. More than 35,000 people took the storybook journey in 2014. About 46,200 people rode “The Polar Express” out of the Creek County town in 2015.
But Watco Cos., the operator on the line, asked Premier Rail Collection to relocate the Christmas rides after the holiday event made it difficult to manage freight traffic.
The seasonal ride moved to Stillwater in 2016 and experienced similar success — followed by a similar decision by Watco Cos. to discontinue the Payne Country “Polar Express.”
“It's really important to us that we work with a partner that has complete control over their own railroad tracks,” Ryan said. “For a lot of these families that are attending `The Polar Express' Train Ride, this'll be the first time that they ever get on board a train.”
Theatrical experience
But he said the OKC attraction won't be coasting on the novelty of riding the rails.
“Our events are a theater show first and foremost, and they just happen to be on a moving train. So, you can expect professional actors, professional lighting, professional sound that's installed on the train. It's a much more immersive experience,” Ryan said.
As in the book and movie, the train will travel to the North Pole. Santa will board, and on the return trip, he will visit each family and present passengers with a silver sleigh bell.
Guthrie actor Stephen Hilton, 70, known for his work with Lyric Theatre and Oklahoma Shakespeare, will be one of the local professionals portraying Santa. Although he has played St. Nick for a dozen years in Oklahoma City Philharmonic's annual “The Christmas Show,” a role he will reprise this year, he said “The Polar Express” Santa is a different character.
“I get a chance to create the character. ... He's not the jolly old elf,” Hilton said. “Our Santa is the tall, regal king of the North Pole kind of Santa. So, it's going to be a different kind of Santa, still engaging, still full of love and spirit, but a different kind than you'll see at `The Christmas Show,' for example.”