Lots of Steam During Advent 2010
Our very successful 2010 season ended in proper style with lots of steam during Advent.
On three of the four Advent weekends there was traffic on the track.On the third Advent weekend we organised the “Christchild-Post-Express” from Cologne to Engelskirchen (Church of the Angels) for German Post in partnership with our colleagues from the "Eisenbahnfreunde Betzdorf" ("Railway Friends Betzdorf") association.
For your information, here in Germany children traditionally write to the “Christkind” or Christ Child rather than Santa Claus or Father Christmas, whose origins can be traced back to St.Nicholas of Mira. The postal address for the Christkind is the post office in Engelskirchen, which obviously is not so far away as the North Pole, Santa Claus's home. Letters, pictures and lists of wishes can be sent to the address <<An das Christkind, 51777 Engelskirchen>>, as German Post disclosed last Thursday in Düsseldorf. With the support of numerous "Post Angels" the Christ Child replies to letters with wishes from all over the world. "Don't forget to provide the return address", asked one of the Post Angels.
On Sunday 12th.December we extended the route of the train as the train as the "Christchild-Wiehl-Express" as far as Wiehl.
For the 4th.Sunday in Advent our colleagues from the railway museum in Dieringhausen organised the equivalent of “Santa Specials” with a steam train on our line. St.Nicholas was on the train and gave small presents to the children.
It was magical to to see the steam train in the snowy Wiehl valley! Less magical was the preparation of the train as well as the track. In the railway museum as well as in the Wiehl valley the track, points, level crossings and platforms had to be cleared of snow and ice.
A big "Thank You!" to the colleagues of the railway museum for their active support during the preparation of our infrastructure!
There was media coverage for both events - and each time the WDR (West German Broadcasting) was present:
• Report about the Christkind-Post-Express (upper video clip)
Our active member Stefan Christ has taken some well worth seeing photos of the St. Nicholas rides. We're still working on an photo gallery for our website, but you can also see the pictures here: