Christmas Is Real Train Time Too!

a rare 1996 steam ride on New Jersey Transit Commuter lines

Model trains are a Christmas tradition. But a real steam train traveling on the New Jersey Transit commuter line at almost 80 MPH is a rare and amazing thing not likely to be repeated but it did happen back in the fall of 1996 and I was lucky enough to take the trip from Hoboken to Port Jervis with my late father in law who worked on the railroads as a kid during the Depression.

Half way through the ride to Port Jervis soot clogged the camcorder microphone so for this video I was forced to "graft" some pre-soot audio onto the video to add the necessary sonic excitement. Okay, it's not audio but I hope you enjoy this (and show it to your kids and grandkids) and if you do there's even better footage shot during another one of these excursions by a team of people stationed along the tracks. That video is below this one.