KINGSPORT, Tenn. — For the third year in a row, the CSX Santa Train, a legacy of predecessor Clinchfield Railroad, will be sidelined — this time because of staffing and supply-chain issues.
The Kingsport Times News reports the 110-mile trip from Kentucky to Kingsport will miss what would have been its 80th anniversary edition. As in 2020 and 2021, when the train trip was cancelled because of COVID-19 concerns, Santa Train gifts will be distributed in drive-up events at Food City grocery stores along the train’s route.
“Several months of planning goes into bringing the Santa Train to life each year, meaning we are faced with making decisions as early as possible,” Bryan Tucker, vice president of corporate communications at CSX, told the newspaper. “Due to current supply chain and ongoing staffing challenges across our network, all of CSX’s resources and personnel are needed to help serve our customers and keep the nation’s economy moving. Because of this, we came to the difficult decision that it is not feasible for us to run the train in 2022.”
The Santa Train dates to 1943,and ran annually through 2019. Since 2001, it had distributed gifts at specific stops along the route, with Santa tossing some gifts from the train’s real platform, while others walked through the crowd to hand out items.
CSX and its partners still plan to hand out 5,000 backpacks with toys and winter accessories at locations still to be determined. Details will be announced at the Santa Train’s social media sites.
The Santa Train last operated on Nov. 23, 2019, with a train powered by CSX’s executive F40PH-2 locomotives [see “CSX Santa Train makes its 77th journey,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 25, 2019]. The train has operated with a variety of notable power over the years, including Union Pacific Challenger No. 3985 in 1992. For the 75th anniversary trip in 2017, the train featured two diesels in Clinchfield paint — F3 No. 800 and a former Seaboard Coast Line SD45 in a Clinchfield scheme [see “CSX to run repainted F unit …,” News Wire, Nov. 6, 2017].
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