Sunnyside at Deep River Creek. The Valley Railroad's New Haven Mikado #3025 charges northbound across the trestle at Deep River Creek with the last of the day's Santa Specials, on Thanksgiv... (more)

Turning at Tate's Cut. The Valley Railroad's big New Haven Mikado #3025 has just cut off from her Santa Special consist at Deep River Landing and is now pulling forward past the yard's nort... (more)

Deck the halls! The Essex Depot is all aglow with Christmas trimmings as the Valley Railroad operates its North Pole Express Trains for the 2015 Holiday Season. There are 4 such trains per... (more)

At North Pole Station. Engineer Ken Blandina gets the lantern signal from his Conductor that his locomotive has been decoupled from the passenger consist, and he may now pull forward to beg... (more)

Choosing sides at Deep River Creek. Under a pretty mackerel sky, Engineer Brian Messinger takes Valley Railroad Mikado #40 and the 2:30 edition of the Santa Special across Deep River Creek,... (more)

And the days get short, when you reach....November. My, the days are darn short when you get into the holiday season. It's not even 3 PM yet and the New England Sun is already doing a swan... (more)

Now departing Essex..... With her cylinder cock steam stirring up the last of the fallen leaves, the Valley Railroad's Mikado #3025 slowly eases 9 heavyweights out of the Essex Yard to begi... (more)

Flag Stop - Hadlyme. The Valley Railroad's 1PM "Santa Special" passes the Hadlyme Station as she enters the Ferry Road crossing on her run to North Chester. Decades ago, when th... (more)

New Haven J-1A Mikado. The Valley Railroad's J-1A Mikado #3025 takes a holiday Santa Special across the little trestle spanning the Falls River in Centerbrook, Connecticut, just a few hundr... (more)

Checkin' the oil. Valley Railroad locomotive crew members perform a quick check of the lubrication system on the trailing truck of New Haven 3025 during a brief break between their daylight... (more)

Deep River Landing. The Valley Railroad's logo refers to the operation as "The Connecticut Valley Line", and the right-of-way does indeed follow the shoreline of the Connecticut River. Des... (more)

Leaving for the pole in 6 minutes!. A few last-minute arrivals hustle down the platform to their assigned cars, but most of the passengers are already in their seats for the 5:35 PM departu... (more)

Crossing chilly Deep River Creek. Valley Railroad Engineer Ken Blandina takes New Haven 3025 and 8 heavyweight coaches north across the Deep River Creek bridge on a late afternoon Santa Spe... (more)

The trains don't stop here anymore. One of the Valley Railroad's sold-out Santa Specials high-balls past the tiny Chester Station en route to the North Pole, with veteran Engineer Bruce Edg... (more)

She's back! Well, at least for a while. After nearly 8 months of downtime for running gear maintenance, Valley Railroad #40 is now back in the service, seen here taking a dead-head passeng... (more)