Tickets for North Pole Express in Pere Marquette sold out in 3 hours
After nearly two years of extensive mechanical restoration, the Pere Marquette 1225 steam locomotive is back in service for this year’s North Pole Express.
Tickets for the 2023 season of the North Pole Express went on sale on July 25, selling out in a little over three hours.
The North Pole Express offers six different classes of service, ranging from vintage coach to historical caboose to the newly added Frank Thompson private car, featuring luxurious seating for a party of up to 26, all pulled by the famous Pere Marquette steam engine.
The 1-hour, 15-minute train ride, offered every Saturday and Sunday from Nov. 18 through Dec. 17, runs from Owosso to Ashley. With an average speed of 25 mph, the train carries about 700 passengers per trip.
The Pere Marquette 1225 was built in 1941 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio, for the Pere Marquette Railway. Holding 22 tons of coal and 22,000 gallons of water, the locomotive consumes 150 gallons of water per mile and one ton of coal every 12 miles.
It is one of the two surviving Pere Marquette 2-8-4 Berkshire locomotives. Its sister, Pere Marquette 1223, sits on display in Grand Haven. Thirty-nine were built. The locomotive had 10 years of service, hauling freight between Detroit, Toledo, Flint, Saginaw, Grand Rapids and Chicago, before it was retired in 1951, as railway companies moved toward diesel engines.
The Pere Marquette 1225 was saved from the scrap line in New Buffalo, and later donated to Michigan State University in 1957 by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (the C&O merged with Pere Marquette in 1947). For more than a decade, the locomotive sat near Spartan Stadium.
Author Chris Van Allsburg grew up in East Grand Rapids, and went to many MSU home football games with his father at Spartan Stadium. Van Allsburg has recounted how, as a child, he would walk past the locomotive, and climb onto it on game days. In 1985, Van Allsburg published the Christmas book "The Polar Express," later made into a movie with the same name, all inspired by the Pere Marquette 1225.
In 1969, a group of MSU students took an interest in restoring the train, forming the Michigan State University Railroad Club. In 1982, the train was moved to the former Ann Arbor Railroad steam backshop — a repair shop for steam engines — in Owosso to continue the restoration work, and three years later, was finally able to move again under its own power.
The piece of living history is kept alive by dedicated engineers and volunteers.
Jeff Rayner grew up in metro Detroit. His grandfather worked at Michigan Central Station. His father brought him to Owosso to see the 1225 in the mid 1980s, when he was 8. He kept visiting the train with his family until he was old enough to drive himself to Owosso. Rayner, now a mechanical engineer, has been a volunteer working on the train for over 32 years.
“It's a major accomplishment, and keeping history alive plays a big part of it," he said.
The Kuffer family of Lansing is the only three-generation family volunteering at the North Pole Express. For the past couple of years, they've brought their camper to the Steam Railroad Institute in New Buffalo, Michigan, for the weekend. Matt and Becca Kuffer drive their truck, chase the train and work as crossing guards to keep people safe. Their son, Alex Kuffer, of Lansing, turned 14 this year, and is working as a car host for the first time, alongside his grandfather Bruce Kuffer. “This is one of my favorite things to look to do throughout the year," Alex Kuffer said.
Although tickets are sold out for the season, people who are interested in the steam engine are encouraged to check https://michigansteamtrain.com/ for returned tickets, or visit the Village of Ashley to observe the arrival of the North Pole Express and experience the Christmas celebration.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pere Marquette 1225's North Pole Express is hottest ticket on tracks
