Christmas in July

Disney's "A Christmas Carol" Train Tour at Portland, Oregon

(NOTE: This website is NOT affiliated with Disney's "A Christmas Carol" Train Tour; click here for current info)

 

In order to promote their 2009 film adaption of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Disney created a touring train that would travel the country with promotional materials, in conjunction with a short preview of the film. The film is computer-animated performance capture film, similar to 2004's The Polar Express but far more sophisticated, and will be released in 3-D.  The film stars Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge and the three ghosts that visit him and also features Gary Oldman, Cary Elwes, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins and Robin Wright Penn, most of whom play multiple roles. The film's debut was scheduled for November 6, 2009 with a world premiere in London.

 

The train's tour schedule was as follows:

 

Date	Location	Venue
May 22-25, 2009	Los Angeles, California	Los Angeles Union Station
May 29-31, 2009	Grand Canyon, Arizona	Williams Depot
June 2, 2009	Santa Fe, New Mexico	Santa Fe Depot
June 5-7, 2009	Albuquerque, New Mexico	Albuquerque Amtrak Station
June 12-14, 2009	Denver, Colorado	Denver Union Station
June 16, 2009	Salt Lake City, Utah	Ogden Union Station
June 19-21, 2009	Sacramento, California	California State Railroad Museum
June 26-28, 2009	San Francisco, California	Port of Redwood City
July 1, 2009	Portland, Oregon	Portland Union Station
July 3-5, 2009	Seattle, Washington	King Street Station
July 7, 2009	Spokane, Washington	Spokane Amtrak Station
July 10-11, 2009	Whitefish, Montana	Whitefish Amtrak Station
July 15, 2009	Fargo, North Dakota	North Dakota State University
July 17-19, 2009	St. Paul, Minnesota	Amtrak Midway Station
July 24-26, 2009	Chicago, Illinois	Chicago Union Station
August 4, 2009	Memphis, Tennessee	Memphis Central Station
August 7-9, 2009	New Orleans, Louisiana	Riverview Amtrak Station
August 11, 2009	Houston, Texas	Houston Amtrak Station
August 14-16, 2009	San Antonio, Texas	San Antonio Amtrak Station
August 18-19, 2009	Dallas, Texas	Dallas Union Station
August 21-23, 2009	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	Oklahoma City Santa Fe Depot
August 25, 2009	Kansas City, Missouri	Kansas City Union Station
August 28-30, 2009	Omaha, Nebraska	Durham Museum
September 4-6, 2009	Detroit, Michigan	Henry Ford Museum Greenfield Village
September 9, 2009	Indianapolis, Indiana	Downtown Bargersvillle
September 11-13, 2009	Louisville, Kentucky	Louisville Union Station
September 18-19, 2009	Cleveland, Ohio	Cleveland Browns Lot
September 22, 2009	Albany, New York	Albany-Rensselaer Rail Station
September 25-27, 2009	Boston, Massachusetts	South Station
September 30, 2009	Baltimore, Maryland	B&O Railroad Museum
October 2-4, 2009	Washington, D.C.	Union Station
October 6, 2009	Atlanta, Georgia	Southeastern Railway Museum
October 9-11, 2009	Spencer, North Carolina	North Carolina Transportation Museum
October 13, 2009	Savannah, Georgia	Savannah Amtrak Station
October 16-18, 2009	Miami, Florida	Gold Coast Railroad Museum
October 20, 2009	Jacksonville, Florida	Jacksonville Amtrak Station
October 24-25, 2009	Charleston, South Carolina	Ansonborough Field
October 27, 2009	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	30th Street Station
October 30-November 1, 2009	New York City, New York	Grand Central Terminal

 

 

 

I toured the train during its stop at Union Station in Portland, Oregon on July 1, 2009. This large advertisement for the train was next to the ticket counter in Union Station. There were also tables with Amtrak merchandise for sale.

 

 

 

The Dickens Carolers, dressed in Victorian-era winter clothes, entertained visitors as they waited in line. This was a warm, sunny day, so the costumes must have been uncomfortable.

 

Here are some closeups of the train cars and locomotives taken from near the front of the line. The locomotives and cars are wrapped with graphics printed by Hewlett-Packard Scitex printers.

 

 

Here is the interior of the first car in the train. This car featured costumes worn in production, portraits of the actors as their characters and display cases with Dickens artifacts, including handwritten pages, from the Charles Dickens Museum in London.

 

 

 

Further along on the tour were other impressive items used in the making of the movie. These clay design models were made to assist the computer artists in the creation of the digital version of the characters.

 

 

This large and impressive model of Big Ben under construction was used in the production of the film, presumably as a starting point for the computer artists.

 

Models of a horse-drawn hearse, the home of Scrooge's nephew Fred & the Scrooge & Marley office displayed too.

 

 

 

This mockup (which involves mirrors to make the space seem larger than it actually is) illustrates the studio where the actors' performances were filmed.

 

 

The tour then led to an area where visitors could have their photo manipulated into one of the characters in a technique similar to that used to create the movie. This technology worked ok, though it was based entirely on eye and nose location. A way to select the bottom of the chin as well would have made it work better. There also could have been a warning to remove eyeglasses for the photo, as the system didn't handle them well.

 

Alter touring the train, visitors were treated to a preview of the movie, presented in 3D. The preview consisted of some footage from cast & crew interviews and a little behind-the-scenes footage, two completed scenes from the movie (the scene where Fred invites Scrooge to Christmas dinner, and the scene where Marley's ghost appears to Scrooge) and the movie trailer. The film appears to be quite faithful to the original Dickens story, and the performance capture technology is greatly improved over that of 2004's The Polar Express.

 

Train Consist

 

The train was pulled by two of Amtrak's General Electric P42DC locomotives. The lead locomotive was #157 and the second locomotive was #71. They were built in April 2001 and April 1997 respectively.

 

The first three cars in the train are numbered MRLX #801101, MRLX #801102 & MRLX #801103. The MRLX reporting mark is registered to Mid America Railcar Leasing. I don't know their origin, but they are streamlined passenger cars built by the Budd Company in the 1940s or 1950s. MRLX #801102 clearly has former kitchen doors in the middle of the car, making it almost certainly a former dining car. MRLX #801101 has fluted sides typical of Budd cars, while the other two are "smooth-sided" Budd cars similar to those used by Northern Pacific, Union Pacific and Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, although they lack vestibules, limiting their likely origins.

 

The train's exit car is a former baggage car called the Taos. It was originally built by American Car & Foundry as Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe #3680 in 1953. It is listed on the websites of both Mid America Railcar Leasing and American Rail Excursions.

 

The last car in the train, which was not open to the public, was open-platform observation Lamberts Point,  which was built in 1914 by the Norfolk & Western as a Business Car. It was acquired by the Friends of the 261 in 2002 and was leased to Canadian Pacific from 2004 to 2009. The car features a kitchen, dining area, lounge and 3 bedrooms.

 

 

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Related Links

Disney's A Christmas Carol Train Tour

Amtrak London Holiday Sweepstakes

The Dickens Carolers

 

Also See:

ScreenViewer

ORHF Holiday Express 2008

2008 Portland Snow

PORTLAND PLACES - Union Station

4449 to Michigan

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All website content, including graphics and pictures are © Robert D. West unless otherwise noted.  Content is not to be used out of the context of this webpage without expressed permission.  Any opinions expressed herein are mine and are not necessarily shared by the Milwaukee School of Engineering, or anyone else.

 

Questions? Comments? Critiques? Corrections? Concerns? Email me at westr@msoe.edu.