STEARNS, Ky. — Santa Train is a one-way ticket to holiday wonder for families in rural Kentucky.

What You Need To Know

  •  Santa Train rides in Stearns

  •  Santa Train is an official Polar Express experience

  •  Stearns in McCreary County, invests in preserving coal mining history 

  • The experience capitalizes on the town's railway history

In McCreary County, there is a holiday tradition taking families to the North Pole.

Running through this small Kentucky community is the Big South Fork Railroad and just a few feet away from the tracks Deborah Kidd-Trammell volunteers inside the Artisan Shop. The Artisan Shop lives in the railroads’ former administration building and connected to the depot stop in Stearns. The former railroad headquarters hosts a well-curated collection of gifts and goods, handmade or penned by over 60 Kentuckians from McCreary and surrounding counties. 

“These are corn shucks and silks. The hair is made from the silks,” Kidd-Trammell said, showing off handmade dolls, one of the many items featured in the shop.

The Artisan Shop is operated by the McCreary County Heritage Foundation. The passing trains are diesel powered, but the foundation runs on volunteers.

“Just for the Artisan Shop, we have 45 volunteers. Overall, we have over 200 volunteers,” said Kidd-Trammell.

For the last two months out of the year, the Heritage Foundation operates the Stearns Polar Express where passengers board the Big South Fork and journey to the “North Pole.” The depot is adorned in holiday decorations, lights, wreaths and Christmas trees.

“I’m a year-round volunteer and during the Polar Express I’m a ‘gold coat,’” Kidd-Trammell said. That means Trammell helps passengers along the journey and takes a lot of pictures.

The Polar Express is an official Disney licensed experience incorporating Stearn’s own rail system.

“They were flatbeds, and we built them up to be passenger cars,” Crystal Taylor said, explaining the passenger cars that carry festive ticket holders.

Taylor is the executive director of the McCreary County Heritage Foundation. While Polar Express has come to Stearns for less than 10 years, the town has been running historic train rides since the 1980s, teaching visitors and tourists about Stearns coal mining history.

“We have snow machines and the best part is seeing the little kids, all the excitement from the snow and getting to ride the train and it’s great,” Taylor said.

The Polar Express is part of Stearns humble mining-town renaissance. The county offers many natural attractions and continues to find new ways to honor this important chapter in their county’s history. The Polar Express is a one-way ticket to discover even more about Stearns, Kentucky.

More information on the Stearns Polar Express, including ticket information and run times, can be found online.

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