Two-year-old Reece Raner points to the Kansas City Southern Holiday Express as he sits on the shoulders of his older sister, Samantha, Thursday.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[12/19/03]Kansas City Southern’s Holiday Express train has stopped in larger cities on its December route this year, but Thursday night’s Vicksburg crowd topped them all.

Turnout at the Levee Street Depot was 1,574 people, KCS transportation manager and express organizer Willis Kilpatrick said.

“It was the highest of the whole trip,” Kilpatrick said of the train’s 21-day, 24-stop route.

The route’s previous high had been Dec. 7 in Kansas City, where the express drew 1,554, he added. Also on the train’s schedule was a Dec. 6 stop in St. Louis and a Nov. 29, opening night in Shreveport.

Children of all ages were lined up here beginning more than 30 minutes before they could board the express and visit with Santa at 5 p.m. The train did not close until after the last child came through after 10 p.m., Kilpatrick said.

Among the crowd were many students of Redwood Elementary teacher Lois Martin, who served as a volunteer “elf” for the night.

“They were so excited they didn’t know Santa had a train,” Martin said of her students when they got advance notice of the event.

Martin and 12 local volunteer elves dressed in green and were there to help children and their families make their way through the six-car train, and to hand out bags containing small toys, candy, crayons and a coloring book.

One of the show train’s cars is flat and carries Santa’s sleigh.

“A lot of times when we pull into town, we’ll pull in right at 5 and Santa will be up there with the elves and saying hello to everybody,” Kilpatrick said.

“We knew we were going to have a pretty good crowd so we pulled in and stopped so we could get set up and be ready to go. It takes us about 25 to 30 minutes to set up.”

Closing down after a couple of hours was not an option. “We never run off any child we can’t tell you a closing time because we never close as long as there are children in line,” Kilpatrick said.

Vicksburg was the 22nd of 24 scheduled stops along an eight-state route. Remaining stops were scheduled for Pearl and Meridian.

Seven-year-olds Chelsea Kline and Derek Dolan, interviewed separately about their trips through the express, both said they liked the model trains inside. Two of the trains ran through village dioramas and one beneath and on both sides of the walkway.

The express was built over three years in Shreveport by volunteers, Kilpatrick said.

“The idea was that we wanted to be able to give hats, coats and gloves to people along the KCS line,” he said. The express idea grew from a “little red caboose” that was being run by a railroad KCS acquired.

“We decided we needed to go all over the KCS, and with the exception of Baton Rouge, we have gone over this, in our third year, we have made most of our bigger cities on KCS.”

Attached to the express is KCS’ Southern Belle passenger train, which includes sleeping and dining cars for the 12 to 16 volunteers who staff the express, Kilpatrick said. Some volunteer for the entire 21-day journey and others for a few days.

The group collected $64,000 this year for children’s warm clothing, and was distributing it in equal parts to each city along the route in the form of Wal-Mart gift cards given to local offices of the Salvation Army, Kilpatrick said

Vicksburg Salvation Army Capt. Joe Mur said the donations provided a welcome alternative to people who would otherwise be given vouchers to a thrift-store, where their size selection would not be as large.