I rode the Bay Area’s Niles Canyon Railway Train of Lights

For the uninitiated, the Prepare of Lights is principally the Polar Categorical of the East Bay. It’s a festively decked-out locomotive chugging by Niles Canyon, a canyon fashioned by Alameda Creek in Fremont, after darkish. Santa Claus himself is even on board, making this the type of occasion that babies go wild for — and never essentially one tailor-made to a solo childless 20-something. The prepare’s commissary automobile doesn’t even serve alcohol. 

Nonetheless, there could be scorching chocolate, so I gritted my tooth and headed out. 

Round 7 p.m. on a Sunday, I parked within the gravel lot on the prepare station in Sunol. The prepare wasn’t scheduled to depart for one more half-hour, however legions of infants in puffy coats and Santa hats, together with their beleaguered dad and mom, have been already lined as much as board. I hurried to seize my ticket from the ticket counter, then smooshed into the again of the zig-zagging line to board, the whines of impatient youngsters ushering me ahead. 

I’m not precisely what you’d name a Christmasphile. I roll my eyes at individuals who begin adorning earlier than Thanksgiving, and I can’t stand most Christmas songs (notable exception: “All I Need for Christmas Is You”). However when the Prepare of Lights rolled into the station with a cheerful “CHOO-CHOO!” all aglow in flickering lights, reindeer, sweet canes and polar bears, my little Grinch coronary heart grew three sizes. 

“LOOK, it’s Santa!” shrieked one little child in reindeer ears. I discovered myself straining to look identical to the kids round me, and smiled. Certainly, there the jolly man was, beckoning everybody aboard with a ho-ho-ho. 

As I stepped onto the prepare, I beelined for an indoor automobile, fearful about spending an hour and a half in a cold out of doors one after seeing how swaddled in coats and blankets all of the infants have been. Inside, the automobile was embellished as resplendently as the surface: garlands woven with twinkling lights and little wrapped presents dangled from the ceiling. I settled right into a soft crimson leather-based seat and ready for departure as an orchestral efficiency of “Deck the Halls” swelled over the loudspeakers. 

I couldn’t sit nonetheless for lengthy, although. Seeing households waltz by carrying trays of scorching chocolate and scorching apple cider, I couldn’t resist the lure of the commissary automobile. 

On the refreshments stand, every part was solely $1, so I handled myself to each a scorching chocolate and a bag of chocolate chip cookies. As a substitute of heading again to my indoor seat to feast on my sweets, although, I loitered on one of many out of doors automobiles. The conductor had introduced they provide a greater vantage for catching glimpses of the illuminated prepare’s entirety because it rounds the occasional bend. 

Sipping my scorching chocolate with the wind whipping my ears, I additionally found the open-air automobile was a greater spot for taking within the surroundings of Niles Canyon — effectively, what I may make out in virtually full darkness (notice to self: journey this prepare within the daylight someday). 

Moreover Santa Claus making his merry method by the automobiles to pose for footage with youngsters, there wasn’t a whole lot of leisure on the journey. So, getting stressed, I launched into a little bit stroll by the prepare. 

To my delight, every automobile was embellished in a different way, from the comfy wreaths within the indoor automobiles to the light-up icicles hanging from the out of doors ones. Somebody requested me to snap a household picture of them, and I obliged. I wandered into a present store hawking ornaments and toy trains and even caught a glimpse of Santa trying pensively out the window on the full moon. 

When the prepare reached Niles Station, it paused briefly earlier than reversing course, again the way in which we got here. I made a decision to vary up the surroundings one final time, and plopped down on a bench in a jiggling out of doors automobile that I overheard a railway employee describe because the “bumpiest automobile on the entire prepare.”

Beginning to fade right into a daydream about being on the Polar Categorical, I out of the blue discovered myself besieged by youngsters. Guffawing, three little ladies clambered over me to face on the sting of the bench, dangling their heads precariously out the home windows. When two of the older ladies began jokingly pushing one another, I started to fret — thankfully, a father or mother appeared simply then to intervene.

I may have been aggravated, however when Santa appeared, the little ladies grew so reverent I instantly forgave their sugar-crazed antics. Santa requested one lovable lady in a crimson puffer what she wished for Christmas, and her eyes grew as large as chocolate chip cookies. She leaned ahead to whisper one thing in his ear, and he nodded, making her promise to be a great lady. Ow, my coronary heart.

Then, simply as a couple of children round me started to meltdown, we lastly concluded our hour-and-a-half journey. The prepare was bursting with soul-warming vacation cheer, however I’d had my fill — I reserve the proper to renew my Grinchy methods till a minimum of Dec. 1.