BELLEFONTE – The Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society is offering community
members the chance to step into a magical Christmas wonderland on the annual Candy
Cane Express — running five times a day on Dec. 20 and 21.
The holiday train completed its first run on Dec. 14.
The trains depart from Bellefonte Train Station, and take festive one-hour round trip
rides that bring the holidays to life with Christmas lights, music and a parade of
characters, including Santa Claus.
Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society President Dan Durachko started volunteering with
the organization 20 years ago, and said it’s a small group consisting of many “jacks of
all trades.”
“We plan our year well in advance… we start to decorate several weeks in advance,”
Durachko said. “The earlier, the better, of course because anything can happen and the
colder it is, the more difficult it is to put decorations on the trains — especially the
exteriors. In general, it’s just more comfortable in the cars when they’re warm.”
Some Bellefonte train cars are only used at Christmastime, which Durachko said the
organization tries to leave decorated all year long to make preparation easier. These rail
cars hold anywhere from 30 to 100 people, so each Candy Cane Express ride is unique.
Durachko said that the Express often sees repeat riders who return every holiday
season for this experience — but also consistently welcomes new faces.
“I fielded an email from somebody who said it was their first ride, and they said they’re really excited about it and the family wants to come in pajamas,” Durachko said. “[They
asked} ‘is that okay?’ And then they asked, ‘how early should we arrive to make sure
that we’re there on time?’ We get a lot of inquiries from people that have never done
[The Express].”
To staff these rides, the Historical Railroad Society must coordinate a number of
volunteers, and according to Durachko, each ride takes up to 25 people to pull it off.
“There will be ground crew, characters, car hosts, just support people for other staff,”
Durachko said. “We need some spares on hand too, because some people just get so
wrung out during the rise they need to take a break because it’s a full day — basically it’s from 9 a.m., for some its 8 a.m., until 9 p.m”
The true magic of the Candy Can Express comes when families experience moments
together that feel pulled straight from a classic Christmas movie.
“One time, many years ago, we had a couple that came up all the way from Pittsburgh
for the ride,” Durachko said. “They had somebody make up some golden tickets like [in]
‘The Polar Express,’ and gave [them] to their kids the morning of the rides. They got to
ride on the caboose, and it was really cool.”
Over the past several years, Durachko said the Express has offered a “sensory friendly
experience” after receiving requests, and took this opportunity to cater to
neurodivergent riders. On these rides, there’s no music, low amounts of lighting and no
characters on board.
Between the two weekends, Durachko said the train rides serve 5,000 people.
“This is a pretty major event in Centre County,” Durachko said. “And we pull a lot of
people in, so it’s a big deal for Bellefonte.”
All 15 traditional Candy Cane Express rides are currently sold out, but there is one
sensory friendly time slot left.
