A Knox & Kane passenger car in Marienville, Pennsylvania - Date? Photographer? *1.

Provo Utah - A 3,000 mile journey came to an end in Provo on Friday as Santa Claus used a crane to unload three historic rail cars onto waiting semi-trailer trucks.
 
The cars were taken to Heber City, where they will become part of the Heber Valley Railroad.
 
The arrival means that hundreds of children and parents who had been turned away from the sold-out Polar Express excursion will now be able to buy tickets.
 
In May a rail car belonging to the historic railroad somehow got loose and rolled down the track, eventually smashing into another rail car.
 
Both cars were total losses and a shorter train meant that more than 1,000 Polar Express tickets could not be sold this year.
 
Every seat on the train has sold out for the past several years, and the train was sold out again this year until the arrival of the new cars.
 
Friday's arrival of the 70 seater historic rail cars had been delayed by more than a week because of a shortage of rail workers, sub-freezing temperatures, and difficulties scheduling rail times, said Craig Lacey, director of the Heber Valley Railroad.
 
The cars were purchased from Knox & Kane, a now-defunct tourist railroad in Marienville, Pennsylvania, and cost about US$18,000 each including the cost of delivery, he said.
 
The cars were built in 1930 as rapid-transit cars for commuter service between New Jersey suburbs and New York City.
 
In 1979, they were retired and sold to Knox & Kane and have since been used for tourist-railroad services, said Nate McDonald of Heber Valley Railroad.
 
The steel passenger cars are 70 feet four inches long and weigh 147,000 pounds each, he said.
 
After arriving in Heber City on Friday evening, the cars were expected to be unloaded this morning by crane.
 
Railroad crews will clean and refurbish the cars for immediate use, and additional tickets for the Polar Express went on sale Friday.
 
The Polar Express runs twice daily except Sunday through 23 Dec 2005.
 
Caleb Warknock.