Local News Comments

This is wonderful!

The Sierra Railway train is not quite "coming to town". Like it always has, it is coming to just south of the limits of the City of Sonora. The difference means something historically. Although the owners of the Sierra Railway tried very hard to get the railway to go though downtown Sonora, the City never allowed this. (they'd hope to run a line through Sonora to Columbia and ship marble from the quarry).
Eventually the railway made do with a depot they built (with the same cool upturned Chinese roof used for the Jamestown depot) on south Washington street, about where the train will visit today, just outside the city limits.
The reason the depot is not there any more is that it burned down. The City of Sonora fire department watched it burn from their side of the city limits.

I took my 3 yr old granddaughter-it was magical! I hope this is done every year!!

This was a great event!! Thank you so much to everyone, esspecially those people behind the sceens, who made it happen. The Sierra #3 locomotive has brought a lot of people and money into Tuulumne County over the decades. It truly was delightful to see her in Sonora all decorated for Christmas. The people who attended were not deterred by the weather. In fact, the rain stopped for the better part of the three hour event. People enjoyed climbing into the cab of the #3, going into the #12 passenger car and visiting Santa in the #7 caboose. There was a group of carolers, recorded music and hot chocolate. It was small town USA at its best!!!