Operation Toy Train rolls through today

Santa will make an early visit - by train - to this area Saturday, Dec. 9.

He will be aboard a special train collecting toy donations for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Foundation benefiting underprivileged children.

The train is scheduled to stop at the Newfoundland Train Station, 1667 Green Pond Road, from 2:55 p.m. to 3:25 p.m.

The public is invited to bring new unwrapped toys to donate and to meet Santa there.

Boxes for donations will be available at the station starting at noon Dec. 9.

This is the first time that the train is stopping in Newfoundland. Previously, the closest stop was Butler.

After leaving Newfoundland, the train will go on to make stops in Sparta and Vernon, both in Sussex County.

Matt Klemchalk, manager of the Newfoundland Train Station, said the station has 1,000 feet of track, which can accommodate a long train.

The nearby field will be mowed to allow for plenty of parking, he said.

The Newfoundland station has not been used by a commercial railroad for decades. It has been used for holiday train excursions and other special trains as well as for the filming of movies - most notably, “The Station Agent” with Peter Dinklage in 2003, television shows and music videos.

15 years in a row

While the train is at the station, boxes of donated toys will be loaded aboard and all of them will be counted, said John Sobotka, a train coordinator with the project, which is run by the Marines based at Picatinny Arsenal in Rockaway Township.

”On the average, they go through 230,000 toys a year, and they distribute to the seven counties in North Jersey. All the toys stay in North Jersey,” he said.

Operation Toy Train collects 28,000 to 29,000 toys each weekend, Dec. 2-3 and Dec. 9-10.

This is the 15th holiday season in a row that the nonprofit Operation Toy Train will roll out the special train.

This year, it also added stops in western Connecticut, eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey to the longstanding operations in northern New Jersey and southern New York.

From November to December, the train aims to collect more than 30,000 toys from 36 locations in four states.

In addition to using its specialized railroad equipment, Operation Toy Train partners with several local railroads and nonprofit organizations that donate their rail cars, personnel and time to operate the train.

This year, the collection train will operate over 200 miles on seven railroads in four states between Nov. 12 and Dec. 16, including three stationary events.