While you can't have a Day out with Thomas™ without Thomas™ (and licensing fees). You can easily have a Christmas train without a "Polar Express™" and it does not seem to fase the kids and you get to keep all your earnings. Anyone want to weigh in?

Being able to use the Polar Express for marketing is certainly worth something - but I know what you mean - Christmas trains pretty much sell themselves.

The other thing to consider is - with the Polar Express you have to go all out to meet the customers expectations. The hot chocolate, the chefs, the actors who put on a show, Santa at the North Pole - all of those expenses add up quickly - they may even cost more than the licensing fees.

But there is something to be said about marketing an existing and extremely popular IP in connection with your railroad. Is it worth it? Could be!

Somehow I think the PRR's Polar Express beat the book and the movie by about fifty years. Maybe the "Polar Express" really belongs in the Penn Central/American Premier Underwriters portfolio.

EBL

Okay you just opened up a whole can of worms here! I tried Google but I could not find any source of this image or any context.

The Grand Canyon Railway is fairly unusual among excursion lines in that they have a complete trainset of open-window cars they can paint as Polar Express, AND have the facilities to do a massive, Broadway-scope production at the terminal and at the trackside village.
I have seen estimates that the Polar Express operation draws about HALF the line's annual patronage--which is jaw-dropping when you see what an unpopulated area it operates in, how busy they are the rest of the year (daily trains of 8-16 cars), and that these families with kids have to come from places like Phoenix, Albuquerque, Utah, southern Nevada, and California. This is NOT a neighborhood Christmas event, and it shows.
My impressions are that this can only be done right by the full-blown professional operations--Strasburg, Conway Scenic, TVRM, Durango & Silverton, etc. This is not the Andy Hardy "hey, kids, let's put on a show!" scope of operation.

Brother Levin is quoting a 1957 image of the Pennsy's local Fort Wayne Santa Train. Pretty cool.

The CVSR gave up paying for the rights to Polar Express going on 10 years ago. For years it has been the single biggest source of revenue for the operation. Thomas was second, but they gave that up also about a decade ago, and have seemingly replaced it with Steam in the Valley in May. I think like Thomas, Polar Express-like attractions may have run, or be running their course. For years, tickets for the CVSR Polars were sold by lottery (like 38,000) and were all gone well before November. This year, and the past couple of years, they still have tickets left at Thanksgiving. At it's peak, they were running separate trains from Cleveland, Akron and Canton. Now it's just out of the Cleveland end at Rockside Rd.

Well since it was before The Polar Express™ there are some potentially fun legal games you can play with calling your train Poller Express.

Import some locos from Eastern Europe, sell ham dinners aboard, and call it the "Polish Express". Shows positive international relations for once!

Well... that could potentially show that the Polar Express branding and marketing is worth the price.

They're also completely sold out for the year, charging between $59 and $109 for a 90 minute ride. If they were smart they'd find a way to schedule more trains.

One thing worth remembering is that The Polar Express as a movie isn't (as far as I can tell) turning into an annual classic like How the Grinch Stole Christmas or A Charlie Brown Christmas became; nor is the old Disney formula of re-releasing the movie every 6-7 years being employed. Like most big blockbuster movies of recent decades (think Titanic, the Harry Potter films, etc.), they're not "evergreen"; they've all had their day and live on in the DVDs or streaming.

In the long run, this should affect the marketability of PE events. On the other hand, I have no idea why Mickey Mouse the character has ANY popularity at all in 2025, so what do I know?

On a personal aside, I have the DVD of the movie, but as a lifelong pure-animation fan, I could never get past the purely "creepy" feel of their "pioneering" CGI animation to watch it all the way through. Obviously, it appeals to some people, but get that creepy conductor and that geeky boy away from me.......
(And to the three guys in rail preservation I know that probably have Conductor roles this time of year because of their glasses and mustaches....... sorry, but.....)

Purely anecdotal, but I would disagree with you there. Many of my non-train fan friends (yes they exist and they aren't imaginary!) watch it every year. I'd say it's definitely on the list of annual classics for many.

Possibly. However the question that needs to be answered is whether the additional revenue will allow the operator to not only cover the operating cost amortize the additional capital expense along with (for P. E.) the franchise costs.

As for my fellow resident curmudgeon referencing the 'Mickey and Judy Show', the financial failures I've seen with tourist lines operating theatrical event trains such P. E. and the Little Blue Piggy-bank primarily stem from having inadequate available resources to properly support the events.

GME

On a passenger train Facebook group I'm on somebody posted a photo of the Naugatuck Railroads non Polar Express Christmas train. Apparently the train was so long that they had to run 2 locomotives. Apparently lack of Polar Express licensing isn't affecting them.