Scottsville L&N Depot Opens For A Classic Christmas Story

By Chris Cole,
Staff Writer

On Tuesday, Dec. 16, Melissa Shipley, the Allen County Public Library’s Children’s Librarian, partnered with Dr. Mark Huntsman of the Friends of the Scottsville L&N Depot for a reading of the 1985 Christmas story “The Polar Express” written by Chris Van Allsburg. In 2004 the story found in the book was expanded on and turned into a movie that starred Tom Hanks.

For those who might not be familiar with the story, it centers around a young boy who awaits the sound of sleigh bells on Christmas Eve but instead hears a train pull up to his home. The conductor of the train explains that it’s called “The Polar Express” and the boy boards it, finding other children already on board.

The train races to the North Pole through villages, valleys and mountains and finally arrives. Elves are gathered around and await the arrival of Santa. Before Santa heads out however, he chooses one child from the train…the boy at the center of the story…to receive the first gift of Christmas.

The boy chooses one of the sleigh bells from the reindeer’s harness and an elf gets him one. He jingles the bell and it rings out loud and clear. However, on the journey back to his home, the boy discovers that there’s a hole in his pajama pocket and the bell is lost.

That is until the next day a small package is found under the tree in his home with his name on it. The boy opens the box and sees a sleigh bell with a note that says “I found this in my sleigh.” He and his sister ring the bell and it’s as loud and clear as the night before but his parents can’t hear it ringing and believe it must be broken. The boy then realizes only those who believe can hear it ring.

Shipley stated that the story resonates with her because “It’s (about) the innocence of children. We kind of make a big deal out of Christmas as adults and we put a lot of stress on ourselves. But really, it’s the just the magic of believing in something.”

She added “I definitely feel like adult responsibilities take away some of the magic in life but I do feel like you can keep that and kids help a lot with that. They keep pushing you forward to be able to continue having some of that Christmas magic.”

As the Children’s Librarian since August of this year, Shipley has really enjoyed her role in helping shape a love for storytelling and imagination in the pre-school kids she’s overseen. She stated “we plan on doing more events (like this) and we’d like to partner with different places in Allen County. We’d definitely love to do more story times, especially here at the Depot.”

Shipley added that the response was very good and that three separate times had to be scheduled on the 16th for the reading. Even then it wasn’t enough as the spaces were limited.

Dr. Mark Huntsman was also happy to accommodate the group from the ACPL and went the extra mile of rail to dress up as the train conductor from the story.

“This was a great opportunity (to host) and we were so thankful that the library thought of us and considered doing it here,” said Dr. Huntsman. “When you go back to the Laura Goad Turner Foundation, one of their things is education and children. So we want to jump on this opportunity with both feet.”

While the rebuilt ticket office at the Scottsville L&N Depot looks like it’s complete, Dr. Huntsman did say they’re not quite ready to have it open to the public on a regular basis yet. Being open to hosting this reading was one thing (and they’re certainly willing to do more of that in the future) but they’re still getting items ready to put on display within the ticket office; they’re still wanting to restore the freight section of the Depot so that larger community gatherings can be held there and they’re finalizing the purchase and transportation of a 20-ton caboose to be put on display behind the 70-ton engine that’s currently located there.

“Hopefully we’ll have a grand opening celebration sometime in the spring. We’re trying to get our ideas together now for how we’re going to tell the story of the railroad here in the museum and make it interesting.” One of the ways Dr. Huntsman said it will be interesting is that four of the former engineers who actually operated the engine on display will be interviewed soon and video featuring them will be put together.

Overall though, this event was a successful one as the kids were greatly entertained by the story and by how Dr. Huntsman looked like a conductor. It’s not difficult to imagine further story time collaborations not taking place.