Oxford Court in Turlock will miss the train this year

The Santa Express train, which for more than a decade has helped draw tens of thousands of people to Oxford Court during the Christmas season, has to sit this year out.

The families that are the driving force behind the elevated miniature train were “sidetracked,” as it were, by business and personal obligations that prevented them from getting it up and running.

“Santa couldn’t find enough helpers this year due to several unforeseen family medical circumstances,” says a post on the train’s Facebook page. “We will still continue our traditional family friendly decor & lighting through Christmas Day.”

Years back, Tony Romero and Jeff Jaggers “inherited the train from the man who built it,” said Jaggers’ wife, Michele, on Monday. They have the experience and expertise to mount the seasonal tradition, but neither could do so this year, she said.

The train, which is warehoused, “had a lot of troubles last year and needed a lot of TLC this year,” she said. “Without my husband or Tony, that wasn’t doable and it could have broken for good.”

The families expect to make train repairs over the summer and have the Santa Express back on its nearly 700 feet of track for Christmas 2016.

“We feel horrible about it,” Jaggers said, and they are “hoping people will not be mad at us.”

In the meantime, the great majority of Oxford Court residents still have gone all out with their outdoor decor, Jaggers said, because the court is a food and toy collection point for Turlock Together, which really counts on the visitors and their donations.

“That is one of our main reasons to run the train,” Jaggers said, and even without it, she found a barrel full of “beautiful, big toys” one recent morning.

There are about a half-dozen barrels set out for donations of toys and nonperishable food.

“We appreciate people remembering,” she said. “We would love to see our barrels full.”

Romero bought a tree that’s been hung with gift tags for children served by Turlock Together. Visitors to the court are welcome to take a tag and make a child’s Christmas a bit brighter.

The train began its yearly run in 1997, the brainchild of former residents Carl Thornton and Randy Sangster.

The project was no kit from a toy store. Thornton and Sangster built it from hundreds of pieces of conduit piping. A golf cart battery charger powers the train, and windshield wiper motors move the train’s turntables.

Each year, residents rebuild the elevated track from scratch, so they begin in October. There are more than 500 electrical connections and the track must be sanded each night to smooth it before the train’s three-hour run.

This is not the first time Santa Express service has been interrupted. In 2008-09, a home foreclosure meant the train couldn’t cross a property, so it was shut down. And in 2012, a shooting on the court cut the season run short by two days.

This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 2:33 PM with the headline "Oxford Court in Turlock will miss the train this year."