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Nothing can derail this express!
  • In a Shout-Out to Back to the Future Part III, Hero Boy blows the train whistle while saying "I've wanted to do that my whole life!"
    • Even better: the whistle sound for the locomotive came from Sierra Railway #3, which was in said movie.
  • The latter half of the ice lake scene is essentially one big Awesome Moment, but the individual elements are still awesome on their own:
    • First; Steamer is arguably the only person ever to pull off a J-Turn with a train. And not just a lone locomotive, but an entire, damn, TRAIN!
    • Next; he manages to throw it back into "forward" at the exact moment for it to be pointed at the tracks leading towards their original route (instead of just racing off in some random direction) when it straightens out.
    • Then; with some guidance from the Conductor, he manages to not only slalom the train towards the track, but when the ice finally gives way, the entire train lands perfectly on the submerged rails, with not a single wheel being off-rail.
    • Finally, and this concerns the locomotive more so than Steamer; it being able to pull the entire rolling stock up a 45-degree incline while the whole train - including the locomotive for a brief moment - was almost entirely underwater as if it was a leisurely hike, even as it threw up sparks from the drive wheels when it hit the hill.
    • Basically speaking, the Polar Express was drifting.
  • Hero Boy climbs on top of a moving train to give the girl back her ticket.
  • The flying elves.
  • If not for the Conductor, the airship carrying Santa's toy bag would've struck the tree, and more than likely destroyed the star.
Conductor: [shouting to airship pilot] I may be just an old railroader, and know nothing about lighter-than-air craft, but from my layman's perspective, you need more altitude!
Elf crowd: [en masse] More altitude!
Airship pilot: [over loudspeaker] Altitude, please. A bit more altitude, please.
(A handful of elves proceed to drop from the airship's structure and parachute to the ground.)
Which then leads to another instance in which the now-ascending airship just barely clips the tree's star with the aforementioned sack, sending the former plummeting to the ground. One horn-blast from the airship later, and a squadron of bungee elves jump from the airship, grab the star mid-fall, then promptly replace the star in less time than it takes for a human to do the same with a "normal" tree.

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