The East Penn Railroad, which ordinarily carries freight between the towns in southern Chester County, will have a special passenger this weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, Dec. 16, Santa Claus will be riding the locomotive and making stops in Kennett Square, Tougkenamon, Avondale and West Grove to greet his fans.

East Regional Rails vice president Don Craumer, the parent company of East Penn Railroad, said Santa will sit high in the cab, climb out, then greet folks for stops of 20 minutes each along the way.

This is the schedule:

Kennett Square, at the Broad Street Station, noon to 12:20 p.m.

Toughkenamon, at Newark Road, 12:30 to 12:50 p.m.

Avondale, at the borough hall, 1 to 1:20 p.m.

West Grove, 1:45 to 2 05 p.m. beside the library.

The train will move westward along the track in the early afternoon. After the West Grove visit, it will return home to Kennett Square with no stops.

Avondale mayor Susan Rzucidlo organized the event. She said the idea was presented to her by West Grove mayor Stephen Black.

The procedure is simple. Santa will ride, get off, greet folks and then get back on.

“This is a beginning,” Rzucidlo said of the event.

She added that the stopping points have been planned so they don’t interfere with the normal flow of automobile traffic.

Although the stop is at Newark Road in Toughkenamon, she said there are several streets parallel to Newark Road in the village that drivers will be able to take.

At the other stops, the main street crossings have been avoided.

Craumer said there is a wide variety of Santa Trains nationwide. Some even have the children riding along for a meal with Santa. That is not the case for this East Penn Santa. There will be no children riding in the train.

Santa’s East Penn vehicle will be the lone locomotive, and it will be decorated.

There are no agendas planned for the towns, Rzucidlo said. Instead, the residents of the respective stops are welcome to celebrate with their own creativity.

Given the relatively short notice for this first year of the Santa Train on East Penn, Rzucidlo said she can imagine that it will continue and even expand in coming years.