"It's going to be a rough one this year without a job," he says.

"The gifts they get today may be some of the only gifts some children get," says Tom Segelhorst, president of the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce, which co-sponsors the Santa Train along with CSX Transportation and Food City, a grocery retail chain.

Looking out from the train, he says, "you see some of the most beautiful country . . . and some of the most impoverished people" in America.

On this cold, sunny Saturday, bundled-up folks stood in snow and listened for the whistle that signalled the train's approach.

As always, the train made its day-long trip on the weekend before Thanksgiving - a tradition begun by the merchants of Kingsport to thank their customers and to get potential shoppers in an early holiday mood. The operation is nearly year-round now, with contributions beginning to arrive only weeks after Christmas. About 20 tonnes of donated sweets, toys and clothing were distributed this year to thousands of people beside the tracks.

Many of the gifts are handmade by donors from dozens of states.

For years, elderly Jayne Lawless of Douglasville, Georgia has sent Barbie dolls attired in knitted dresses that she makes herself.

There was concern this year that donations would be down because of the bad economy, says Haskel Bledsoe, a Food City spokesman. "Some businesses couldn't send their usual contributions because of their financial losses," he says. "But others stepped in and took their place."

For the first time this year, only candy and stuffed animals were tossed out by Santa from the caboose, says Tori Kaplan, director of events at CSX, which provides the tracks, rail workers and train for the trip. The organisers were worried about hitting children with toys and books so bags of gifts were distributed by volunteers wearing elf hats and reindeer antlers at the stops.

The bags were colour co-ordinated - purple for girls, blue for boys - and sized for age groups.

At Fremont, Virginia, Tracy Combs holds her nephew, Kain, while her daughter, Kayla, 8, and Kayla's young cousin, Aaron, scramble for candy and stuffed animals.

"We have to cut back" on Christmas presents this year, says Combs. Fearful of her job security, she doesn't want to overextend.

The train's Santa was Kingsport accountant Don Royston, making his 10th trip. He was helped by country music star Kathy Mattea, who continued a tradition of having a celebrity aboard. Singers Patty Loveless, Alison Krauss and Naomi Judd are among the celebrities who have made the trip.

"This is my country," says Mattea, who grew up in West Virginia.

Both of her grandfathers were coalminers and her father worked in a chemical plant.

"I feel like I know these people. They could be my cousins. They could be my aunts. They could be my grandparents."

At some stops, Mattea joined Santa on the caboose.

At others, she would walk into the crowd to hand out bags of toys.

"I'm struck by the look in people's eyes," Mattea says.

"Some people, you can see a real kind of desperate look. Then you desperately want to make sure they walk away with something."

But the event is also a "great equaliser," she says.

"It doesn't matter if you have money or you don't have money. The Santa Train is still the Santa Train. You come. Everybody gathers together. Everybody gets to see Santa. All the kids get Santa bags, and everybody gets to visit. "Everybody gets an equal experience. That's the beautiful thing about it." Santa himself marvelled at seeing a child receive a toy and then take it to another child sitting with crutches leaning against his chair.

Over the years, the Santa Train has become treasured as a tradition for generations of families as much as a means to help the needy.

At Elkhorn City, Kentucky, Sadie Stacker brought her eight-year-old grandson, Nicky, for a familiar family outing. "I brought his daddy and his aunt and his uncle," she says.

"I've been coming since I was a little girl," says Retha Gilbert Baird, 53, as she watched with her daughter and granddaughter as the presents were given out at St. Paul, Virginia.

"Years ago, we would get sheets, towels, pillowcases, things that could really help a family. I think there are a lot of families that could use those sorts of things now."

The contents of the purple and blue gift bags were varied - no two were exactly alike but all were stuffed full of goodies.

In addition, at every stop, volunteers from the train handed out larger gifts such as NFL footballs, fishing rods and reels, soccer balls, Tonka trucks and dolls.

At St. Paul, where hundreds of people had gathered, Joe Gibson, an unemployed army veteran, says he can't find work "even with a military background".

So it's hard to find a job to earn money to buy Christmas presents? a stranger asks. "Ain't it though," Gibson replies from the railbed.