LONG BEFORE HE WAS SENDING FAMILIES TO THE NORTH POLE AND HOGWARTS, FORMER EWM CHAIRMAN AND CEO AL HARPER MADE HIS MARK ON MIAMI. TODAY, HE’S BETTING ON THE ENDURING MAGIC OF THE RAILROAD.
BY ANETTA NOWOSIELSKA
There are easier ways to get somewhere. This, of course, has never really been the point of taking a train.
Airplanes collapse geography. Cars offer autonomy. But trains retain something those more efficient forms of transportation have largely engineered away: anticipation. A platform. A whistle. A conductor. The satisfying inevitability of tracks disappearing toward somewhere you cannot quite see.
Al Harper understands the distinction.
“There’s something emotional about sitting on a train and feeling like you’re being transported somewhere special,” says Harper, president and CEO of American Heritage Railways. “Whether that is to the North Pole, Hogwarts, or into the 1880s as guests experience on our scenic excursions.”
Harper has built a remarkable enterprise around that emotion. Through Rail Events Inc., a subsidiary of American Heritage Railways, historic railroads and museums become stages for excursions inspired by some of popular culture’s most beloved fictional worlds. In 2025, the company licensed events welcoming nearly 1.8 million guests at 58 partner railroads across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Its blockbuster is THE POLAR EXPRESS™ Train Ride, an immersive interpretation of Chris Van Allsburg’s 1985 children’s book. Over an eight-week season, approximately 1.8 million passengers are expected to climb aboard at more than 50 railroads worldwide.
The ritual begins with a golden ticket.
Once aboard, conductors punch tickets while dancing chefs dispense hot chocolate and treats. The familiar soundtrack plays. Eventually Santa appears, distributing the “first gift of Christmas”: a silver sleigh bell.
To a child, presumably, this is magic. More surprising is what happens to the parents.
“It’s not unusual to see adults tearing up at our events,” Harper says, “because of the deep emotional connection that people feel to trains and travel.”
Now Harper and his team have turned their attention to another train whose destination occupies an almost sacred place in the imaginations of millions: the Hogwarts Express.
Harry Potter™: A Hogwarts Express Adventure debuted this year at the Southern California Railway Museum in Perris, California. Developed by Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences and Rail Events Inc., the production transforms an actual moving train into an excursion through the wizarding world.
Before boarding, passengers encounter Platform 9¾, Hogwarts house competitions and spell-casting challenges. On board, there are themed trolley treats and the possibility of coming face-to-face with creatures of a distinctly darker persuasion. At journey’s end waits a Hogsmeade-inspired village, Butterbeer™ included. Wands are encouraged.
The challenge with fictional universes this familiar is that audiences arrive knowing precisely how everything should look and feel. Get a beloved detail wrong, and the comments write themselves.
“Our creative team really takes the time to get to the heart of what these experiences should offer,” Harper says. “They spend countless hours researching the source material and collaborating with our partners at the studio to get every detail right.”
For THE POLAR EXPRESS™, the sleigh bell is indispensable. “It’s a perfect example of a physical object that carries much deeper meaning,” Harper says. “These details really make our guests feel like they’ve stepped into the film and become the main character in the storyline.”
Harper’s instinct for building experiences around a powerful sense of place predates his life on the rails. In 1984, he was part of the ownership group that acquired Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell, the venerable South Florida real estate company now known as Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty, publisher of Lifestyles magazine. As chairman and CEO, Harper helped guide its expansion. When he and Ron Shuffield sold EWM to HomeServices of America in 2003, the company had grown to 11 offices, approximately 750 associates and some $1.8 billion in annual transactions.
The leap from Miami real estate to historic locomotives may appear improbable, but a common thread emerges: an appreciation for place and what makes people care about it.
With Rail Events, that idea extends to preservation. Many experiences operate at heritage railroads and museums, where century-old equipment and infrastructure need not only maintenance but a reason for another generation to care. Harry Potter and THE POLAR EXPRESS™ provide the invitation. The railroad itself may prove the discovery.
“The brands are the introduction needed to get younger generations on board the train,” Harper says. “Not only are they introduced to trains, but they are introduced to historic preservation and these heritage sites that they come back to visit again and again.”
It is an unusual paradox: some of the world’s most recognizable contemporary entertainment franchises are helping preserve a mode of travel born nearly two centuries ago.
“Rail Events Inc. was established with these goals in mind: to create family memories and preserve history,” Harper says. “By creating licensed railroad events for young families and children, we are working to build interest in trains with young people around the world.”
“ Our creative team really takes the time to get to the heart of what these experiences should offer. They spend countless hours researching the source material and collaborating with our partners at the studio to get every detail right.”
The irony is that fantasy may prove one of the railroad’s best tools for survival. Children may arrive looking for Hogwarts or the North Pole, but somewhere along the way they encounter something real: the machinery, history, and peculiar romance of rail travel itself.
For Harper, that may be the most valuable ticket of all.
