Les Voyages du tortillard
Les Voyages du tortillard (The Secret Railroad in English) was a French language series of animated shorts made in Quebec.
The English version aired in the United States on The Great Space Coaster in the early 1980s.
The main character is a young boy named Simon who discovers a magical steam locomotive hidden in the basement of his apartment building. Acting as the engineer Simon uses the locomotive to travel on many magical adventures.
Joining Simon every episode is Monsieur Globetrotteur (Mr. Passenger), an old man who awaited the coming of the train for many a decade before Simon finally arrived. With Mr. Passenger is Mélanie (Melanie), Mr. Passenger's cat who always rides atop his long stove pipe hat.
Each episode also features a character named Stella, a girl with star shaped hair. Stella's character changes from episode to episode (a mermaid in an underwater episode for example) but she always has her star shaped hair.