CP Holiday Train

[kschmidt]

Greetings,

I figured since I saw my first snowflakes of the season tonight in Milwaukee, WI. I would post this information about the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train. This train has been through Milwaukee the last couple of years. It is a great sight to see rolling down the tracks all light up. There is also a car with entertainment. Some of the entertainers listed I saw perform on the "Breakfast for Learning" Steam train this summer in Canada and they were very good.

Hopefully the train will pass through your town and there will be snow on the ground. Also don't forget a donation for the food pantry.

Keith Schmidt

Holiday Trains coming soon to a Canadian Pacific Railway track near you
CALGARY, Nov. 6 /CNW/ - Back for the fifth year in North America,
Canadian Pacific Railway's two lighted Holiday Trains and their live musical
shows performed nightly from our boxcar stages are preparing to make another
run this season for hunger relief.
In the past four years, CPR's Holiday Trains have raised more than
$1.3 million (Cdn) and more than 160 tons of food for food pantries and food
banks along the Holiday Train routes across Canada and in the U.S. Northeast
and Midwest.
The Canadian Holiday Train follows CPR's mainline between Montreal and
Vancouver, beginning Dec. 6 in St. Therese, Quebec, and ending Dec. 20 in Port
Moody, B.C. Major stops include: Belleville, Sudbury and Thunder Bay, Ont.;
Winnipeg and Brandon, Man.; Regina and Swift Current, Sask.; Medicine Hat,
Calgary and Banff, Alta.; and Golden, Revelstoke and Kamloops, B.C.
The U.S. train begins Dec. 3 at Scranton, Penn., and stops in Binghamton,
Oneonta, Saratoga Springs, Fort Edward, Whitehall, Ticonderoga, Plattsburgh
and Rouses Point, N.Y. In southern Ontario, this Holiday Train will stop in
Mississauga, Chatham and Windsor.
After crossing Michigan to rejoin CPR's mainline at Chicago, the Holiday
Train's Midwest leg begins Dec. 9 at Franklin Park, Ill. Major Midwest stops
include: the Milwaukee area, La Crosse, Wis.; Minneapolis/St. Paul and Minot,
N.D. The Midwest train will end Dec. 16 on the international border where
Portal, N.D., and North Portal, Sask., form one community in two countries.
In 1999, CPR in Canada began running a freight train decorated with
thousands of Christmas lights to raise awareness of the issue of hunger
prevalent in all communities. CPR launched a second Holiday Train in the
United States in 2001.
Event goers at each Holiday Train location are asked to make cash
donations or contribute non-perishable food items to food pantries or food
banks on site. All food and cash donations stay in each community for
distribution by those organizations. No food is actually loaded onto the
Holiday Train.
Each train has a "stage car." These are renovated boxcars containing
stage lights and sound equipment. At each of the approximately 75 stops in
Canada and the U.S. Midwest and Northeast, entertainers perform 20- to
30-minute outdoor concerts. In some locations, CPR crowds of more than 10,000
people have turned out to watch the shows and contribute to local hunger
relief efforts.
This year CPR's national sponsors for the Holiday Train include: General
Electric, Hudson's Bay Company, IMC Global and Agrium.
The performers who will be on the U.S. train include: Canadian music
producer Randall Prescott, country singer Tracey Brown and the Ennis Sisters,
a folk-Celtic trio from Newfoundland. In Canada, the performers will include
musician and TV celebrity Tom Jackson and recording artists Beverley Mahood,
Brad Joiner and Amanda Stott.

Here are the schedules. Times and specific locations of the stops in
these towns will be announced later and posted on www.cpr.ca.

U.S. Northeast and Southern Ontario schedule:

Dec. 3 - Taylor/Scranton, Penn. (at Steam Town); Binghamton, N.Y.
Dec. 4 - Oneonta and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Dec. 5 - Fort Edward, Whitehall, Ticonderoga, Plattsburgh and Rouses
Point, N.Y.
Dec. 6 - Streetsville (Mississauga), Chatham and Windsor, Ont.

U.S. Midwest schedule:

Dec. 9 - Franklin Park, Gurnee, Ill.; Sturtevant and Wauwatosa, Wis.
Dec. 10 - Oconomowoc, Columbus, Portage, Mauston and Tomah, Wis.
Dec. 11 - La Crosse, Wis.; Winona and Lake City, Minn.
Dec. 12 - Prairie Island, Hastings, Cottage Grove and St. Paul, Minn.
Dec. 13 - Northeast Minneapolis, Loretto, Buffalo and Glenwood, Minn.
Dec. 14 - Elbow Lake, Minn.; Hankinson and Enderlin, N.D.
Dec. 15 - Valley City, Carrington and Harvey, N.D.
Dec. 16 - Minot, Kenmare and Portal, N.D.

Canadian schedule:

Dec. 6 - St. Therese and Park Avenue, Quebec; Smiths Falls, Ont.
Dec. 7 - Belleville, Port Hope, Whitby, Ont.
Dec. 8 - Alliston, Mactier, Parry Sound, Shawanaga, Ont.
Dec. 9 - Sudbury, Cartier, Ont.
Dec. 10 - Chapleau, White River, Ont.
Dec. 11 - Mobert, Heron Bay, Marathon, Schreiber, Nipigon, Thunder Bay,
Ont.
Dec. 12 - Ignace, Dryden and Kenora, Ont., and Winnipeg, Man.
Dec. 13 - Portage La Prairie, Brandon, Man.
Dec. 14 - Broadview, Indian Head, Regina, Moose Jaw, Sask.
Dec. 15 - Swift Current, Medicine Hat, Sask.; Brooks, Alta.
Dec. 17 - Calgary, Cochrane, Canmore, Banff, Alta.
Dec. 18 - Golden, Revelstoke, B.C.
Dec. 19 - Sicamous, Salmon Arm, Chase, Kamloops, B.C.
Dec. 20 - Ashcroft, Lytton, North Bend, Aggasiz, Maple Ridge, Port Moody,
B.C.

Canadian Pacific Railway, recognized internationally for its scheduled
railway operations, is a transcontinental carrier operating in Canada and the
United States. Its 14,000-mile network serves the principal centers of Canada,
from Montreal to Vancouver, and the U.S. Northeast and Midwest. CPR feeds
directly into the heartland from the East and West coasts. Alliances extend
its market reach throughout the U.S. and into Mexico.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised it's starting in a different place this year, usually starts in Montreal. Ste. Therese, by the way, was also the place where the LAST Firebird and the LAST Camaro were built.....seriously! But it seems like this train will be stopping at two places on the Blainville commuter line.....Ste. Therese and Park Avenue station (or "Parc", as the name is officially)

I've seen that train several times. I liked it.

~Ra'akone

[Anonymous]

The train went throught my town of Langenburg, Sask. last year and stopped in the town of Bredenbury, which is quite close to where I live. I didn't see the concert, but I made sure to catch the train coming through. There was quite a crowd just to watch it go bye. I think they ought to use the Empress to pull the Christmas train, though.

[jchnhtfd]

It'd be nice to use the Empress[:)]... but that train puts on a lot of tough miles (anyway, I seem to remember there are actually two consists).

I've always thought that CP -- and other roads which run Christmas trains like that -- deserve some kind of medal. Got to be some of the best PR for railroads that exists!

[Anonymous]

Didn't CP once run a "Toy Train", which carried toys to be given to children from poor families?