CP Holiday Train

Last night Bonnie-Rae and I ventured out to catch the CP Holiday Train on its arrival into Maple Ridge.  The skies were clear and the train drew a huge crowd to the West Coast Express Port Haney station.  This was the final night of a three week cross

country odyssey that started on November 27th in Beaconsfield, Quebec with the final stop 68 communities later in Port Moody, British Columbia.  The goal of the Holiday Train is to collect food and money for local food banks and to raise awareness

in the fight against hunger. The train is highly decorated, and at each stop, it provides a box car stage, a line up of musicians, entertainers, and a CP corporate contribution to the local food bank. The communities, in turn, are encouraged to donate food and funds, all of which stays in the local communities.  The holiday train provides a very special and unique family event, particularly in the smaller and sometimes remote communities where it visits.  Running this train is a big undertaking and I am sure that it comes at no small cost to Canadian Pacific.  Kudos must go out to CP for continuing to run this program which has raised over $4.8 million dollars and 2.3 million pounds of food for the less advantaged in the twelve years it has been operating.

For me, last night brought back memories of Holiday Train 2002, when in cooperation with CP, we ran the train across the OVR, drawing huge crowds in each of the historic Ottawa Valley communities where we stopped.  Thanks to the efforts of our Trainmaster Bob Jackson, CP was convinced to leave the train in

our hands on December 8th, 2002 handing it over to us in Smiths Falls, Ontario.  We promptly applied our smartly decorated RaiLink GP-38's to the head end of the consist and headed west with the train early that morning.  It was a bitterly cold day and if memory serves me correctly we made stops in Arnprior, Renfrew, Pembroke, Petawawa, Chalk River, Mattawa, Bonfield, and North Bay.  The crowds at each stop surpassed our wildest imaginations.  Obviously these towns needed some entertainment and there was a terrific line up on the 

Holiday Train that year including Tom Jackson, Beverly Mahood, Duane Steele, and Amanda Stott.  Some of the shows were done from the stage car, others were shorter shows done from the back of CP business car Van Horne.  I can’t verify this fact but I have been told that this was and continues to be a record for the most entertainment stops in one day for the

CP Holiday Train.  We also had our Santa, veteran CP and OVR locomotive engineer Hugh Cubitt.  I can still remember Hugh as he relished his ride in the Van Horne, heading out onto the vestibule to wave at onlookers as we made our way through the Ottawa Valley.  A ride in the Van Horne was a most fitting tribute for this old hogger.  After all, how many tons of freight had he hauled through the Valley for CPR during his long railroad career?

In 2002, set up of the stage car was nowhere near as refined as it is now, and I can remember the feeling of relief when we completed the last show in North Bay on time and successfully.  It was a tough and stressful day, opening and closing that

boxcar door in the freezing cold temperatures, setting up the speakers, trying to keep the sound system working, and keeping the train on time.  Watching last night’s polished and organized set up and take down made the show look like a cakewalk, a far cry from 2002. 

I still have my Holiday Train CD from that year, signed by all of the entertainers who participated.  It is still, by far, our family’s favourite holiday CD.