Christmas came by rail to Estevan with the Canadian Pacific (CP) Holiday Train rolling through town mid-day on Friday afternoon.
The train that came to Estevan was the U.S. version of the train, and it crossed into Canada earlier on Friday at North Portal.
Canadian country music stars Dallas Smith, Terri Clark and Kelly Prescott were the featured acts. Darren Savard, Ken Post and Richard Levesque were the other performers. They played some Christmas carols and some of their original music.
The purpose of the Holiday Train is two-fold, in that it brings Christmas to many small towns accessible by rail, and it also raises food and money for food banks.
“We have been coming here every year before I worked with the Salvation Army at the thrift store,” said Rhonda Olsen, who is the supervisor at the thrift store. “I just enjoy coming out here and seeing the sense of community and seeing everyone come together and enjoy an afternoon.”
People showed up early waiting for the train to stop in Estevan. Many brought out their children and came prepared with mittens, hats and warm coffee. The weather this year has been unseasonably warm, which helped attract the larger crowd.
The Holiday Train supports food banks in the communities it visits, and the local Salvation Army received $4,500 from CP Rail during the event.
The Salvation Army not only received a large sum of money but it had its cube van parked not far from the train stopped, so people dropped off a variety of non-perishable food items. By the time the event was completely over, the cube van had its entire floor covered with various boxes and baskets containing donated food.
The CP Holiday Train program launched in 1999 and has since raised $13 million and countless pounds of food for the towns along its route. The Holiday Train has been running for nearly 18 years.
The U.S. version of the Holiday Train started at the Adirondack Junction/Kahnawake Mohawk Reserve in Quebec, with Prescott, Jonathan Roy, Jim Cuddy and Devin Cuddy serving as the entertainment. It made its way through six U.S. states and four Canadian provinces during its journey.
The final stop was Dec. 17 in Brooks, Alta.
