Had the chance to see the US version of the Canadian Pacific Christmas Train as it passed through Wisconsin. I caught the train at Sturtevant, WI on Friday December 9, 2005. Unfortunately the train was almost an hour late due to congestion on the rails in Chicago. With the temperature being about 10 degrees last night and a wind chill of at least 0 several hundred people had turned out at the Sturtevant depot to see the train and watch the program. Unfortunately many of those people left before the train arrived.
This was one of the first years it didn’t rain on the Christmas Train, there was actually a pretty good snow cover.
Here are some photos of the train at Sturtevant.
These two show the Sturtevant Depot and an approaching train on the eastbound track.
Here is the rear part of the train including the back side of the “Stage Car” and 4 passenger cars.
Tatans, I almost used the more “correct” term, but fell back on my true feelings and used the real term.
TT, I believe they had Boy Scouts collecting food from people in the crowd, cash donations were also accepted. Actually the food collected benefits a local food pantry so its not actually loaded onto the train.
keith
thanks for the train pictures.it rolled through on the old wabash line(new ns connection) on wed sometime.I just couldnt get up to see it.
stay safe
Joe
I’ll second Mark, you got a lot better shots than I did!
You got way better shots of the Conductors side of the train than I did in Portage, the Light was working against me for that. I tried a few Engineer side shots that came out okay, but not as good as yours from the Conductors side:
And I didn’t even get the chance to get shots of the train. Almost as soon as the train stopped there were people around it, and they didn’t leave until just before the train left! At first I was being patient, but when myself and a few other photographers realized that the train was about to leave, we politely had a bunch of people move so we could get our shots. That’s why in the second shot the headlights are on.
The train continued running late on Saturday night too. It was 10 minutes late into Portage, and 20 minutes late leaving it. It would be interesting to see how late it was by the time it got to it’s last stop for the night, as I know it had to meet Amtrak somewhere, and if it continued staying about ten minutes longer at each stop…
Anyone know what happens when the US and Canadian trains meet out west? Do they combine them into a single train with double power or does one end at that point?
Just for the record, while the CP does call this a “Holiday Train” and most of the music is generic holiday stuff – Winter Wonderland etc - the very last song the (very good) entertainers sing is always Silent Night. So there is no question what holiday they are talking about. Great pictures here both by Keith and Noah. This train is beautiful at night. Oh but it was cold out!
Dave Nelson
Thanks for the nice comments. Those are nice shots Noah. We got lucky in Sturtevant, with the stage car opening to the parking lot(east) side of the train, almost all of the people were on that side, just railfans were on conductors side. With the train being late, the crowd was a bit lighter.
It was nice to finally see the train with snow on the ground too.
They won’t meet, the Canadian Train is already west of Moose Jaw, SK. The US train will make its last stop in Weyburn, SK and then deadhead to Moose Jaw.
