CP Holiday Train will make Charles City stop Dec. 7

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train will stop in Charles City in December, part of its tour through the upper United States aimed at spreading holiday cheer and collecting donations for local food pantries.

The Charles City stop this year will be Saturday, Dec. 7, scheduled to arrive at 8:30 a.m. for a half-hour show. The train will stop at the crossing at Main Street and Grand Avenue, just north of the former Simply Essentials property.

The popular train features more than a dozen cars, each decorated with hundreds of thousands of LED lights and holiday-themed designs. It is pulled by two 2,000 hp diesel-electric locomotives.

The trains are lit even during their daytime trips and stops.

Accompanying the train on its U.S. tour this year are country music performers Meghan Patrick, Tanika Charles and Kelly Prescott.

At each stop the side of the stage car lowers and the performers present a 30-minute holiday-themed musical program.

A brief program is included with local food bank officials, then the stage door closes and the train moves on to its next stop. Food and cash donations are collected for the local food pantry.

The CP Holiday Train last stopped in Charles City in December 2017, another daytime stop. At that time, Dallas Smith, Terri Clark and Kelly Prescott were the performers.

“The CP Holiday Train is a program that our 13,000-strong CP family has immense pride in bringing to communities every year,” said Keith Creel, CP’s president and CEO.

“The CP Holiday Train program is our way to help in the fight against hunger by growing awareness of this issue and providing a fun and engaging way for the public to show their support,” he said.

The Holiday Train has now raised more than $12 million (U.S.) and collected 4.5 million pounds of food since its inaugural journey in 1999.

There are actually two holiday trains. One travels through Canada from Nov. 26 to Dec. 17. The U.S. train starts and ends in Canada but spends most of its time in the northeast and upper Midwest states of the U.S.

The U.S. Holiday Train leaves Quebec, Canada, on Nov. 25. It then travels through New York, Ontario, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota before entering Iowa on Dec. 6.

IOWA SCHEDULE:

Friday, Dec. 6
• Mason City, Dec. 6 — arrives 7:45 p.m., performance 8-8:30 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 7
• Charles City — arrives 8:30 a.m.
• Ossian — arrives 10:30 a.m.
• Clinton — arrives 6:40 p.m., performance 6:45-7:15 p.m.
• Davenport — arrives 9 p.m., performance 9:15-9:45 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 8
​• Marquette — arrives 2:45 p.m.
• Lansing — arrives 4:50 p.m.
• New Albin — arrives 6:15 p.m.

From Iowa, the Holiday Train will go back to Minnesota, then North Dakota, then into Canada to Saskatchewan and end in Alberta on Dec. 18.

Full U.S. Train Schedule

• Quebec – Nov. 25.
• New York – Nov. 26-27.
• Ontario – Nov. 28-30.
• Illinois – Dec. 2.
• Wisconsin – Dec. 2-4.
• Minnesota – Dec. 5-6.
• Iowa – Dec. 6-8.
• Minnesota – Dec. 8-14.
• North Dakota – Dec. 14-15.
• Saskatchewan – Dec. 16-18.
• Alberta – Dec. 18.