Historic Note: CPR's Holiday Train Visits Toronto - December 4th, 2006

Click on the images for a closer look!
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Derek Boles, TRHA's historian, publishes a daily posting on the Toronto Railway Heritage Yahoo Group List. These postings document major railway oriented events that happened on that day of the year. One of today's items is as follows:

'December 4, 2006: The Canadian Pacific Railway's 'Holiday Train' visits Toronto and for the first time is displayed near the Distillery District just east of Parliament Street. The train entered the city along CP's Don Branch from Leaside, the westernmost portion of the Belleville Subdivision, and was believed to be the first use of this track in several months. The Holiday Train celebrates the Christmas season and collects donations for community food banks, as well as helping CP project a positive corporate image. There are two Holiday Trains, one each for Canada and the U.S. Each train consists of 14 decorated rail cars, including a modified box car that has been turned into a traveling stage for the musical performers who accompany the trains. The trains are assembled and decorated by CP employees in Montreal, Chicago and Calgary. Since its launch in 1999, the Holiday Train program has raised over $3 million CDN and close to 1.6 million pounds of food for North American food banks. Beginning in 2008 the Holiday Train visited Toronto in the northwest part of the city known as the Junction."
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As we announced in an earlier TRHA News posting, The Holiday Train recently visited Toronto again this year. In the image above taken by Ron Visockis we find the Christmas train crossing a long bridge in Trenton, Ontario on November 28th, 2010. In the video below, Jason Pelton captures the train arriving in Toronto this year.
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If you wish to read these daily postings from Derek, simply join the Toronto Railway Heritage Yahoo Group List by clicking here.
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Posting by Russ Milland
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