2009

22 September 2009 CP Rail's Holiday Train Will Brighten City's Christmas Canadian Pacific Holiday Train at the Delaware & Hudson Westport station in New York, New York, USA - 30 Nov 2008 Gary Knapp     Annandale Minnesota USA - The Canadian Pacific Railway's lavishly lighted Holiday Train will return to Annandale the week before Christmas.   The popular train will stop here Monday night, 14 Dec 2009, according to CPR spokesman Jeff Johnson, for the sixth time in its 10-year history of crossing the country to generate donations for food banks.   The exact time and list of entertainers will be announced later, Johnson said.   As it has every year since 2004, the train, decorated with hundreds of thousands of lights, will pull up to the Oak Avenue crossing next to Annandale Memorial Park where a troupe of musicians will perform on a boxcar stage.   The westbound train will also stop at Loretto and Buffalo that day on its way to Annandale, then travel to Eden Valley after it leaves here, Johnson said.   Ed Skomoroh, Annandale Area Community Food Shelf president, said he's pleased the train will be back.   "To me it's an Annandale Christmas event" that puts the community in the spirit, he said.   Last year, a crowd estimated at about 350 hardy people turned out to greet the train in the middle of a winter storm on one of the nastiest nights of the year.   They donated about 900 pounds of nonperishable food items to the food shelf, which also took in about $2,600 including $1,000 from the Canadian Pacific.   The crowd and contributions were the lowest in five years, but that was understandable because of the extreme weather conditions, Skomoroh said, and more donations came in later from people who couldn't make it to the train.   If the weather's good this year, he expects a record crowd. But Skomoroh said he hopes only to match last year's contributions because the economy continues to be slow. "People only have so much."   A year earlier, a crowd of about 2,000 people came out to see the train, donating about 2,000 pounds of groceries to the food shelf, which also took in about $5,000.   Skomoroh said it's important to recognize the Annandale Area Chamber of Commerce's role in pulling the event together.   The food shelf gave out about 120,000 pounds of food in 2008, a 40 percent increase over the year before, he said, estimating that will rise to 150,000 pounds this year. "The need is greater."   Since 1999, the railway's holiday trains have generated 1.6 million pounds of food donations and $3 million in the United States and Canada, according to Canadian Pacific.   The 2009 trip will be the 10th annual tour for the U.S. train and the 11th for its Canadian counterpart.   The U.S. train last year crossed seven states from Pennsylvania to North Dakota and visited more than 40 communities.   Chuck Sterling.

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