First Posted: 10/28/2014
Steamtown National Historic Site (NHS) will partner with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to host the company’s 2014 Holiday Train on its journey to stock food shelves and pantries across the United States and Canada.
The Holiday Train will visit Northeastern Pennsylvania from 5:15 to 5:45 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 27. Visitors should arrive at least 15-30 minutes early. The train will depart Scranton for Binghamton, New York on the former Lackawanna Railroad’s mainline, and is expecting to cross the historic Tunkhannock Viaduct (Also known as the Nicholson Bridge) between 6:30 and 6:45 p.m.
Normally closed on Thanksgiving Day, the Steamtown NHS will be open to visitation from 12 to 6:30 p.m.
Canadian Pacific Railway created the Holiday Train to raise awareness for the need to restock food shelves in the local communities served by the railroad. Visitors are asked to bring non-perishable food items or cash donations in support of those in need. All donations raised at Steamtown NHS stay with the food pantry in the community.
Items such as infant formula, canned meats and spaghetti sauce are in particular demand for the many that turn to food banks each month. Since 1999, the event raised more than $7.4 million and over 3 million pounds of food for local food banks in the U.S. and Canada. In 2013, the event at Steamtown NHS helped raise more than 2,500 pounds of food and collected nearly $2,000 in cash donations, in addition to a CPR corporate contribution of $1,000, for the United Neighborhood Centers of Northeast Pennsylvania.
Thousands of people gather trackside at depots, railroad crossings and other unusual venues along CPR’s route to enjoy the brightly decorated train that will light up the winter night at Steamtown NHS. The train is decorated with hundreds of thousands of LED Christmas lights.
The musicians, who ride in vintage private cars at the end of the 14-car train climb aboard a boxcar in the middle of the train that opens to reveal a stage where they will perform a live holiday concert, inviting visitors to sing along.
Entertainers aboard the 2014 U.S. train include Canadian Country Music Hall of Famer, Tracey Brown and the Holiday Train Band. Tracey Brown, a Canadian Country Music Association performer, is a winner of several Juno awards and was part of Canada’s most awarded country group, Family Brown, before forming the Juno award winning, Prescott-Brown.