The CPKC Holiday Train rolled into downtown London, Ont. Nov. 21, as part of an over one month long trip across Canada and the United States.
Spectators of all ages packed the railroad crossing on Richmond Street near Piccadilly to watch the train, outfitted with lights make a stop in the forest city.
Once the train stopped, a specially designed box car at the rear of the train dropped its side doors, making way for live performances put on by American rock band Smash Mouth and Canadian singer JJ Widle.
“It was really cool,” said Cassandra Hill. “It was my first time ever coming to anything like this, and I think it kinda surpassed expectations.”
Hill decided to come out to the event because of her roommates.
“They were like ‘You’ve never seen this holiday train before? You should definitely come,'” Hill said. “So coming out I was like, it’s a Friday night, wanna do something fun, glad I came.”
Samantha Alberta came to see the train and performances with her daughter, Amara.
“It was pretty good,” Alberta said. “The crowd was a little deterring, but it was good. Everyone let you through, they let the kids have space, there was room to dance over there, it was good.”
Amara told XFM News she enjoyed the songs performed by Smash Mouth, particularly those that were featured in the movie Shrek, including “I’m a Believer” and “All Star.” Her mom has been a long-time fan of the band.
“I was born in ’91, so probably since their first album came out shortly after,” Alberta said.
The holiday train is in its 27th year of spreading holiday cheer, collecting food and raising money for food insecurity.
Volunteers from the London Food Bank were at the event collecting food and cash donations.
Since 1999, the holiday train has raised over $26 million and gathered over 5.4 million pounds of food for food banks in both Canada and the U.S.
The train left London shortly after 9:00 p.m., bound for multiple other stops across the country and in the U.S. until Dec. 21.
