2007-Event History

Unique Features:

• Most important to the event is the TRAIN icon itself. The children wait with great anticipation for the TRAIN. They listen for the sound of the train’s horn and know that it is coming just for them. The train this year was donated and run flawlessly by the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum, with the operations into México provided by Carrizo Gorge Railway, Inc. A big thanks to both. You are great partners.

Description of the Day: 10 Years Later

Ten years ago with the help of Ann McVeagh of the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum and the San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad, introductions were made of PSRM members Charlie and Margaret Coval to The Mayor of Tecate, México with the idea of bringing toys to the less fortunate children of this border town. The Mayor agreed to notify and bring the children to the Museum’s train, if it would stop at the Tecate Depot. However, in México children receive gifts on the 12 th day of Christmas and not on Christmas Eve or Christmas day as we do in the U.S.; So, The Christmas Train as we know it in the U.S. is known as the Three Kings Train in Tecate. The event was rescheduled from Christmas to the closest Sunday to January 6 th. It had to be Sunday as that is when families come into Tecate for the day and it lends itself much better to organizing the event for the families. That first year, when the train traveled from Campo to Tecate, it was a big question as to how many children might be waiting at the Tecate Depot. Our best guess would be less than 1000 children. But, when the train arrived, there was a sea of children all waving to the volunteers on the train. At the end of the day, more than 3,000 children received a toy and school supplies with fewer than ten gifts remaining on the train.

The City of Tecate asked that we continue the event the next year, to the delight of Ann McVeagh and Margaret Coval. It was such a success that the volunteers all said, “wait until next year, it will be better.”

Over the years, the event has continued without hesitation, even when tunnel 3 burned and collapsed, the track washed out and the train had to come from Tijuana. The years when the tunnel was impassable and the track washed out on the eastern side of the city, the San Diego & Imperial Valley Railway brought the locomotive and box car into Tecate from San Ysidro, while the volunteers were bused from the Old Town Trolley Station. Other years Carrizo Gorge Railway provided the train from San Ysidro. In the past ten years more than 55,000 children have received a new toy and school supplies at Christmas Time. After the event additional toys are distributed to Tecate’s three orphanages and small fiesta’s are held in the very rural areas of the Municipality of Tecate. The city of Tecate has come to depend on the help for the less fortunate children of this border town.

2007’s Christmas Train was a continuing success for many reasons. It can not take place without the volunteers that have come from all over Southern California and across the nation, from as far away as Boston. This year’s event brought us a volunteer from Switzerland in addition to the more than 100 volunteers from the City of Tecate, itself. Every Mayor, City Council person and Department Head has attended the event. It is supported by the Red Cross of Tecate, the fire and police department as well as the social services department (Sistema Para El Searrollo Integral De La Familia), In all, more than 600 volunteers in all. The golf tournament in September raises about half of the funds needed and the rest comes from sponsors and donations. This year the Campo Kumeyaay Nation and the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians purchased the breakfasts for the children as well as sponsored the after-event rural fiesta’s.