TRAINGATING.

The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train calls at Wauwatosa.

It wasn't Lambeau Field Sunday afternoon but a busy parking lot next to the train tracks in Wauwatosa that drew Elaine Sprenger and around 20 people in the Friendship Club. They snacked and sipped while waiting patiently for a train to arrive.

Not just any locomotive. Sprenger and thousands of others turned out to see the brightly colored, pulsing, rocking Canadian Pacific Holiday Train slowly chug to a stop behind Cafe Hollander and Saz's.

I'll give them that "chug" with those rebuilt "GP20" diesels assigned to Holiday Train service.

Now that Harwood Avenue has an overpass, this stop, near the historic Wauwatosa "Village" and Hoyt Park is possible without blocking any level crossings.

Automobiles began pulling in a couple of hours before the train's arrival in Wauwatosa, filling up parking spots on the street and lots near the tracks. Some people sat in the hatchbacks of vehicles, brought folding chairs or stood holding cups of warm drinks. Parents pushed strollers, carried children on shoulders or kept an eye on toddlers, some yelling "choo choo!"

I hope they remembered their cash or in-kind contributions to the food banks. Wauwatosa isn't the upscale suburb it once was.