As far as holiday traditions in the southeast go, the famous train that sits at the end of Main Street in Bienfait cannot be overlooked.

Every year the train is glowing with bright Christmas lights, as public works employees and volunteers decorate it for the Christmas season.

"It's one of the things that we ensure we try to get it decorated every year," said Bienfait Mayor Ken Bonokoski.

The train, a Manitoba & Saskatchewan Coal Company Locomotive, has been sitting in town since 1968, and there's a story behind it.

"The train was built in 1907 for CP Rail. In 1956, the mine bought it off CP, and they ran it until 1968," Bonokoski said. "And then there was a committee between the mine and CP and a member of town here that got it donated to the Town of Bienfait."

"And so when it made its last trip from the mine, it was parked at the end of Main Street where it sits today."

The provincial government declared it a heritage site in 2002, which is a tremendous sense of pride for the community, Bonokoski said.

"I would say mostly in the summer time there's a lot of pictures taken, people returning to Bienfait, other people travelling through, you see different times and on lots of occasions where they're taking pictures with people in front of the train and just pictures of the train," he said.