We started April 9 from the Charlotte, NC airport......United to Chicago and then to Seattle. It was an airplane. We got there.

The trip picked up from this point. We caught the airport express bus (fare $8.50 each) downtown and checked into the Days Inn on 7th Avenue. Decent hotel. Economical. We took a walk and went for a ride on the waterfront streetcar. Very nice.

Up early April 10 we caught the city bus (route 39) from our hotel down to King Street Station and boarded the Talgo for Vancouver. Great train. It was my first time aboard the Talgo (although I had photographed one in Portland in 2002) and I was very impressed. It's quiet. It's smooth. Scenery was supurb. The big windows were a real treat compared to those in the amfleet coaches we must endure in the southeast. We had breakfast in the 'diner' (which is considerably smaller than a traditional diner given the shorter length of each Talgo car) and found the 'Cream Cheese filled French Toast' to be every bit as decadent as it sounds. I wish that we had these trains elsewhere in the US.

Arrival in Vancouver was maybe 10 minutes late but clearing customs was a breeze. It seemed to me that the train crew opened the doors from the business class coaches earlier so that those of us in first class got to the customs agents first.

Ninety minutes later we boarded a Pacific Coach Lines bus for Victoria. The 95 minutes aboard the BC Ferry was a real treat....we spent most of it on the top level enjoying the unseasonably high temperatures. The part before and the part after the ferry was a bus ride. Buses, like airplanes, exist to get me to places where I can enjoy a train.

In Victoria we walked three blocks the Best Western Inner Harbour and checked in for a three night stay. Nice hotel. Great location. About the same price as the Days Inn Seattle once you factor in the favorable exchange rate. Also found most everyone in Victoria to be extremely customer oriented.

We did the tourist thing and saw the sights that evening, all day Easter Sunday, and Monday morning. Following an early lunch Monday my wife and I parted company.....she to shop and me to take a solo spin on the E&N Railiner.....or the 'Malahat' in VIA's timetable.

Easter Monday is a holiday in Canada and, as such, the railiner was departing Victoria at noon, it's normal Sunday departure time. Due to the trestle fire north of Nanaimo the railiner was operating only that far with a bus substitution beyond. The VIA agent in Victoria did say that repairs are underway and that they expect to have the train back in service all the way on or about (aboot) April 26.

The RDC departed Victoria 10 minutes late after being delayed by a sailboat passing the open drawbridge. Today's 'train' was a single RDC about half full. As we clattered away from Victoria I realized with a grin that in 2004 one can more easily find a narrow guage steam train to ride than one can an RDC in regularly scheduled service. That this run even exists at all in 2004 is remarkable.

The E&N track looked like it could use some weedkilling and ballast. In many places the grass had crept up and over the rails. Had it not been for the clank of steel wheel on steel rail we could have been a big bus rolling along a grassy lane in many places. I saw absolutely no sign of any other railroad rolling stock the first 25 or 30 miles of the trip. There were a couple of boxcars on a siding near Duncan. I saw NO freight locomotives of any kind during the rail ride. (Except for a steam locomotive in surprising decent shape at the end of a siding near a sawmill.....clearly out of service but not stripped of her parts).

The RDC itself was clean and well-kept but I did see a liberal amount of aluminum tape insulating what would be the engineer's window on the return trip. We arrived in Nanaimo where the old station still stands but is no longer staffed and has no seats inside the waiting room. A catering truck met the train and passengers transferring to the waiting bus had time to buy a sandwich before being driven to their destination. I am under the impression (talking to a couple later in our trip who had ridden the railiner the day before the trestle fire) that the catering truck meets all trains in Nanaimo.

I spent about ninety minutes in Nanaimo. Rather than wait more than four hours for the RDC to return, I walked six blocks and caught a Gray Line (Greyhound subsidiary) operated Island Coach bus back to Victoria. From the bus I finally spotted a pair of elderly diesels (GP9's possibly....they were two blocks away and the weather was rainy) in the yard near the Nanaimo ferry slip. By taking the bus back I was able to have supper with my wife and then listen for the RDC's 9:40pm return from the comfort of our room.

Tuesday morning we checked out of our hotel and caught the PCL bus (via BC ferry of course) for a return trip to Vancouver. Upon arrival at the station (very nice building in very good shape......helpful to have the bus and train using the same building.) we checked in with the VIA Rail folks. Our next two nights en route to Winnipeg would be spent in bedroom A of the Blair Manor on VIA Rail #2.

The 'Canadian' lived up to my expectations...and that is remarkable. I had never been on this train before and by the time we arrived back in Vancouver I was expecting something extradordinary.

Our train had two FP40's, a silver painted 'entertainment car' deadheading back to Toronto, 2 Manor sleepers deadheading to Jasper for a tour group coming west on #1 two days later, baggage car, two coaches, skyline lounge, 4 Manor Sleepers, second skyline lounge, diner, 3 Manor Sleepers, and Tweedsmuir Park bringing up the markers.

That's 17 cars to Jasper, 15 beyond. I noted numbers and car names but won't make the effort to enter that here. Our sleeper, Blair Manor, was immediately in front of the Park Car and I spent most of my waking (non-eating) hours in the rear dome.

Let's revisit the 'entertainment car'. It had been to Vancouver on as part of a special movement. Peering in from the platform in Jasper it appeared to be a posh club car. It DID NOT match the classic Budd built 'Canadian' consist. It more closely resembled the smooth sided former Kansas City Southern coaches from the mid-1960's which we North Carolinians still see on the NCDOT equipped 'Piedmont'. The scheme on this car was a matching silver but with the blue and gold VIA stripes along the bottom of the car (again harkening to KCS) and with a wide black band at a 45% angle in the center of the car. The black band may have had something like a maple leaf or some sort of 'travel Canada' logo on it. It bled into a blue band on the rear half of the car which aligned nicely with the blue band on the traditional domeliner.

We had 5 meals in the diner.....two dinners, two breakfasts, and one lunch. We also had a different menu for EVERY meal. The passenger would need to make several trips aboard this train before ordering the same item twice. Note to soft drink addicts...VIA treats soft drink orders the same as an alcoholic beverage order. Have a coke with dinner and you'll pay $1.50 for it. You'll more than make up for it with the complimentary muffins, juices, and snacks in the Park Car though.

Trip Highlights.......watching the VIA crew in Jasper marshall the consist for that day's 'Skeena' using their single F40 as a switcher. Twenty-minutes prior to departure and they were turning the Park Car on the wye!

The weather was another but not for the reason you may expect....we didn't see the Canadian Rockies. We woke up Wednesday morning to gray mist. Shortly after departing Jasper the mist turned to freezing rain. Soon thereafter the rain turned to snow. Because a couple of large groups left the train at Jasper and Hinton we entered a mini-blizzard with the train about half-full. I spent much of the afternoon ALONE in the middle dome (second skyline lounge car) as the train raced toward Edmonton at 70 plus mph through a blinding snowstorm. While it wasn't exactly the grand scenery we had expected, it was a genuinely unique experience.....one that I will not forget. Trudging through snow several inches deep (and getting deeper) to check out the relatively new Edmonton VIA station is another unique memory.

Timekeeping......we were on-time or early at every stop the entire trip.

So......final observations. VIA does a wonderful job addressing demand with extra equipment. There was enough serviceable rolling stock in Vancouver, it appeared, to have dispatched three complete 'Canadians' that night. The onboard staff pampered us in a way I've never been pampered aboard an Amtrak train. Are they that good or, like the Southern Crescent of the 1970's, do they just seem wonderful because everything else is so mediocre?

The only unpleasant surprise was the condition of VIA's rural stations. (note that in NC our DOT has been almost aggressive in restoring railroad stations the last four or five years.) Only the largest cities (plus tourist destination Jasper) have staffed stations. Many of the others are boarded up. Some stops don't have a station still standing at all. There seems to have been no effort to restore these rural stations. That's a pity.....not just from someone who likes a nice train station, but from the standpoint of someone who is actually waiting to board the Canadian some winter night.

Off at Winnipeg. The Forks could be nice....in the summer. I think summer in Winnipeg is about two weeks long. During our two nights there it rained. It snowed. Grit, ltter, cigarette butts, and panhandlers were EVERYWHERE. This place managed to make Chicago look clean. Actually, saying that is an insult to Chicago.

Someday, in warm sunny weather, I hope to make the trip to Churchill. When that happens I'll give Winnipeg another chance. For now though, we were happy to get to the airport for our flight home.

Coachclass....I think you're going to love this train. It isn't always on-time BUT we were reluctant to leave it when we arrived 15 minutes early! It was kind of sad seeing number 2 continue east without us. Best advice is to move about and experience it from several different places. Don't just stay in the Park Car. Don't just stay in your space. Don't just stay in the skyline lounge. Move about and enjoy.

Empire Builder....Factors which were not helpful for the impression Winnipeg made were the harsh return to winter after three lovely warm days in Victoria (it was warmer there than at home in NC when we left) and the fact that we were staying downtown relying on public transit and our own two feet for getting around. My wife pointed out that, like in many US cities, having rented a car in Winnipeg would have opened up some nicer outlying areas and also given us some distance from the panhandlers. Like I say, I'm willing to give Winnipeg another chance in happier circumstances.

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David Pressley

quote:

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Originally posted by Ray S:
Tell us more about the car's, the dining car and the accomodations.

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Hi Ray,

OK! With the exception of the lightweight smooth-sided car deadheading up front the entire train was made up of the Budd stainless steel cars which had originally been delivered to the Canadian Pacific to re-equip the original Canadian in the mid 1950's and totally refurbished in the early 1990's. After years of seeing Amtrak's Silver Star and Silver Meteor I had almost forgotten how classy a matched consist could be.

The coaches were your typical day coach. Via's interior schemes are kind of a forest green, cream, and mottled gray.....more attractive than what it sounds like rereading what I just wrote.

The Skyline Cafe cars are essentially dome lounges. One side has tables (for snacking or playing games) and the other side has more of a club feel......grey couches and smaller cocktail tables. A small grill and souvie sales (VIA t-shirts, etc.) is located under the dome. The dome has 24 seats and the one I went into had two pairs of seats facing each other with a game table between them at the top of the stairs. I spent a couple of hours Wednesday afternoon alone in this dome facing backwards while the train raced at 80mph or so through an Alberta blizzard.......visibility was better facing backwards due to the weather!

Smaller consists may have only one of the Skyline cars but the train we were on had two. The club section of the forward Skyline car is the smoking area and is often too smoky for a non-smoker to enjoy.

The dining car introduces shades of salmon to the color scheme. Looks like it seated 48 at a time. The two tables on either side at either end of the dining section were booth style as on Amtrak diners. However, the tables tapered slightly toward the aisle to make getting in and out of the booth a little easier for those of us who are a bit larger than our contemporaries. The four middle tables on either side each had four chairs......something that I liked far better than the boothes. The booth seats were done in the same grey faux leather as the club section of the lounge. The chairs were done in a salmon (with black frame) that matched the walls. Interestingly, for the evening meal the chairs were covered with a blue fabric to give the car a classier, more formal look. Tableclothes at breakfast and lunch were salmon and there were fresh flowers on each table. For dinner the tableclothes were also blue and each table had a small candle. CLASSY.

The Manor series sleepers (and there were 7 altogether on our train) are unique. We entered from the 'front' although I think our sleeper was facing backwards on our trip.

We entered through a narrow corridor with a small restroom on either side. Beyond that were two sections on the left and one section on the right. This is the classic overnight train movie. The 'section' is two facing seats. At night the seats fold in to become the lower berth and the upper berth lowers from the wall above the window. Thick curtains separate the berths from the aisle. Imagine an Amtrak standard room without a wall!

Originally these cars had four sections but one of the sections in each car has been removed to make space for a shower.

Following the sections are 6 bedrooms. They are along one side of the car with the corridor going down the other side. We encountered ours starting with F and working backwards to A. The double bedrooms have two cushioned chairs by day. This is a plus because in cases where the car is operating 'backwards' as ours was, we could pick our chairs up and turn them to ride facing forward.....in the equivalent Amtrak space you're riding facing whichever way the built-in couch is oriented. At night the chairs fold up and are tucked under the lower berth. The bedrooms have a sink and also an enclosed bathroom. Experienced VIA riders advise that bedroom F is 18 inches wider than A, B, C, D, or G.

Beyond these double bedrooms the corridor moves back to center and there are four roomettes, two on either side of the aisle. These are the single bedrooms with one berth by night. One of these rooms is occupied by the car attendant but the other three are revenue space. I'm guessing that these rooms have the inroom toilet which gets covered by the berth at night as the US 10&6 sleepers did but I didn't take the time to check into it more closely......every minute I spent peering into a bedroom was one less minute I had to spend in the dome!

The Park Cars have the famed round-end observation lounge in the rear and the 24 dome seats upstairs. The front half of the car is either five or six double bedrooms. VIA sells a 'Romance on the Rails' package featuring a Triple Bedroom.....the couple gets all sorts of little perks but the main feature is a queen-sized bed in the room. I think this was bedroom A in the Park Car and they probably (I'm assuming) took what was originally bedroom B for the space.

Under the dome is a bar and lounge area. These lounges originally featured murals of Canada's National Parks (hence the series name). Some may still have the park mural but Tweedsmuir Park did not.

Hope this expanded coverage is what you had in mind.

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David Pressley

[This message has been edited by notelvis (edited 04-21-2004).]

[This message has been edited by notelvis (edited 04-21-2004).]

Yeah......this sounds right. I didn't get a chance to look into that room. The couple that had it didn't come out and socialize with the 'general population' much either. I'm guessing it was a honeymoon trip for them.

If I'm able to get back to British Columbia anytime soon I'll aim for the Skeena and Rocky Mountaineer......not sure if I'd rather originate in Vancouver or Calgary for that though.

Reggie