The Canadian Train Trip: Toronto to Vancouver

I realize that my tone while writing this is aimed at children even though my niece and nephew are now adults.

Toronto

Continuing his love for train travel, Brownie-Orange booked a trip aboard The Canadian.  Since he hasn't taken a trip in awhile, he opted to do it in Prestige Class, which is the best experience offered.  This will be a couple days in Toronto, four nights on the train, and then a couple nights in Vancouver.

Aunt Jeannette likes to get things moving on travel days so we all had to get up at 4am to make our first flight.

After arriving in Toronto and getting some lunch we had dessert in the gold lounge at the Fairmont Royal York hotel, right across the street from the train station.

Interestingly, the Toronto Union Station looks a lot like Chicago's Union Station from the outside.

Our trip included tickets to go up in Toronto's CN Tower.  From here we took a photo of Roger's Stadium down below to get a sense of how high up it was.  This was an extremely similar layout to the Hancock Building in Chicago.

The next day, we skipped a scheduled driving tour of the city to go straight to the Toronto Rail Museum.  Here we saw several old engines and cars, drove a train simulator, got an explanation of a steam engine from one of its former engineers, and finally took a ride on a little train.  That night we just went to bed early and got ready to board the train in the morning.

TODO:  Add Jeannette by train.

Train Day 1

The station was right across the street from the hotel so it was super easy.  Uncle Mike wanted to get photos of the train itself, but we had to wait in our room until they could give us some brief instructions, we'll get photos along the way.

The room is similar in size to an Amtrak Bedroom, slightly larger, but with a much smarter layout.

Here Brownie checks out some of the local commuter engines before we head out.

The train had just left the station when we get our general instructions and are invited to the Park Car for hors d'oeuvres and a drink to celebrate departure.

Graffiti of Dop just outside Toronto.

I don't recall an emergency saw on the Amtrak trains.

Beautiful views out of our huge window in the room.

Views from the top of the Park car looking forward.

A couple old engines at a 'museum' along the way.

We had some really nice room attendants the first couple days and they would setup Brownie on the bed while we ate dinner.

Train Day 2

Most of the second day was spent wandering through tons of lakes, birch, and evergreens.  This is an area regrowing after a forest fire.

This is a photo out of the back of the Park Car.

They announced when our sister train (Train 2) was passing by the other way.  We are Train 1.  

There are a lot fewer stops on Canada Rail than with Amtrak, but they tend to be a little bit longer as the train is serviced which includes getting fuel.  However, since many of the places are remote they have to truck it in.

This is our room from the outside.

One of our friendly attendants got a photo of me from the back of the Park Car.  See if you can zoom in and see Jeannette.

Back at the Toronto Rail Museum we picked up a pin and decided to pierce Brownie's ear for the remainder of this trip.

This was just before crossing the bridge into Winnipeg.

So cute!

Train Day 3

After a night of traveling we are well into the plains of Canada.  This looks a lot like central Illinois so the views aren't quite that exciting.

It wasn't all quite this flat, but not far off.  So far we've seen a few bison farms, a coyote, and either a deer or young elk.

These two photos are special.  Generally speaking, they never let you get in front of the train.  However, on the first day I was talking to one of our awesome attendants who introduced me to someone who is in management and let him know we were in Prestige Class.  He said if I find him in Saskatoon, where he was getting off, he would take me to the front to get a photo.  Two days later, we are being served lunch as we arrive at the Saskatoon station so I hurry up and eat before going outside.  The first trip up and back I didn't see him, but on the second trip I saw him walk into the station and went to get him.  He kept his promise and I was escorted to the front of the train.  We waited for the fuel truck to finish before I was able to get a picture of our lead engine as well as a side picture of the second engine.  This was a goal of mine since we boarded so I feel pretty lucky to have gotten it.