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. 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.
Looks at how big these wheels are!
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 Sleeper room, slightly larger and 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. The upper part of the car is called, "The Dome," because of the curved windows that give the best views.
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. They arranged 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. 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, the Canadian Rail staff 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's 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.
Train Day 4
Last Day!
Just after sunrise I tried to get a picture of the whole train from the Park Car.
On the fourth day we spent a lot of time crossing through the Rocky Mountains. Unfortunately it was overcast with some low hanging clouds so we couldn't see many of the peaks.
Through the rain drops on the window you can see Pyramid Creek Falls. The train slows down for the brief moment you can get a glimpse.
We had a short, hour long stop in Jasper. If the train had be running on time we would have gotten 2-3 hours, but it was still a nice, quick visit.
Dop was able to get a few more shots of other train engines.
Interestingly, the Jasper train station had this neat little table showing the layout of our train, I wish I could've gotten a more straight-on photo.
A lot of people got off in Jasper to continue different types of vacations. As a result, the back of the Park Car was basically deserted for several hours.
Got this photo of an old CN Command Center caboose while we were stopped in Kamloops.
Vancouver
The train arrived in Vancouver, BC the next morning. We dropped our bags at the hotel and wandered around for a bit to kill time.
Dop was drawn, as if by some mysterious force, to visit the Gastown Steam Clock. Such a cool idea! Unfortunately it wasn't completely operational and was under repair.
We took the Seabus ferry to North Vancouver and back. This is a photo of Vancouver as we returned.
One last photo of train engines! These were operating in the rail yard by the ferry.
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