# Polar Bears!



## jiml (Dec 6, 2020)

Same reviewer that did the recent Skeena video goes to Churchill, MB, on VIA Rail:



Part 2 with the bears (no trains):


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## IndyLions (Dec 7, 2020)

Enjoyed Part 1 very much. Caused me to add that train to my bucket list. Hopefully the sleeper and diner return immediately post-Covid.


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## MARC Rider (Dec 7, 2020)

Wow. Gotta hand it to them, sitting in a coach for 48 hours with no food service or lounge car. (Though the coach seats look pretty comfortable.) If it only runs once a week, does that mean they have to hang around Churchill for a week for the next train back? I mean, what else is there to do besides looking at the Polar bears and the Northern Lights?

However, that is one train I'd like to take once the diner and the sleeper are restored.


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## caravanman (Dec 7, 2020)

The ride to Churchill was one I had always hoped to take, a few years back. I seem to have heard since that the train is no longer run by Via Rail?


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## jiml (Dec 7, 2020)

MARC Rider said:


> Wow. Gotta hand it to them, sitting in a coach for 48 hours with no food service or lounge car. (Though the coach seats look pretty comfortable.) If it only runs once a week, does that mean they have to hang around Churchill for a week for the next train back? I mean, what else is there to do besides looking at the Polar bears and the Northern Lights?



I believe there's only 2 days/1 night in Churchill before the return, e.g. arrive Tuesday morning at 9:00 am, depart Thursday evening at 7:00 pm. The trainset used to do a round-trip south to The Pas, MB, in the interval and there was talk about restoring a second frequency - haven't checked the schedule recently.



caravanman said:


> The ride to Churchill was one I had always hoped to take, a few years back. I seem to have heard since that the train is no longer run by Via Rail?



The confusion probably results from some of the physical trackage no longer belonging to CN. VIA still runs the train itself, but parts of the route are native-owned (following a takeover of the shortline that was previously involved).


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## jiml (Dec 7, 2020)

Looks like twice weekly now:


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## Rasputin (Dec 10, 2020)

This is a link to the beer shown in the second video (in case someone wants to give us a review):

Great White North: Belgian-Style Wheat Ale 473 mL – Farmery Estate Brewing Company Inc.


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## tomfuller (Dec 10, 2020)

My very first train trip was in October 2001 on a North America 30 day Rail Pass. I started from Washington Union station on a Northeast Regional to NYP then on the Maple Leaf to Toronto. I took the Canadian to Winnipeg. Spent a night in Winnipeg before going to Churchill. The train spends 12 to 13 hours in Churchill before the return trip to Winnipeg. On the way north there is a 4-5 hour layover in Thompson. There is always enough time to get a taxi into Thompson for some shopping and to have a good meal. 
Several years later I took my wife to Churchill on the train. That time we hired a taxi to go out and see a polar bear in the wild. On the way back we stopped next to the northbound train while they passed stuff from one train to the other.
On the NA rail pass, I ended the trip on the 30th day with a ride backward from Philadelphia to Harrisburg where my wife picked me up.


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## WWW (Dec 11, 2020)

A traveling friend of mine has taken the Winnipeg Churchill trip and commented that the only creature comfort car is the PARK car at
the end of the train consist. Some trips the PARK car is not available and the whole she=bang becomes a ho-hum less desirable trip.

The route of the train is not due north but more northwest from Manitoba to the border with Saskatchewan (The Pas) thence northeast
back across Manitoba to Churchill - dodging weaving hop scotching back and forth marshes lakes ponds tundra and boggy terrain.

A Map link to go with the above schedule:

Google Maps

Map is in satellite mode and can be zoomed in and out - zoom in far enough to follow the rail road tracks

One of my bucket list train trips - - -


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## caravanman (Dec 11, 2020)

AU member James Brown wrote an interesting account of his North American Railpass adventure, which at the time in 2006 included Via Rail too.
His blog reads in reverse order, so scroll down to read the first item, then up to the next, etc...
These parts comment in detail on the Winnipeg to Churchill portion: DO REMEMBER TO SCROLL DOWN FIRST!

...ontherails

...ontherails

Folk who wish to read about James's whole trip can start here: ...ontherails


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## joelkfla (Dec 11, 2020)

WWW said:


> A traveling friend of mine has taken the Winnipeg Churchill trip and commented that the only creature comfort car is the PARK car at
> the end of the train consist. Some trips the PARK car is not available and the whole she=bang becomes a ho-hum less desirable trip.
> 
> The route of the train is not due north but more northwest from Manitoba to the border with Saskatchewan (The Pas) thence northeast
> ...


This is the map with route marked:








Winnipeg to Churchill







goo.gl


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## WWW (Dec 11, 2020)

joelkfla said:


> This is the map with route marked:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks for marking the MAP - gives a true perspective of the route the train travels.
And wets my train whistle to take this trip before global warming melts the tracks.

XXXXX



caravanman said:


> AU member James Brown wrote an interesting account of his North American Railpass adventure, which at the time in 2006 included Via Rail too.
> His blog reads in reverse order, so scroll down to read the first item, then up to the next, etc...
> These parts comment in detail on the Winnipeg to Churchill portion: DO REMEMBER TO SCROLL DOWN FIRST!
> ...ontherails
> ...



Thanks for adding the (...ontherails) very interesting read - - -
Now if Canada will only let me cross the border to take this train - well maybe in warmer weather (at this moment temp is -10F).


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## Willbridge (Dec 12, 2020)

One reason it angles west is the geology of the region but the other reason is that it was intended to haul grain from the Prairie provinces to Europe via the Port of Churchill. My father-in-law's dad worked on the grain elevator as a carpenter in the Dirty Thirties. During the planning this was a big market relatively speaking because European grain production was drastically cut by WWI and the Russian Revolution and the follow-on famine in the bread-basket Ukraine. It also was an alternative to dealing with powerful unions in the other Canadian grain ports (the same issue that helps Prince Rupert and the Spokane International line).

If one has an older CN timetable there is a line from Regina through Melville to Yorkton to Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan that is drawn smoothly onto Churchill. Into the 1960's there was a Prince Albert train connecting with the Winnipeg<>Churchill train and a similar connection from Saskatoon. I don't know if CN was ever very interested in what was a political project but eventually it became a bigger burden when grain cars grew heavier and heavier. They had to retain a subfleet of boxcars carrying grain the old-fashioned way, gathered from equally flimsy branch lines. Eventually they sold the line to American short line operators who were not able to do better. As indigenous peoples have become more organized they were able to acquire the line and obtained government funding for renovations. Trudeau the Son even came to dedicate it. It continues the tradition of benefiting everyone else but being a tough railway to maintain and operate on a commercial basis.

Global warming might benefit the Port of Churchill. However, if one has always wanted to ride up there it would be best to do it while the line is politically favoured. Another government might let it slide again.


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## Siegmund (Dec 12, 2020)

Willbridge said:


> If one has an older CN timetable there is a line from Regina through Melville to Yorkton to Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan that is drawn smoothly onto Churchill. Into the 1960's there was a Prince Albert train connecting with the Winnipeg<>Churchill train and a similar connection from Saskatoon.



Great history lesson about where the grain going to Churchill came from. Winnipeg was not the source of freight.

The train from Prince Albert to Hudson Bay survived to 1976, and the RDC from Saskatoon to The Pas all the way to 1978, amazingly. Six days a week service from Winnipeg to Churchill, too, via Dauphin and via Hudson Bay on alternate days. I am amazed when I look at Canadian timetables of the 70s, how much more service they had than the USA did. And wishing I had been just a few years older.

I have only gotten to see that part of the countryside once. A nonstop flight on a beautiful sunny day (in first class!) on Northwest Airlines from Fairbanks to Minneapolis flew over trackless wilderness for an eternity and rejoined civilization, and the usual network of VOR radio beacon navigation, above The Pas.
The thing that struck me most, looking down, was that even if the land was green (forested) or grey (bare rock) rather than a lake, it was all _so_ swampy that you could see the disc of the sun reflected at all times. Just a little bit dimmer from the muskeg than from the lakes.


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## jiml (Dec 12, 2020)

Willbridge said:


> Trudeau the Son


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## Bob Dylan (Dec 12, 2020)

jiml said:


>


So when Trudeau's Son becomes PM, it can be Father,Son and Holy Ghost.


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## jiml (Dec 12, 2020)

Bob Dylan said:


> So when Trudeau's Son becomes PM, it can be Father,Son and Holy Ghost.


In keeping with the religious theme, God help us. We'll be bankrupt long before that happens.


Recovery from coronavirus pandemic must include ‘ambitious’ climate change plan: Trudeau


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## Urban Sky (Dec 12, 2020)

Siegmund said:


> The train from Prince Albert to Hudson Bay survived to 1976, and the RDC from Saskatoon to The Pas all the way to 1978, amazingly. Six days a week service from Winnipeg to Churchill, too, via Dauphin and via Hudson Bay on alternate days.


Small nitpicks here: Prince Albert to Hudson Bay last appeared in the October 1976 timetable, which suggests that it continued operating until the next timetable change in April 1977:


Source: official VIA timetable (effective 1976-10-31)

As for Saskatoon to The Pas, that service last appeared in the February 1980 timetable, which probably indicates that it operated until April 1980:


Source: official VIA timetable (effective 1980-02-03)

Finally, Winnipeg-Churchill via Swan River (instead of Canora) last appeared in the June 1981 timetable, which means that it fell victim of the Pepin cuts in November 1981:


Source: official VIA timetable (effective 1981-06-01)


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## Siegmund (Dec 12, 2020)

That'll teach me not to re-check each timetable! I must have let it overlap with northern Ontario and Quebec services that went away in 78 and 79.


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