Everett, WA - New York City VIA Canada.

[zephyr17]

Day 1 (11/3/2024)

Got to Everett Station at about 8:30 am for the Cascades 516 at 9:21. I wanted to check my big bag and needed to fill out the long term (free) parking form needed for any stay over 72 hours.

Since the BC seat count on railsforless.us indicated a Talgo, I did a coupon upgrade. I was correct, the Mt. Bachelor Talgo set pulled in right on time, incidentally proving Seattle's wash rack remains out if service.


They've changed the document inspection on the Cascades a bit, now they have the agent do it prior to boarding at staffed stations. I did mine when I checked my bag. They fill out a slip that they checked documents. It turns out the conductor uses it as seat check once they scan your ticket.

Grabbed a backwards facing single seat on the Sound side and off we go.

After the ticket scan, went to the cafe to grab some breakfast, a breakfast bialy and a Bloody Mary. The breakfast bialy is surprisingly good, though chewy from being zapped in the microwave.

Got my scanner out, with my brand new Smiley railroad tuned Slim Duck antenna and sat back to enjoy the ride.


Got into Vancouver right on the advertised, precisely at 12:30 pm. As usual, BC was first off, though I had to grab my bag and saddle up, so the I was the BC tail end Charlie lining up for CBSA inspection. That was fast and easy, the ex-Stasi agents that CBSA had staffing Pacific Central Station pre-COVID are apparently gone for good.

Crossed the park in front of the station, loaded $5 onto my TransLink "concession" (senior) card and took the Skytrain to Waterfront station. At which time I outsmarted myself.

It is a slightly shorter walk from the Howe Street side entrance to my hotel than from the front entrance. But while the only escalator (up) from the platform to mezzanine worked fine, the "up" escalator between the mezzanine from the steet (not visible from the platform) was out of service. So I could either drag stuff down stairs and tap back in to get to the other side or drag my stuff up the equivalent of two flights of stairs.

Now I am not a light traveler. I need 8 days of clothes to make it to a laundry stop on these trips. I have to carry enough distilled water for my CPAP for the whole time. Plus my 2024 Canadian Trackside Guide, which is serious tome, scanner gear, yadda, yadda. Anyway, my bag weighed in at 46.8 lbs and my "toy bag" backpack at 27 lbs. So my 69 year old butt was dragging nearly 80 lbs up two flights of stairs.

The moment I walked into the hotel, someone came over to me to offer me a bottle of water, which gives you an idea of my condition after playing Stair Sherpa.

Almost always I forget something on a trip, and this time it was gloves. No gloves works for Vancouver, but not in Winterpeg in November. Went to The Bay and bought another pair.

Anyway, about to lose cell service leaving Jasper, so posting now.

Preview of things to come:

 

[Maglev]

Enjoy your trip, and thanks for "taking us along!"

I think the stretch of coastal track between Mount Vernon and Bellingham is the second-most beautiful in the Amtrak system (after the Coast Starlight). Your picture shows (from right to left) Lummi (which is connected to Bellingham by small ferry) and in the distance (edit: Cypress, not Decatur) (which is uninhabited most of the year) islands.

Wow, it's nice to see a shiny train with clean windows!

 

[zephyr17]

Day 2
I have a small, collapsible duffle that I carry onboard the Canadian, since there is very little room in their roomettes and no common storage rack. So I pulled it out and spent a good part of the morning was reorganizing and repacking, making sure I'll have onboard what I need onboard.

And, after years of overstuffing the poor thing on these trips, one of the zippers gave up the ghost. So only one side closed. Oh well, too late now.

Left the hotel about 12:40 and headed towards Waterfront station to pick up the Skytrain. Went in through the main entrance this time, with a full compliment of escalators and an elevator. Got off at the Main Street/Science World station, trudged across the park and went into Pacific Central about 1:15. There was already a pretty good line forming for check in, though they hadn't opened check in yet. I found a place to sit briefly to open up my big bag, pulled the loaded and only partly closed duffel out out. Then zipped the big one, took it up to baggage check and checked it to Toronto.

I got in the check in line, they still hadn't opened up. The line behind me continued to build. I got the distinct impression there were quite a few more than in previous years, which was officially borne out, more on that a bit later

Got up to the check in about 1:50. Quickly got my ticket scanned and marked off on the Service Manager's chart and proceeded over to the dining car manager's desk, where I took the second (out of three) seating for that night's dinner.

Proceed into the lounge and out to the patio, where I found a seat near the platform gate:

They started boarding around 2:20. I headed up to the 211 car, only one car between me and the Sleeper Plus Skyline, four cars to the Park.

The sleeper attendant asked me to stay in the room until she came by to brief me about safety. Good boy that I am, I did.
"Have you ridden this train before?"
"Yes, like 12 times."
"So you know how to break the window for an emergency exit?"
"Yeah, sure do."
"Great, enjoy the trip."

Then I headed back to the Skyline. Just a few people were in it.


Grabbed the closest thing there is to a railfan seat in a Skyline.

By departure time the dome had filled up. It was a "you snooze, you lose" situation.

We left right on time at 3:00 pm, went about 100 feet to beside VIA Maintenance Center and stopped. A severely late Amtrak 516 was a few miles away down the New Westminister Sub and we held for them to get in. It got delayed due to fallen trees, there was a windstorm overnight and into the morning. They have to do a couple of hand throws to get into Pacific Central's "train jail". They apparently lined them back because once they passed we didn't have to stop to line them back getting out.

Good thing I stopped doing a same day Cascades Canadian connection because today I would have missed it.

The Skyline attendant did the "Welcome Aboard!" reception with champagne (well some kind of Canadian sparkling wine) and hors d' ouerves (I liked the smoked salmon an cream cheese ones).

We wound down the New Westminister Sub and got cleared onto the Fraser Bridge without delay.

 

[zephyr17]

Day 2 (continued)
Had to cut it short because they called my 2nd dinner seating (into Winnipeg) and it took several tries to upload photos with cell service going in and out. We were nearly 90 minutes early into Winnipeg, btw. More on that later.

Anyway...
No more shots of Day 2 worth posting. The Skyline dome cleared out somewhat as we were creeping through CN's Thornton Yard bypass.

Though the "winter consist", it had five revenue Manors plus one for the crew. For those interested, back to front:
210 Bell Manor
211 Monck Manor
212 Sherwood Manor
213 Franklin Manor
214 Wolfe Manor
Crew Rogers Manor.

Five Manors is a lot for the winter consist. The mob in Vancouver station was borne out by the passenger count, which the Service Manager relays to the engineer at the start of each engineer's run. We had 104 sleeper passengers (Sleeper Plus and Prestige)onboard out of Vancouver. That's the biggest sleeper pax count I've seen on these trips. The largest count I can recall was in the 60/70 range, so this year is about 1/3rd more.

Speaking of listening in, I did get a Smiley Antenna Slim Duck railroad tuned antenna, that @Eric in East County posted about to replace my factory "rubber ducky". While not a huge change, it does seem to be an improvement. I've been riding the the Cascades and the Canadian for years so am familiar with the reception. In some places where the dispatcher/RTC came in as a bunch of static bursts, I get at least semi comprehensible English speech. Where I got nothing at all, I now get static bursts. Thanks, Eric. On the Canadian I monitor the VIA onboard crew/and SM to head end communication channel, the CN system wide road channel ("train stand by") and the local CN RTC (dispatcher) call in.

Got into an interesting conversation with a retired CN/VIA engineer who noticed my railfan gear, scanner and 2024 Canadian Trackside Guide. He liked all the "employee timetable" information compiled into the thing.

I had the 2nd dinner seating, 6:30. Has the lamb chops, which were excellent. They served a great mint sauce, not florescent green mint jelly, with it.

Ended the night in the Park Car watching the train snake around in the Fraser and Thompson Canyons. Night viewing further improved by the patent pending Zephyr17 Dome Car Light Baffles (squares of cut down cardboard), over the first couple floor lights. Eliminates a whole lot of bounce light off the front dome windows.

Headed to bed after crossing back onto CN from the paired track CP/CN running through the canyons at Basque. Was still awake at Kamloops, though, and had my normal bad first night's sleep on any train trip.

Probably no more posts for awhile. There is very little cell service between the outskirts of Winnipeg and the outskirts of Toronto. We are buttoned up and about to leave Winnipeg.

Bonus picture, Winnipeg train shed as seen from Laurentide Park:

 

[Eric in East County]

Speaking of listening in, I did get a Smiley Antenna Slim Duck railroad tuned antenna, that @Eric in East County posted about to replace my factory "rubber ducky".

TinCan782 first mentioned this antenna in one of his posts which is how I found out about it.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Day 2 (continued)
Had to cut it short because they called my 2nd dinner seating (into Winnipeg) and it took several tries to upload photos with cell service going in and out. We were nearly 90 minutes early into Winnipeg, btw. More on that later.

Anyway...
No more shots of Day 2 worth posting. The Skyline dome cleared out somewhat as we were creeping through CN's Thornton Yard bypass.

Though the "winter consist", it had five revenue Manors plus one for the crew. For those interested, back to front:
210 Bell Manor
211 Monck Manor
212 Sherwood Manor
213 Franklin Manor
214 Wolfe Manor
Crew Rogers Manor.

Five Manors is a lot for the winter consist. The mob in Vancouver station was borne out by the passenger count, which the Service Manager relays to the engineer at the start of each engineer's run. We had 104 sleeper passengers (Sleeper Plus and Prestige)onboard out of Vancouver. That's the biggest sleeper pax count I've seen on these trips. The largest count I can recall was in the 60/70 range, so this year is about 1/3rd more.

Speaking of listening in, I did get a Smiley Antenna Slim Duck railroad tuned antenna, that @Eric in East County posted about to replace my factory "rubber ducky". While not a huge change, it does seem to be an improvement. I've been riding the the Cascades and the Canadian for years so am familiar with the reception. In some places where the dispatcher/RTC came in as a bunch of static bursts, I get at least semi comprehensible English speech. Where I got nothing at all, I now get static bursts. Thanks, Eric. On the Canadian I monitor the VIA onboard crew/and SM to head end communication channel, the CN system wide road channel ("train stand by") and the local CN RTC (dispatcher) call in.

Got into an interesting conversation with a retired CN/VIA engineer who noticed my railfan gear, scanner and 2024 Canadian Trackside Guide. He liked all the "employee timetable" information compiled into the thing.

I had the 2nd dinner seating, 6:30. Has the lamb chops, which were excellent. They served a great mint sauce, not florescent green mint jelly, with it.

Ended the night in the Park Car watching the train snake around in the Fraser and Thompson Canyons. Night viewing further improved by the patent pending Zephyr17 Dome Car Light Baffles (squares of cut down cardboard), over the first couple floor lights. Eliminates a whole lot of bounce light off the front dome windows.

Headed to bed after crossing back onto CN from the paired track CP/CN running through the canyons at Basque. Was still awake at Kamloops, though, and had my normal bad first night's sleep on any train trip.

Probably no more posts for awhile. There is very little cell service between the outskirts of Winnipeg and the outskirts of Toronto. We are buttoned up and about to leave Winnipeg.

Bonus picture, Winnipeg train shed as seen from Laurentide Park:
View attachment 38226

You didn't mention Jasper in your report. Is the Canadian stopping there right now, or is the damage from the Fire causing the Station Stop to be skipped?

 

[zephyr17]

You didn't mention Jasper in your report. Is the Canadian stopping there right now, or is the damage from the Fire causing the Station Stop to be skipped?

Haven't gotten there yet in main narrative, that's Day 3 of the trip, but the Canadian is making the normal Jasper stop again.

 

[zephyr17]

Day 3
In New York now. Intended to catch things up on the Maple Leaf yesterday but I needed to conserve my phone battery and had the phone shut off for most of the trip.

Woke up around Valemont after a bad night's sleep.

I don't really even try for dome space over Yellowhead Pass any more. I've seen it and will let others compete for dome space. So I went and took a shower.

Dining car service on VIA 2 on the Jasper day is brunch from 9:30 to 2:00 now, first come, first served. Which makes sense given the scheduled Jasper stop is 11:00-12:00, it let's people schedule around what they want to do on the train's performance that day rather than being locked into a set seating.

Anyway, after my shower, I headed to the Park, but hung out in Bullet Lounge rather than the dome. I stayed in there until Jasper.

The west side of Jasper is devastated. It looks a bomb (or several) went off. It's flattened, just charred debris. The commercial strip across from the station is largely untouched, as is the station. Several businesses showed "Open" signs.

We arrived in Jasper 50 minutes early. They close the platform for servicing in Jasper and normally if you get off, you stay off until reboarding. However, they decided to leave the train open until 11:00, the scheduled arrival. I got off to walk a bit and grab a picture of the consist board in the station, but didn't want to spend 2 hours hanging around in Jasper.


The date is wrong but the consist is right.

When I went to get back on, I was surprised to see the cherry pickers used to wash the domes out despite the fact the platform was open.

I reboarded before they closed the platform and headed up to the Skyline, where I got an inside view of dome washing.


Going to post this now.

To be continued...

 

[zephyr17]

Redacted. Duplicate

 

[zephyr17]

Day 3 (continued)
Had planned to stay in the dome until we got out of the Rockies, but we got held at the end of two main track at the Snaring River Bridge and they were stopping seating at 1:30. With no signs of movement, or appearance of opposing train, I went down to the diner at around 1:15. Was planning to have a more lunch-like option, but they had a pesto, scallion and cheese omelet that sounded (and was) really good.

Went up to the Skyline after lunch. The Edson Sub was its black hole self, at one point we were held over an hour to meet three freight trains. I ultimately went down and just hung out in my roomette for awhile. I travel with a CPAP and various electronics, so my electrical set up is fairly elaborate:

I got the late, 8:30, sitting for dinner. We were just coming into Edmonton, so most of the meal was sitting in the Edmonton station.

Turns out there's a downside to the late sitting. VIA has decided to do Saskatchewan time change onboard (Summer Saskatchewan is with Alberta, Winter with Manitoba) at Edmonton. Even though the Saskatchewan border is like 150 miles and two stops away. So when I went to the Park Car for a nightcap after dinner, they'd already done last call, since it was "11", not the actual time of 10 pm.

 

[PaTrainFan]

View attachment 38267

Thank you for posting this photo. It helped me visualize where I was assigned for my trip in the spring, and allowed me enough time to call and change my car to 10 from 13, much closer the diner and Park car, which is where I want to be! I could not do without it because when I called VIA the agent, who tried to be helpful, could not tell me what the configurations were and had to put me on hold for a good five minutes. In the end, all is well.

 

[zephyr17]

Thank you for posting this photo. It helped me visualize where I was assigned for my trip in the spring, and allowed me enough time to call and change my car to 10 from 13, much closer the diner and Park car, which is where I want to be! I could not do without it because when I called VIA the agent, who tried to be helpful, could not tell me what the configurations were and had to put me on hold for a good five minutes. In the end, all is well.

It'll depend on when in the spring, because the car line numbering scheme changes between the summer and winter consists the last few years.

Winter consist the last few years the car line numbers ascended back to front, as seen here on my train. The 10 car is closest to the Park

Summer consist the car line numbers ascended front to back. The 10 car is furthest from the Park. In the summer consist that would be a long way, in this year's summer consist it would be 14 cars, sleepers 11 and 12, Skyline, Diner, crew sleeper, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, Skyline, diner, 2 Prestige Chateaus, finally the Park.

I have no idea why they reverse the car line numbering between summer and winter, but they have consistently the last several years.

This year the change was April 22nd, my guess for 2025 it will be April 21st.

Finally note that when they go to the summer consist, access to the Park Car is restricted for Sleeper Plus passengers.

 

[PaTrainFan]

It'll depend on when in the spring, because the car line numbering scheme changes between the summer and winter consists the last few years.

Winter consist the last few years the car line numbers ascended back to front, as seen here on my train. The 10 car is closest to the Park

Summer consist the car line numbers ascended front to back. The 10 car is furthest from the Park. In the summer consist that would be a long way, in this year's summer consist it would be 14 cars, sleepers 11 and 12, Skyline, Diner, crew sleeper, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, Skyline, diner, 2 Prestige Chateaus, finally the Park.

I have no idea why they reverse the car line numbering between summer and winter, but they have consistently the last several years.

This year the change was April 22nd, my guess for 2025 it will be April 21st.

Finally note that when they go to the summer consist, access to the Park Car is restricted for Sleeper Plus passengers.

Thanks. I intentionally timed my trip so that it supposedly falls before the change to summer consist.

And the agent said she was able to get a schematic while she had me on hold to confirm this. She actually thanked me for asking, because now she knows the answer for the next caller who asks the same question.

 

[railiner]

On my trip on Number 1 last April, I was much more concerned with snagging “Cabin For Two ‘F’” (formerly a Compartment), than where my car was positioned in the train. I initially purchased Room ‘B’ during the Black Friday sale, and would periodically call VIA in hopes of snagging a Room ‘F’. My persistence eventually paid off. I welcomed the longer trek to and from the Diner and Skyline cars each day