VIA RAIL CANADA
Senior VIA News Editor Tim Hayman
VIA News Co-Editor Terry Muirhead:
vianews@canadianrailwayobservations.com
It might seem early to start thinking about Christmas travels, but VIA has already added extra departures of The Ocean for the holidays. Like last year, there will be 3 extra trips in each direction. Since Christmas Day falls on a Friday, the normally scheduled Friday trains have also been moved, so there are 4 trains in each direction on non-normal days of operation. Also like last year, VIA will be using one set of Budd stainless-steel HEP1 equipment to supplement the two normal Renaissance consists. However, unlike last year, the scheduling is such that only 2 of the extra trips in each direction will be using the HEP1 equipment. The extra dates (in addition to the normal Sunday/Wednesday/Friday trips) are as follows:
VIA #14: Dec. 21 (Renaissance), 22 (HEP), 28** (REN), 29 (HEP)
VIA #15: Dec 22 (REN), 28** (HEP), 29 (REN), Jan 2. (HEP)
**These trips are essentially the rescheduled Christmas Day trains
So yet again, here"s a chance to ride some stainless-steel on the Ocean! You can easily identify the days this equipment is running by looking in the online booking system: if the drop-down menu of accommodations includes "Upper Berth", "Lower Berth", and "Cabin for 1", the equipment is HEP1. If only "Cabin for 2 (with shower)" appears, it is Renaissance.
For the period from August 26 to Sept. 8th, VIA reported increased passenger counts and revenues over the same period last year. These increases were system-wide, including a 13% increase in passenger revenues on both the Ocean and Corridor, an 8% increase on the Canadian, and an 11% increase system-wide. http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/more-people-taking-train-to-get-back-to-school-and-work-526768661.html
Due to track maintenance, there will be temporary changes to the Sudbury-White River schedule over the month of October. The train will operate 2h behind its usual schedule throughout the month, on dates listed in the linked article. http://www.northernlife.ca/news/localNews/2015/09/25-via-rail-schedule-sudbury.aspx
Attention smartphone users! VIA has released a new mobile app, which allows you to book travel, view schedules, and access boarding passes for trains 0n your mobile device. Perhaps the most exciting feature is that up-to-date train status information is now available for all routes system-wide, not just the Corridor. Now you can enter any train in the system and see its most recent arrival and departure times for stations along its route, provided by GPS from the train. The app is available for Apple and Android devices, and can be downloaded via the website (http://www.viarail.ca/en/mobile-booking-engine) as well as the Apple app store.
Summer is finally coming to an end, and before long the fall colours will be in full swing. But for now, here are some last looks of the summer! First up, from Michael Berry: VIA 920 leads an LRC consist across the Lachine canal. With the loco and the three coaches in blue, the one rebuilt LRC club really stands out!
On the GO: a lone VIA train in the able hands of P42 #916 emerges from the flyunder near Union Station, flanked by eight GO trains. (Michael Berry)
Back on September 1st, 6414 backs its train into Toronto Union Station, as a GO train (with a newly repainted car hiding behind the cab car) keeps pace. (Michael Berry)
Can you spot the oddballs? Among the mass of GO bilevels in North Bathurst yard are a few of the new Metrolinx repaints, showing off their new two tones of green. VIA 903 is inbound to Union Station, with the consist that is likely about to become VIA 64. (Michael Berry)
There are lots of great trains in the VIA system, but none of them can really compare to the solid-stainless wonder that is The Canadian. Here is a series of shots of the deadheading Canadian heading to Mimico yard after its arrival in Toronto on September 1st (astonishingly only about an hour late!). At 21 cars in length and carrying an impressive 4 domes and two diners, that is one heck of a train! Note the two Prestige Class cars on the tail end, denoted by their dark grey letterboard stripe, and simplifies lettering (no Canada flag or wordmark, just the VIA logo). Also note the new emergency window labels that are showing up. These are long yellow rectangles, visible under the windows on the Manor sleepers and the Prestige cars. These are replacing the small white labels that used to be in use. (Michael Berry photos).
VIA 62 heads through Beaconsfield under foreboding skies on September 13th. (Michael Berry)
Another shot of the same train:
On a sunny September 11th, P42 #904 backs its train into Central Station in Montreal, passing the blue waters of the Peel Basin. (Michael Berry)
Under the overpass: J-Train 52/62 passes through the pedestrian overpass at Belleville station, en route to Montreal and Ottawa via Brockville. (Michael Berry)
An unusual excursion: as part of CN Family Day, a VIA excursion was run as a shuttle between Charny and Cap Rouge throughout the day of August 30th. An F40 and two HEP1 coaches (one of CP heritage and one of US origins) provided accomodations for the ride. Michael Berry took a trip, and snapped this photo.
He also took two photos of that unusual excursion running rare-mileage over the Cap-Rouge trestle.
One more from Michael Berry: here"s an LRC loco, but not a vignette! For their "diesel weekend" on September 12th, Exporail had LRC locomotive 6921 fired up and moving around. Here are a few photos of it, with white markers and headlights lit, and then a couple on a sunny day a few weeks later, out by the station where it was parked.
"New" RDCs at Sudbury: on the morning of August 22nd, VIA RDC-4 6250 along with RDC-2s 6219 and 6217 proceed to the station in Sudbury in preparation for their morning departure with train #185 to White River. (Steve Arnot)
Here are a few photos from Walter Pfefferle: First, here is VIA 85 coming across the trestle into St. Mary"s on September 18th.
CTC is nearing completion for the Guelph sub. Here is a new signal ready for activation in London ON, and VIA 85 rolling by the same spot on Sept. 10th.
VIA 83 with VIA 6440 blows through Ingersoll past the abandoned CN Station as the last light of the day slowly disappears, Sept 7.
On September 9th, VIA 72 with VIA 6441 loads passenger in front of the historic railway station in Brantford Ontario. CN 7080 sits in the yard waiting for it to clear so they can resume their switching duties.
Ray Farand (Part 1)
Here"s a little write-up from Ray Farand, about some recent experience of his with the Canadian and the Skeena out in Jasper. Ray"s description of the events adds a wonderful layer of context to the images, so I"ve decided to include it in full below. Ray writes:
"Anyone who has been with me since I started to share my images several years ago knows by now that I will almost never pass up an opportunity to touch base with the "Silver Lady" any time our paths cross. I"m speaking of course about VIA"s transcontinental Budd-equipped "Canadian".
To this day, I can close my eyes and see "The Canadian" rushing past my father"s car parked next to the Chalk River Subdivision west of Renfrew, as the train made its maiden voyage to the West back on April 24, 1955. I was three weeks shy of my 5th birthday on that day- a milepost which is now more than 60 years in the rear-view mirror, but that impressionable sighting still influences my photographic endeavours several decades later. Arguably, aside for a tuscan-red CPR business car train (minus the Sir Sanford Fleming and the Gatineau in their current red liveries - they will remain named as such for yours truly), a handful of still-active historically protected stations, and a dwindling smattering of searchlight-style signal installations, still seeing service on various subdivisions across the country, the Budd stainless-steel passenger equipment is likely the most visible industry constant to have endured upon Class 1 rights-of-way through my entire lifetime.
On my most recent trip to Alberta, my travels took me to Jasper, where I had another encounter with the "Silver Lady" - two encounters to be exact, and what I saw leaves me very, very worried that some day soon, the "Silver Lady" will be nowhere to be seen unless a drastic change in operating policy permits the train to function equitably on its transcontinental journey between Toronto and Vancouver. For me, it"s a question of respect for our cross-country passenger service, respect for the VIA employees who are trying to deliver a professional service, and respect for the travelling public, many of whom are tourists with a lot of skin in the game. Their enjoyment of a remarkable train journey is significantly diminished because en route delays have them missing flights, missing ferry and possibly even cruise ship connections, and is messing up their car rental and hotel room bookings which probably have to be paid for out of their own pockets whether the services are used or not. If I have assessed the situation accurately, then it"s a very sorry state of affairs which has been allowed to propagate over a significant number of years, and has the potential to kill demand for the service entirely.
To be fair, I don"t know what caused the delays experienced by the "Canadian" during my visit to Jasper in July. However, if my time spent aboard the "Rupert Rocket", VIA"s former "Skeena" offering, between Jasper and Prince Rupert is any indication, then I believe that I am reasonably accurate in saying that VIA needs to be provided with the tools to ensure that it is treated more respectfully by it"s freight-carrying host, or VIA - beyond the Windsor-Quebec City Corridor - will cease to exist in the foreseeable future. In my opinion, a service-guarantee is what is needed, and that is something that you might share with those running for public office at the Federal level when they come knocking at your door looking for votes. Without a service-guarantee agreement in place, VIA will always be operating in the "inferior direction" when it"s up against a conflicting revenue freight move, or in some instances as I also found out, a competing OCS move. Having a passenger train delivered at its destination by the host freight railway shouldn"t automatically trigger "payment in full" unless it"s delivered within a pre-defined window of time. It"s a best-practices and respectful thing to do!
Perhaps when I get the chance to share some images of my trip on the old "Rupert Rocket" accompanying observations will adequately support the sentiments expressed above, but for the moment I"ll just focus on the two occasions that had me next to the "Silver Lady" in the heart of the Rockies on the 11th and 17th of July. Both encounters were most enjoyable. I"m sure that my feelings were not shared by those in attendance waiting to board VIA No.1 during my second encounter. End of preamble!
We arrived in Jasper at approximately 18:15 on the 11th of July just in time for me to see Train 6 completing a reverse move up to the station platform behind Train 2. The "Canadian" had pulled into the station a short time earlier. Seeing the two trains together was an unexpected bonus for me because the eastbound "Canadian" was due out at 17:30. It wasn"t long before I was able to determine that, given the situation at the station, and with the Rocket actually arriving a little ahead of its 18:30 scheduled time, the train had been wyed before being spotted on the station track. Aside for the locomotive, the Rocket"s consist would remain the same for our next day departure to Prince Rupert, and it would be an equipment-set that I would become very familiar with as Ginette and I travelled to and from Pacific tidewater.
In all of my pictures taken on my first evening in Jasper you will notice that the mountainous terrain in the background appears to be quite "whitish". The reason for this - a forest fire about 15KM southeast of town near Maligne Lake. There was a hint of smoke in the air on this evening, but fortunately the wind was blowing away from Jasper so it wasn"t so much an issue as the day before, as many of you probably remember from the news report on CTV and CBC, when a thick pall of smoke blanketed the town-site, much to the chagrin of the tourists.
Of note in my third photo (above), the two converted Chateau Sleepers and the Glacier Park that provide Prestige Class accommodation for VIA"s high-end clientele. It"s hard not to recognize the modified equipment given the almost gun-metal grey letterboard stripe above the windows. If someone knows for sure exactly what the colour is supposed to be, please pass it along to me. It was also nice to see a tastefully-sized "Canada Wordmark" incorporated solely into the modern VIA Rail logo. Whoever made the decision to remove that humongously-sized version of same from the fluted stainless-steel, BRAVO! I don"t know about you, but I don"t miss that billboard-sized funding advertisement even for a moment. It"s a much cleaner presentation and restores the cars nearer to their original appearance, IMHO.
I worked my way down to the head end of the consist only to find a bicycle positioned next to the blue flag clamped to the rail in front of engine 6420. Strange place to leave a bike I thought, until I saw the carman climb aboard and pedal his way up the platform towards the station. Certainly saves time, and is definitely a healthier form of transportation! I wonder if an ability to ride a bike is a job requirement. I"ll have to come back in the winter to see what"s used when the snow is flying.
By 19:15 VIA 2 is on the move towards the outer switch. The next few images of the train demonstrates that even with modern F40PH-3 locos on the point the "Canadian" is still one elegant sight to behold.
So the next day we were off to Prince Rupert on the former Skeena, returning to Jasper on the evening of the 16th. The trip was great with all of the VIA staff doing their utmost, in sometimes challenging circumstances, to make their guests feel appreciated. We travelled Touring Class, giving us access to the both the 66-seat Panorama glass-roofed coach (one of three owned by VIA), and of course the Skyline dome-car. Meals were included in our fare, were served in the Panorama coach, and were very good. I"ll bring you all up to speed on this portion of our high-iron vacation when I get a chance later this fall.
At this point I should mention that of the two consists in service on Trains 5 and 6 this summer, only one is equipped with a Panorama car, and it is only this train that is sold with touring class accommodation. Coach passengers are not permitted into the Panorama car nor the Skyline Dome. This operational reality is something that I found confusing when we booked our trip. The other consist, which in addition to the baggage car, includes a coach and a Park Car, does not feature touring class accommodation, and coach passengers are allowed access to the Park Car"s dome. It"s a little extra value for your economy-class dollar of which you may not be aware. If I was to do it all over again, I"d still choose Touring Class, because the VIA 1-style meals were very much appreciated.
So now it"s the 17th of July, and we"re back in Jasper. It had crossed my mind when I departed Calgary back on July 11th, that with any luck I might just see Skrillex"s Fullflex Express tour train somewhere in my travels (we had already departed for the West when it made its appearance in Ottawa earlier in the month), and now as I stood in front of the whiteboard at the VIA station in Jasper about mid-morning - after getting off to a slow start to the day, I knew exactly how to interpret the indication that there would be seven pieces of D/H equipment on the head end of today"s VIA Train 1, the "Canadian". Further gazing at the dry-markered info also revealed to me that the car count was off by 10 cars, so maybe the arrival time was also stale-dated. I approached an employee and enquired if the 20:30 arrival time was accurate, and I was told that it indeed it was so. My comment/question at this point was something to the effect that maybe the delay could be attributed to the additional Skrillex equipment on the head end of the train. A pregnant pause hung over the service-counter for a moment or two and then a reply devoid of an answer was directed my way - which I might add was totally expected, "What"s a Skrillex?" LOL!
So when I left the station at about 11:30 AM local time, the train was showing seven-and-a-half hours off the advertised. Ginette and I spent the day sight-seeing and railfanning as far west as Valemont (there"s a great Swiss-style bakery near the VIA stop in Valemont, BTW), and returned to Jasper around 20:30. From the station parking lot I spied someone atop a rail car gazing in the easterly direction, seemingly in search of the VIA. What"s the problem, he might have been asking himself? As I would soon discover, it was a question shared by the frustrated throng of passengers huddled in every available inch of floor space at the station. The place looked like an evacuation centre L As I once again stood in front of a whiteboard which now displayed 23:30 as an arrival time for No.1, the level of client discontent was audibly evident. As you can imagine people were feeling second-class, with talk of the delay jeopardized travel connections in Vancouver for some foreign tourists in the crowd. The long wait had also been stressful on the sizable "seniors" presence in the waiting room, not to mention the long day for the staff at the Hertz rental car office who needed to remain on duty to ensure arriving passengers could pick up their vehicles when they stepped off the train at Jasper.
In short, occurrences like this are never a good thing for the passenger rail industry especially in prime tourist season - and they appear to be a not uncommon event. My lucky day of railfanning was unceremoniously turning into my lucky night, much to the dismay of VIA guests, staff and other ancillary service providers in this Western Canadian tourist mecca. VIA"s long-term transcontinental service aspirations might be in jeopardy these days, especially with social media"s "guess where I"m still at now" demonizing style of information exchange available at the push of a high-tech button. Bad social media PR related to late running transcons can get around the world in a heartbeat, and if delays are frequent and severe enough (and evidence suggests that this may be the case), then the "Silver Lady" may already be her sunset years much to my dismay! A service guarantee needs to be negotiated ASAP. Announcements of cap-ex spending are not going to solve this problem.
VIA Train 1 would roll into the station at 23:45 instead of 13:00. Stay tuned for more pictures and less dialogue in Part 2.
Ray
These videos are not current, but they sure are interesting. Again from David Othen, here are two videos shot from the dome on the Ocean back in 2008.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoARU5kaCNY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJnUNCIKjEM
This one is really neat: back when VIA"s F40 rebuild program was just getting underway, #6400 was the first out of the shop, sporting the new Renaissance paint scheme and a variety of external and internal modifications. It was an odd-ball, as it was built without the separate HEP generator that would be a major feature of all of the subsequent rebuilds, and also lacked other small features like the third headlight. In 2008 (still 2 years before the loco would be wrecked at St. Charles-de-Bellechasse), this locomotive was returned to CAD for extensive testing. A tour of the CAD facility was arranged as part of a railfan trip organized out of Halifax, and David took this video of 6400 at the test facility.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReoBz_3zEFo
Here"s a few more Vignettes from the ever impressive collection of Pierre Fournier:
First, we have a couple of interesting photos of damaged equipment at CN"s Pointe Ste. Charles shops for repair. 6452 had a bit of a front-end bashup, but it pales in comparison to 6910, showing the damage it suffered after a run-in with a flat car in Smiths Falls.
And finally to close things off for this month, here are a couple of FPA-4s in their heyday, back in 1983. So much blue and yellow!
Just in case you forgot what is ahead here is a VIA 85 blowing through Ingersoll Ontario with 6435 after being detoured off the Guelph sub due to a derailment. March 6 2007 (CRO Staff Photo)
© CRO October 2015