1333iExtra55

August 2019 BLNI Extra No. 55 – Canada 2

[E28] Canada - After 73 years Streetcars return to King St in Kitchener Ontario
The 16km first phase of the ION Light Rail Transit (LRT) in the Canadian province of Ontario has started
commercial operations. It will serve the regions of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, as well as
surrounding municipalities. It includes 19 stations and is expected to serve around 25,000 passengers
daily. The overall ION LRT project has been divided into two phases, with Phase II studies currently
underway.

[E29] Canada - The Canadian and the Rocky Mountaineer
The Canadian: the new schedule began in late April, with westbound #1 departing Toronto Union at
09:45 WSuO, and a booked 97hrs 15mins journey time; eastbound #2 leaves Vancouver at 15:00 MFO
with a schedule of 92hrs 29mins. Early experience has been of reasonably good punctuality. The old
“Super Continental” train numbers 3 and 4 have been revived for the additional Vancouver/Edmonton
service; westbound #3 leaves Edmonton at 00:01 FO with a running time of 32hrs 59min, and
eastbound #4 departs Vancouver 15:00 TuO, taking 26hrs 50min. Worryingly, work on refurbishment
contracts for 42 of the surviving Budd stainless steel cars has been suspended due to concerns about
deterioration discovered in the car frames.
Rocky Mountaineer: A leased Amtrak locomotive will operate Vancouver/Seattle runs this year, due
to new legislation requiring that locos on the US part must be fitted with Positive Train Control, which
Rocky Mountaineer’s fleet does not have. Ten new bi-level cars are on order from Germany, of which
seven will be available for this year’s workings via Kamloops. Meantime, ten historic cars have been
acquired from a Quebec tourist line, Train Touristique de Charlevoix; it is not yet known what Rocky
Mountaineer intends to do with these.

[E30] Canada - A journey on the Winnipeg to Churchill railway
Three members made plans to travel from Winnipeg to Churchill in June 2019 as the service had
resumed from 2 December 2018 after an 18 month closure due to washouts causd by flooding.
Sleeper car tickets were easily booked from the UK for a 12:05 Tuesday departure in early June before
the tourist season. In Churchill this starts with the breakup of ice in the Churchill River, allowing
thousands of Beluga Whales into the Estuary to breed, and continues with Polar Bears arriving in peak
summer as the ice they depend on to hunt seals from melts. The season traditionally starts in mid-
June when tours start running. Trains and flights quickly fill, along with the very limited
accommodation in this very remote town, which does not enjoy road access.
Our members flew UK to Toronto, spending a night there to recover and guarantee connection to the
onward flight to Winnipeg where they stayed at one of the airport hotels. Most of their luggage was
left at the hotel the following morning, and a bus taken into the centre of Winnipeg for a short walk
to the impressive Winnipeg Union station.

Winnipeg Union station. There was no sign of the railway museum.

Impressive inside and out, with time to walk around the park accessed from the east side of the
station and containing The Forks National Historic site where a caboose and old carriages may be
found along with the Market which was once the stables for the horses which served the railroad.

Carriages in the Forks National Historic site with railway station in background

Passengers were allowed to descend the steps to platform level a few minutes before the booked
departure time and on the platform were quickly routed to their carriages.
The train was six coaches long and our members were in the sleeping car where the two berth
compartments had ingeniously designed facing seats which slid forward to form one of the beds as
well as single berth compartments. There was also a cheaper Russian style open couchette coach with
only curtains for privacy, both types having access to a spacious shower. The other cars were an
unstaffed unused buffet car (with loose table seats), a combined kitchenette/half car with fixed table
seats/dome car (dome seats above the kitchen), two second class opens and a baggage car. There
were three on board train staff that surprisingly did the complete journey, and the train was hauled
by two locomotives throughout crewed by two engineers in the leading engine.
It is apparently unusual for dome cars to be on the Churchill route, which was a plus for our members
regarding visibility, but a minus as there was no restaurant car and chef, so all food included with the
sleeper fare was "airline" and microwaved by the train crew. The restaurant cars were apparently
away being refurbished.

The train left Winnipeg 10 late as a freight was let through in front, and the group soon learnt freights
have total priority in Canada as conflicts with others increased lateness to 44 minutes by the first
calling point of Portage la Prairie just 50 minutes from Winnipeg. The crew later showed a print out
with VIA 45th in line priority wise, perhaps explaining why a notice had been posted on the doors into
Winnipeg station advising the eastbound Canadian from Vancouver was estimated arriving 23 hours
late.....
The first stop was Portage la Prairie.

Viewed from the passing Churchill train, the Portage la Prairie Canadian Pacific Railway Station is now a museum

The one story brick building was built by Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and the Midland Railway of
Manitoba as a union station in 1908. Also designated a national historic site is the Portage la Prairie
Canadian Pacific Railway Station that no longer provides passenger services but operates as a
museum. It was noted that the CN and CP lines which come together in the town are completely
separate with no interconnection. A more extended break suitable for smokers was at Dauphin, with
its fine station building, built in 1912 by the Canadian Northern Railway and designated a Heritage
Railway Station of Canada in 1990. It houses a railway museum, but there was not time to visit.

Locos 6456 and 6404 are seen at Dauphin awaiting departure. The red caboose by the station is part of the museum
collection.

Progress on the main line west was stop/start, then news came over the train crew radio via the
Engineers from Dispatch Control based in far away Montreal that the freight immediately in front had
a defective wagon restricting its speed. On one occasion the ailing train could be seen ahead but
eventually it was recessed at Kamsack and overtaken, but now the delay had increased to 137
minutes.
Hopes of a clear onward path were soon dashed as Control then advised that the crew of the next
freight in front were being relieved at Canora and warned its length meant it might not clear the
Churchill trains route to turn north from there towards The Pas. If that was the case it would be stuck
behind it for a minimum of one and a half hours.... With that news and darkness approaching two of
the three members retired for the night. In doing so they missed what to VIA/Canadian National Rail
is normal practice but was a strange experience for the remaining member, when viewed through the
forward facing windows of the dome car. Still a long way east of Canora the passenger train reduced
speed to a trundle and after some time the locomotive headlights illuminated the rear box wagon of
the train directly ahead! The passenger train crept ever closer to the freight until it was literally right
behind it, and this convoy continued for numerous miles with progress at no more than brisk walking
pace. Once in the suburb of Canora the passenger train dropped back to no more than 200 metres
behind the freight, but some frustrated car drivers at level crossings considered this enough distance
to scoot across in the gap.
Arrival at Canora was at 00.03 having lost a further 110 minutes since Kamsack on a section booked
to take just 47 minutes, but fortunately the freight continued moving to clear the access to the east
to north curve, stopping just beyond to block both a west to north curve and a north to south flat
crossing. At this point even the third traveller called it a night but with an alarm set for just before
dawn at 5am to continue viewing as much as possible of this once in a lifetime journey. (This was not
a completely successful strategy as the member involved was found nodding off at his post by one of
his companions…).
Resuming position in the dome car revealed travel through marshy forest some way south of The Pas
with arrival there at 06:22, by now running a mere 232 minutes late. Just south of The Pas track
ownership changed from CN to the Hudson Bay Railway shown by a boundary marker. The Pas is the
start of a twice weekly passenger service on a lengthy private branch to Pukatawagen operated by
the Keewatin Railway with an additional freight line off it to the wonderfully named location of Flin
Flon. Including travel to Pukatawagen as well as Churchill had of course been investigated but the
train is only scheduled in one direction each running day, no scheduled flight (very small planes) gets
to Pukatawagen in time for the southbound departure and specialist Canadian travel agents had failed
to find any accommodation in Pukatawagen. It wasn't fully booked, there isn't any......
South of The Pas station were numerous sidings, depots for PW machines and locomotives with
around half a dozen CN/Hudson Bay/Keewatin locos present plus a four coach rake of open coaches
for the Pukatawagen branch in a bay platform. Departure north was after further delay for no obvious
reason at 07:04. The Saskatchewan River was crossed by a box girder bridge after which the
Pukatawagen line diverges left at Flin Flon junction.

Crossing the Saskatchewan river as seen from the dome car

The next place of note being a stop to load boxes of fish into the baggage car at WABOWDEᴎ. The
station is named after the first station master, a Mr W.A. Bowden, but apparently the name was
misspelt and the tradition of misspelling it has been maintained.

Wabowden station with deliberately misspelt station name board

By now well off the main line, our travellers had been puzzled by the number of stops, short reversals
and waits in the middle of nowhere clearly not related to overshooting flagstops. On enquiring they
were told there is a regulation to externally inspect the complete trains running gear every 60 miles
in remote areas and this was done by running past a dropped off Engineer!

The little station of Thcket Portage with loading of the baggage van occurring

The slow journey continued with the next track highlight the triangle at Thompson Junction. Here the
Churchill train double runs 30 miles north west to serve the largest town in the area, unsurprisingly
named Thompson, but anticipation turned to dismay when the crew tannoyed that due to our
lateness we would have to wait at Thompson Junction for one and a half hours for a freight for
Churchill plus the southbound VIA train to Winnipeg having to pass. A quick look on maps.me showed
no loops at the south end of the triangle so how would this be done? It was hoped that the train might
run onto the south to north non passenger side of the triangle as the crew confirmed this had
happened in the past, advising it would all depend on which train got to the triangle first.
Disappointingly it was the Churchill freight, so once this had cleared the west to north curve our
members train pulled forward then reversed on to it to allow the VIA train to use the west to south
curve.

Track condition on the Thompson branch is so poor that the crew admitted it is impossible to keep to
schedule. In fact passengers on the train had been told at the start of the journey to expect to arrive
at Churchill about 4-5 hours late, at around midday. As is usual in North America the locos were single
ended with both cabs facing the same way so they cannot simply run round. The whole train is
reversed on a Wye, a triangle in our speak, frequently being just a dead end headshunt. This was
undertaken before the train arrived at Thompson. Being very late one might expect the train to be
Wye'd on arrival by running direct into it and then reversing to the station, but no. The train ran
beyond both triangle junctions, reversed around the curve into the headshunt, forward around the
other side and then reversed to Thompson station. On asking the Engineer's why, the explanation is
they never drive locomotives leading into the headshunt in case of derailments to avoid the locos
becoming trapped. This does not confirm if the wye's will be done by arriving or departing services at
Thompson nor Churchill, but both the train crew and regular passengers confirmed that Churchill's
wye is always done on arrival and that is indeed what happened; and in the same way as described
above at Thompson.

The break at Thompson allows baggage to be loaded, often in fairly serious quantities, and the locomotives to be
refueled

Our members had been warned the train should get much busier into, and especially heading north
from Thompson, but this was not the case on this journey. Only a maximum of 16 were on board
before Thompson and 40 thereafter, so even with a sleeper fare of just over £400 single paid by our
travellers, this line is hardly a money-spinner, although overall it apparently performs adequately if
the subsidy is includedy, and line finances should improve in 2019 as grain freight to Churchill for
export is resuming. This was incidentally the main reason why the line was built. The downside is VIA
punctuality will then suffer further. Talking with the train crew established additional interesting
operational information. For example the on-board train crew do not look after the baggage car, that
is the responsibility of the second loco engineer, nor do they sell tickets from the flagstops, they
simply take names, radio them through to the usual destinations of Thompson, Gillam or Churchill
and travellers are expected to pay on arrival. Our members were also intrigued as to how flagstop

passengers knew when to expect a seriously late running train. Apparently stops on this line fall into
two distinct categories, "large" enough to have at least one landline or a mobile signal aerial, or are
primarily for railway operational purposes with an additional small population which would find out
via VIA radio.
Resuming the journey north, Thompson Junction was passed for the second time but the train was
now "only" five hours late as if on time the schedule has a five hour stop at Thompson!
Darkness soon fell with all three BLS Members retiring, your reporter keen enough to set an alarm for
dawn at an even earlier 04.30 which found the train stationary in Gillam station. On moving off the
train was soon running through mile upon mile of muskeg, the local term for swamp, and from just
north of Gillam the railway is the only means of land transport as there are no roads, even though
Churchill was still 12 hours away! This section was where there were a number of washouts after a
rapid thaw of winter snow and line speed was painfully slow over lengthy reconstructed sections in a
huge area of natural wilderness as far as could be seen on both sides of the train. The train was again
losing minutes against the schedule, but the train crew confirmed that this section and Thompson
Junction to Thompson are approved and funded for upgrade by the lines current owners along with
additional First Nation financial support for local travel. Trees had gradually disappeared and it was a
bleak landscape as Churchill came into sight on the horizon with the grain silos prominent against the
skyline.

A bleak and boggy tundra landscape as Churchill gets closer. Reflections due to the glass in the dome car make for
poor photographic opportunities

Of note to gricers is that the only way to do all sides of the Churchill wye is by being on the northbound
train, so our members had got that right at least! The final arrival into Churchill (after wyeing) was at
14:44 against the scheduled 09:00, so after adding on the totally wiped out 5 hours recovery time at
Thompson the train had accumulated a total of 10h 45m delay...

Having turned in the wye before Churchill, the return service to Winnipeg is facing the right way at Churchill station

The local freight from Thompson to Gillam and Churchill had arrived before the VIA train. With no road to Churchill
everything must come expensively by air, or, less expensively by train. Cars, fuel and containers arrive on the freight,
seen here in the sidings just south of the platform.

The grain silo and loading facilities are the most prominent landmark in Churchill
Churchill railway station. End of the 1697 km journey, and not a Polar Bear in sight………….

Being honest arriving that late into Churchill did our travellers a huge favour as even though it was
mid-June, the temperature was only low teens and with a breezed it was slightly chilly when out of
the sun. Also being off season meant no Tundra or Boat Tours so options to pass the time were limited
after a walk around the town sights for an hour or so plus a visit to the very interesting Eskimo
Museum. So there was not much else to do but eat and drink in the only open restaurant until a
booked taxi "tour" en route to the airport before the 21:10 flight back to Winnipeg.