Canadian Railroads > VIA's Bras d'Or

VIA's Bras d'Or (Bra Door) was a rail cruise running once a week between Halifax and Sydney NS during the summer and fall tourist seasons from 2000 to 2004.

The train ran eastbound on Tuesdays and west on Wednesday using the Ocean's Budd Stainless Steel and Dome equipment minus the Sleepers. The Skyline Dome usually provided the meal service but occasionally the Diner went along also.

Below....at Antigonish NS

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Near Afton and Monastery

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'Caritas'....... A visitor from the States

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Stopover in Port Hawkesbury while the passengers visited the local market and craft store:

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The Bras d'Or was for through Halifax-Sydney passengers with a stopover in Port Hawkesbury to take in some of the local attractions. The train also stopped occasionally at the historic Orangedale Intercolonial Station Museum. VIA started showing other stations in the timetable listing which led some of us locals to believe that the Bras d’Or might begin making additional stops but it wasn’t to be and the last run was in October 2004.

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Now 11 years later and the portion of the line between Port Hawkesbury and Sydney and the most scenic....along the Bras d’Or Lake will probably be abandonment this fall. I took a few shots along the line in early July before it’s gone.

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Great pics, thanks for sharing. I travelled that area by RV in 2010 but never saw a thing moving. Absolutely great scenery and would like to do it again.
Bob

Bob Ritchie
Chase, BC

I am so glad I had a chance to ride this route on a Via RDC in the mid 70's, it is quiet the ride.

Sharon Evans
Glen Allen, VA

I certainly have no regrets about the many trips I made to Cape Breton over the five years the Bras d'Or ran.  That was partly to make up for the regrets I had not chasing the MLWs on the CBNS more than I did, when I had the chance back in the '90s.  Here are three more shots from that trip in early July, 2001.  The first has the Bras d'Or and private car Cripple Creek skirting its namesake body of water, just past a large gypsum outcropping that featured prominently in the VIA poster earlier in this thread. Later that same day, the train is almost at its destination as it crosses a causeway and bridge over Balls Creek.  And finally on the return trip the next day, the Bras d'Or starts across the Canso Canal swing bridge and Canso Causeway itself.

The track in the first two pictures is threatened with abandonment, but the third should last as long as the paper mill in Port Hawkesbury remains viable.

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/15 17:24 by cn6218.

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Gorgeous route! I wish I would have taken this train when I had the chance. I was holding to the following year when VIA was supposedly going to operate this train with Budd equipment 2x per week - Tuesday and Friday. I was looking for the Friday trip. This was a route that was highly marketed to the touring public. I always seemed to remember two coaches, Skyline, and Park Car. Nice to see the private cars enroute!

rail bank it!!

If you think about it, the early 2000's were interesting times for VIA Rail: 

- The Bras d'Or did its multi-year stint
- Renassiance cars started making their debut
- The Enterprise overnight train between Montreal and Toronto was launched (and then re-launched with Renaissance equipment - coaches and sleepers). Should have run between Quebec-Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto though. On the easterly course even if it departed Ottawa at 7 am, Montreal at 9 am and Quebec at 12 noon, the main endpoints of Montreal and Toronto needed to be protected.
- The Skeena got Panorama cars (from the sale of BC Rail equipment) and operated FOUR days a week. 
- On the table was extending the Skeena to Edmonton (didn't happen but it was being pushed) as was six day-a-week service between Vancouver and Jasper
- One could still connect (same day) between Adirondack and Ocean at St. Lambert pretty reliably (it weakened each year to month etc.)
- VIA operated the "Ski Train" between Edmonton and Jasper
- One could still connect same day from Canadian to Hudson Bay Train........

The VIA West Unit was really trying to get the best bang for the buck. And of course the Canadian was operating pretty much on-time, or it had a backup set in Vancouver due to the equipment freed up from the Ocean as a result of Renassaince equipment.