Canadian Railroads > The Canadian - Vancouver-Toronto 15 Nov.

Our usual group of seven (those with a knowledge of Canadian art love that expression) was reduced to five this time.  My notes are missing one number of a Skyline car so I won’t post the detailed consist. Typical for this time of year there was one economy coach, economy Skyline, 4 Manor sleepers, Sleeper Plus Skyline, dining car, Château sleeper (crew), Prestige Château and Park car. There were 60 sleeper passengers from Vancouver.  There was just one occupied “suite” in Prestige. The passenger load seemed to be about the same all the way to Toronto. Eight tables were used in the diner and only two sittings were needed.
 
I didn’t make many notes of arrival and departure times, having decided to rely on the asm.transitdocs site which I could back-date when I returned home. I discovered there were some – but not many - major errors in the times on that site. For example, it showed station time in Jasper as being 36 minutes. Some of our group went for a walk of approximately that length of time and waited in the station over half an hour to re-board.  Also, the time of departure at Melville was way off. The times for Winnipeg and Toronto were accurate.
 
There is no need to comment on the on-board service and the dining car meals as they were as good as usual.  One change regarding announcements for lunch and dinner in the dining car was that every time the following was added: “For sleeping car passengers only.”
 
CN has said that freight traffic is down recently, and this was obvious, although there were still plenty of meets. Many of the meets were well-timed. Many freight trains were waiting for the Canadian in sidings and we overtook quite a few eastbound trains. We were still delayed two or three hours occasionally, but managed to arrive in Winnipeg two hours early after a very fast and (I say this with some trepidation) rough ride from Melville.
 
Between Melville and Winnipeg the HEP failed several times but never for very long. A third unit was added at Winnipeg, but HEP failures occurred a couple of times after midnight. Once this was corrected there were no further power interruptions.
 
There were a few unusual operational movements. During the station stop at Hornepayne I overheard on a crew member’s radio that freight # 111 was routed on the station track. So #2 backed out and went through the yard. It was a further 20 minutes before we rejoined the main line. 
 
About three miles after departing Sudbury Jct. we came to an abrupt stop then backed up to the station. One of the crew told me: “Someone forgot to get off.” The last day of our trip was the first day of the CN strike. I didn’t see a single freight train all the way to Toronto.
 
There were signal problems south of Washago so for about an hour and a quarter we crawled along, stopping at every red or “dead” light and even some level crossings. There was plenty of CN staff at each signal and many of the level crossings. Once we were favoured with green lights we proceeded non-stop to Toronto, arriving an hour and 20 minutes early.
 

Thanks for the good report.

 I look forward to my now scheduled WPG - Vancouver- WPG trip next March! 

Thanks for the report!

Thanks for the report! 

Does anyone know when the Hornepayne station was officially closed up? Was examining some pictures of the station over time - from better days when you could clearly see that passengers could board from two tracks to its current state of affairs. There's still some nice relics of a train station out there. The station at Sioux Lookout was beautifully restored in 2012. For years it was the first stop of the morning heading westbound on #1 and often the last stop before dark heading eastbound on #2. Plans were around for years to renovate it into a nice station for a little bit of an extended stop. But then the schedule change in 2010 moved it to a midnight stop westbound, and about 5 am eastbound. It now can be enjoyed in both directions at descent passenger times. 

Can't wait for our trip in February !!! :):):) Toronto to Vancouver...
Thank you for sharing !!! :):):)

Hello. Thank you for the interesting trip report!
I have a question for you if you don't mind?
My brother and myself are taking "The Canadian" in February and are in car "111" can you please tell me where in the consist it is placed?
Always love reading your "positive" trip reports"
Thank you for sharing !!! :):):)

DrawingroomA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Our usual group of seven (those with a knowledge
> of Canadian art love that expression) was reduced
> to five this time.  My notes are missing one
> number of a Skyline car so I won’t post the
> detailed consist. Typical for this time of year
> there was one economy coach, economy Skyline, 4
> Manor sleepers, Sleeper Plus Skyline, dining car,
> Château sleeper (crew), Prestige Château and
> Park car. There were 60 sleeper passengers from
> Vancouver.  There was just one occupied
> “suite” in Prestige. The passenger load seemed
> to be about the same all the way to Toronto. Eight
> tables were used in the diner and only two
> sittings were needed.
>  
> I didn’t make many notes of arrival and
> departure times, having decided to rely on the
> asm.transitdocs site which I could back-date when
> I returned home. I discovered there were some –
> but not many - major errors in the times on that
> site. For example, it showed station time in
> Jasper as being 36 minutes. Some of our group went
> for a walk of approximately that length of time
> and waited in the station over half an hour to
> re-board.  Also, the time of departure at
> Melville was way off. The times for Winnipeg and
> Toronto were accurate.
>  
> There is no need to comment on the on-board
> service and the dining car meals as they were as
> good as usual.  One change regarding
> announcements for lunch and dinner in the dining
> car was that every time the following was added:
> “For sleeping car passengers only.”
>  
> CN has said that freight traffic is down recently,
> and this was obvious, although there were still
> plenty of meets. Many of the meets were
> well-timed. Many freight trains were waiting for
> the Canadian in sidings and we overtook quite a
> few eastbound trains. We were still delayed two or
> three hours occasionally, but managed to arrive in
> Winnipeg two hours early after a very fast and (I
> say this with some trepidation) rough ride from
> Melville.
>  
> Between Melville and Winnipeg the HEP failed
> several times but never for very long. A third
> unit was added at Winnipeg, but HEP failures
> occurred a couple of times after midnight. Once
> this was corrected there were no further power
> interruptions.
>  
> There were a few unusual operational movements.
> During the station stop at Hornepayne I overheard
> on a crew member’s radio that freight # 111 was
> routed on the station track. So #2 backed out and
> went through the yard. It was a further 20 minutes
> before we rejoined the main line. 
>  
> About three miles after departing Sudbury Jct. we
> came to an abrupt stop then backed up to the
> station. One of the crew told me: “Someone
> forgot to get off.” The last day of our trip was
> the first day of the CN strike. I didn’t see a
> single freight train all the way to Toronto.
>  
> There were signal problems south of Washago so for
> about an hour and a quarter we crawled along,
> stopping at every red or “dead” light and even
> some level crossings. There was plenty of CN staff
> at each signal and many of the level crossings.
> Once we were favoured with green lights we
> proceeded non-stop to Toronto, arriving an hour
> and 20 minutes early.
>  

Currently the cars are numbered 110,111,112, etc heading forward from the rear diner/skyline car. SImilarly 210, 211, 212,.... for the eastbound train.

Here is the consist for a recent #2  (sorry but TO insists on showing the image as horizontal. feel free to rotate it if you can do so)

WP17

---

So when the VIA persoñ making my reservation for March told me the 115 car on #1 was now closest to the diner/Park, she was in error! The 115 would be furthest, probably next to the coach Skyline??

Posted from Android

viatrainrider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So when the VIA persoñ making my reservation for
> March told me the 115 car on #1 was now closest to
> the diner/Park, she was in error! The 115 would
> be furthest, probably next to the coach Skyline??
>
> Posted from Android

Sadly, that is most likely the case. From my experience the telephone agents don't have accurate information as to the marshalling order of the sleepers. In peak season, car 110 or 210 is the first sleeper and the numbers rise going back. VIA reverses the order about the end of October or early November to the end of April. But there are inconsistencies and one can never be sure the usual will actually occur.

A few years ago on one of my rare peak season runs I booked car 222 which, at the time, was the last sleeper before the Prestige and Park cars. But for a few weeks at the early part of that season someone decided to reverse everything so car 222 was the first of 13 sleepers.

My experience is that the VIA res agents don't always have the latest consist order. On the other hand VIA does occasionally change the order of the cars. 

WP17


viatrainrider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So when the VIA persoñ making my reservation for
> March told me the 115 car on #1 was now closest to
> the diner/Park, she was in error! The 115 would
> be furthest, probably next to the coach Skyline??
>
> Posted from Android

Thank you !!! :):):)

WP17 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Currently the cars are numbered 110,111,112, etc
> heading forward from the rear diner/skyline car.
> SImilarly 210, 211, 212,.... for the eastbound
> train.
>
> Here is the consist for a recent #2  (sorry but
> TO insists on showing the image as horizontal.
> feel free to rotate it if you can do so)
>
> WP17

Well, I will call VIA Preference and try to change out of the 115, not wanting to walk 5 sleepers, sleeper Skyline, diner, crew sleeper, Prestoge sleeper everytime I wish to go from my accomodationss to the Park car!  Thanks to all who posted on this matter!  My wife would be even less happy than me.

So I contacted VIA Preference and they insisted that for March the car numbers start  high (115) furtthest back next to the sleeper Skyline.  Yes, I know from experience these numbers get reversed from time to time ffor reasons I do now knw about.So I guess I will try to confirm this with the WPG office.  Thanks again to those wh provided info on this!  Especially appreciate the image from a station of the car order.