Canadian Railroads > The Pandemic Canadian: Father's Day Edition

VIA Rail has stopped operating its flagship train, The Canadian, due to the pandemic.
But that does not mean that VIA has not run trains across Canada.
Two empty trains left Vancouver for Toronto in May,
forwarding passenger cars for work in Montreal.
A VIA insider has written online that Montreal was feeling congested in rolling stock,
so now, an empty train has come west, arriving in Vancouver on Father's Day.

1. Westbound VIA 11 passes through Burnaby, BC.
CN is adding a third track.

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2&3. VIA 11 passing through the Grandview Cut in Vancouver.

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4&5.  Backing into Vancouver Maintenance Centre,
with 3 locomotives, one baggage car, 4 coaches,
2 Skyline domes, 4 diners,
5 Manor sleepers, 3 Chateau sleepers, and one Park car.

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Marcus Wrote:
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> VIA Rail has stopped operating its flagship train,
> The Canadian, due to the pandemic.
> But that does not mean that VIA has not run trains
> across Canada.
> Two empty trains left Vancouver for Toronto in
> May,
> forwarding passenger cars for work in Montreal.
> A VIA insider has written online that Montreal was
> feeling congested in rolling stock,
> so now, an empty train has come west, arriving in
> Vancouver on Father's Day.

Thanks for the posting. This raises the question of whether these particular cars went through inspections for defects at Montreal, or if they've just gone on a long cross-country round-trip purely for the exercise (which at their age they don't need).

Thanks for the report and pictures.

Apparently this train dropped off the two "Skeena" consists at Jasper for the soon-to-be resumption of that service.

Jimbo Wrote:
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> Thanks for the report and pictures.
>
> Apparently this train dropped off the two "Skeena"
> consists at Jasper for the soon-to-be resumption
> of that service.

That was likely an additional 8 cars, making the original train's consist at least 28 cars long?

Skeena trainset - baggage, coach, Panorama, Park Car x 2. Course who knows whether each consist will have the "Touring Class" Panorama Car or not. I somehow doubt it. Likely just a basic consist. May include Skyline Dome Cars instead of Park Car too. Anyone know? Looks like reservations are still blocked VIA's website............

jp1822 Wrote:

> That was likely an additional 8 cars, making the
> original train's consist at least 28 cars long?
>
> Skeena trainset - baggage, coach, Panorama, Park
> Car x 2. Course who knows whether each consist
> will have the "Touring Class" Panorama Car or not.
> I somehow doubt it. Likely just a basic consist.
> May include Skyline Dome Cars instead of Park Car
> too. Anyone know? Looks like reservations are
> still blocked VIA's website............

Skeena consist is baggage, coach, Park. Two such consists were lifted at Jasper by the first Train 12 that left Vancouver on May 15.

railsmith Wrote:
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> jp1822 Wrote:
>
> > That was likely an additional 8 cars, making
> the
> > original train's consist at least 28 cars long?
> >
> > Skeena trainset - baggage, coach, Panorama,
> Park
> > Car x 2. Course who knows whether each consist
> > will have the "Touring Class" Panorama Car or
> not.
> > I somehow doubt it. Likely just a basic
> consist.
> > May include Skyline Dome Cars instead of Park
> Car
> > too. Anyone know? Looks like reservations are
> > still blocked VIA's website............
>
> Skeena consist is baggage, coach, Park. Two such
> consists were lifted at Jasper by the first Train
> 12 that left Vancouver on May 15.

What was "lifted" though does not have any bearing to what Train 11 may have actually dropped off. So then no Touring class this season with a single Panorama Car?

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jimbo Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Thanks for the report and pictures.
> >
> > Apparently this train dropped off the two
> "Skeena"
> > consists at Jasper for the soon-to-be
> resumption
> > of that service.
>
> That was likely an additional 8 cars, making the
> original train's consist at least 28 cars long?

The original consist of this train ex-Toronto was 27 cars, of which 20 made it to Vancouver.  The 27 cars consisted of:  2 baggage, 7 coaches, 3 Skyline domes, 4 dining cars, 5 Manor sleepers, 3 Chateau sleepers (of which 2 are Prestige), 3 Park domes (all non-Prestige).

Comparing this to the info from Marcus about the consist on arrival at Vancouver shows that the following were set out en route:  1 baggage, 3 coaches, 1 Skyline dome, and 2 Park domes.  It's possible that some of this could have been at Winnipeg as well as Jasper.

The train left Toronto with five locomotives; three ran through to Vancouver. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/20 17:07 by railsmith.

         Odd that someone thinks one trip empty for these cars at their age is unnecessary. If true, should we assume that when loaded with paying customers, they would fall apart in 'one more trip'?
I sure don't think so.

dcfbalcoS1 Wrote:
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>          Odd that someone thinks one trip
> empty for these cars at their age is unnecessary.

You missed the point. As Marcus noted, a VIA insider is suggesting that some of these cars may have been turned back from Montreal after a 3,000-mile-plus journey from Vancouver because Montreal couldn't handle the workload of inspections for structural defects. Now they come back all the way across the country, with nothing having been accomplished, other than giving their wheels a spin. If true, that's a considerable waste of fuel and crew resources. As a Canadian taxpayer, I'd expect VIA to do better than that, and a little bit of internal communication could have avoided it.

And if they do indeed have structural defects, then those should be discovered and repaired before these cars perform any more revenue service.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/20 19:37 by railsmith.

Went back to look.

The first VIA 12 left Vancouver eastbound on May 15.
Of that consist, one Skyline dome, one diner, and two Chateau sleepers returned to Vancouver on June 21 on VIA 11.

The second VIA 12 left Vancouver eastbound on May 25.
Of that consist, the two coaches returned to Vancouver on June 21 on VIA 11.

There have been three eastbound deadhead movements (No. 12) -- two originating at Vancouver (May 15 and 25) and one at Winnipeg (May 21). These moved a total of 59 cars to Toronto (and some of those were forwarded to Montreal in various runs of VIA Train No. 66).

There have been two return westbound movements (No 11). One was a five-car shorty to Winnipeg, arriving May 19 with five cars (baggage, 2 coaches, Skyline dome, Chateau sleeper); I've seen a video but couldn't get car numbers.  The second was the train photographed by Marcus on June 21. It left Toronto with 27 cars -- of those, 12 had gone east in one of the three No. 12 movements. So 32 cars coming west in total, with 20 making it as far as Vancouver.

The question is how many of these actually were inspected for structural defects, or is that now going to be done in Vancouver? 

 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/20 01:58 by railsmith.

railsmith Wrote:

>
> You missed the point. As Marcus noted, a VIA
> insider is suggesting that some of these cars may
> have been turned back from Montreal after a
> 3,000-mile-plus journey from Vancouver because
> Montreal couldn't handle the workload of
> inspections for structural defects. Now they come
> back all the way across the country, with nothing
> having been accomplished, other than giving their
> wheels a spin. If true, that's a considerable
> waste of fuel and crew resources. As a Canadian
> taxpayer, I'd expect VIA to do better than that,
> and a little bit of internal communication could
> have avoided it.
>
> And if they do indeed have structural defects,
> then those should be discovered and repaired
> before these cars perform any more revenue
> service.

It will be interesting to hear the full story. If there was insufficient space to store this equipment in Montreal there was no obvious reason to send it back to Vancouver. It could be stored in Toronto at the Maintenance Centre. There is plenty of space there. It is more crowded than I have seen it in many years, but there is still no shortage of space.

I went through that area today on a GO train. Most of the equipment is LRC and HEP-2 coaches and Business cars. But there was also a fair amount of sleepers, mostly in the Manor series, at least one dining car (Palliser) and two Park cars (Kokanee and Prince Albert.) 

That's interesting.
Business cars at the VIA Toronto Maintenance Centre.
Would those be private cars or does VIA own some ?
VIA doesn't move private cars, or do they ?

I took it as Coaches and Business 'Class' cars as VIA is not offering Business Class on any corridor trains during the pandemic.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/20 19:31 by ghCBNS.

Thank you.
Business class.  Don't see those in Vancouver.
Private varnish would be nice to see, though.
Just not behind the Park car.

ghCBNS Wrote:
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> I took it as Coaches and Business 'Class' cars as
> VIA is not offering Business Class on any corridor
> trains during the pandemic.
>
Several years ago VIA changed the class of "VIA 1" to "Business". When the VIA 1 cars were rebuilt the designation on the sides was changed to "Business Affaires".

I saw two of the rebuilt HEP-2 Business Class cars at the Maintenance Centre: 4000 and 4001. According to the 2019 annual report  two of the 10 VIA 1 cars had been rebuilt by the end of the year and three more were being worked on.