Canadian Railroads > Ocean on the Border

Here's VIA 15, the westbound Ocean, on September 16, 2016 crossing the Tantramar Marsh from Nova Scotia into New Brunswick.  The track here, originally constructed by the Intercolonial Rwy., is built on old Acadian dikes along the shore of the Bay of Fundy.  The track here is very close to sea level.  It becomes an even greater problem when high tide coincides with an on-shore wind, with waves sometimes breaking over the track.

In the going-away shot, Revelstoke Park is passing over a recently reinforced section of the embankment, where the river runs very close to the dike.

GTD

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Beautiful.
Bob

Superb; the clean, weed-free railhead in the second shot is impressive.
Fred

Thanks for the photo's.

Several years ago a friend and I were chasing the eastbound Ocean in the same area and I was really impressed with the mud flats.  Wow.

JBWX



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/20 21:27 by jbwest.

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Very nice pictures of a GREAT train. Understandably, not operating at present, but this train, even on a tri-weekly basis still had a pretty healthy consist of 8 sleepers.......Made no sense whatsoever to reduce it from six days a week to three; both the non-financial and financial data proved as much afterwards. Who would have thunk back in 2005 or so that the ex-CP stainless steel Budd cars would be outliving the newly acquired Renaissance rail cars. I know VIA's determined to retire the Renaissance rail cars. Only one train set out of three were kept operational. I know there's also mixed reaction from the travelling public on their comfortability, but at least VIA realized the Renaissance Service Cars weren't adequate enough. VIA went to pretty great lengths (having the Renaissance Transition Cars outfitted) to ensure the hallmark tail-end Park Dome/Observation Car could be included in the Ocean consists.

I doubt Amtrak would have done this for a largely "non-revenue" based car. But VIA soon found that they could sell the bedrooms as "suites" and charge a premium for it in the Park Car. A nice upsell and utilization.

With the Superliner Trans Dorm/Sleepers sidelined, Amtrak should be going through some sort of standard overhaul to get the downstairs handicap rooms fully operational once again, outfitting the former conductor's office with a roomette bedroom kit, and converting the former employee lounge area into a large "family" suite of some sort. There's really no reason for an employee lounge in the Superliner Trans/Dorm Sleeper anymore, especially if it can command a premium as a revenue space. Yes, some conductors setup  "office" at the booth of one of the former employee lounge booths in the Superliner Trans Dorm/Sleepers, but I think they could be re-located or another space carved out somewhere in this car or on the train in general. Amtrak could take out one of the bathrooms on the lower level of the car (across from the luggage rack). Plenty of bathrooms and shower space in this car as it exists.  

Sorry off topic - but in these pictures of the Ocean train set, just trying to show that VIA seens to have an extra passion or drive to try to ensure passengers have the amenities on board for passengers. It was a creative process to put the Park Car back on the train set - at first seasonal, then year-round - and even outfit the train with a good amount of sleepers. Sure, only 10 rooms per car, but in total Ocean seems to have more berths available on its train overall - compared to what Amtrak's operating on its single night trains:

Viewliner = 12 roomettes, 3 bedrooms on a Viewliner =  15 rooms at double capacity = 30 berths per Viewliner. Two Viewliners per train set is 60 capacity, three Viewliners would be 90 berths. 

Ocean's carrying nearly double of what Amtrak's offering, or was back when things were in heyday: 8 Renaissance sleepers, 10 rooms per sleeper with double capacity = 8 x 10 x 2 = 160 berths.    

Again, nice picture of a GREAT train, showing off a train set that VIA's tried to adapt for the comforts of Maritime travellers. 

jbwest Wrote:
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> Several years ago a friend and I were chasing the
> eastbound Ocean in the same area and I was really
> impressed with the mud flats.  Wow.

"Highest tides in the world" is the claim.  There's a lot of mud at low tide!

I see you found the town of Sackville's sewage treatment plant, and the road that runs south of the bridge. :-)  That was a spot I only discovered in the last year or so, but it can provide a neat perspective, and it's easy to drive to.  The location in my photos at the top of the thread is difficult to reach unless it had been very dry or the land is frozen, owing to the wet nature of the marsh.

GTD

cn6218 Wrote:
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> "Highest tides in the world" is the claim. 
> There's a lot of mud at low tide!
>

A view from the Ocean in winter....

'Chocolate flavored' ice-cubes!!

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