Canadian Railroads > East coast to Ontario recommendations

My wife and I are currently outlining a vacation per the title for late September into the beginning of October. We're thinking of flying into Halifax on September 25, then boarding the Ocean on Sunday the 27th. That lands us into Montreal on Monday, and we're thinking of spending a day or more there. From there we hope to go to Ottawa for a day (or partial day) then onward to Toronto. We have family to visit in southern Ontario, and aim to fly home on October 4. We appreciate history, hikes, cemetery walks, and infrastructure, and have traveled within the PNW of the US, and broadly through the Netherlands (and my wife has been through more of Europe)

Per the Halifax thread below, the Immigration museum and a cemetery walk are on our radar, and a niece suggested going to Lunenburg and seeing the Blue Nose while we're in the area.

My brother-in-law has been to Montreal a number of times and had a few ideas. Obviously I'd like to get to Exporail across the river, he suggested the Grand Staircase, St Catharines shopping, and both Saint Joseph's and Notre Dame as landmarks to see.

In Ottawa we intend to check out the Parliament buildings; I'm not sure how many more points of interest are there as it doesn't seem to have the same depth of history as a Montreal.

Once into southern Ontario we may head to Niagara Falls, and we have a couple of her siblings to visit while there. I think the CN Tower could be interesting, and I'd have to check the Blue Jays schedule to see if that's a possibility around then.

Has anyone on here done a similar trip; do any locals have any suggestions for less "stereotypical tourist" stops that capture the history and feel of the areas? Thanks all!

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Darren Boes
Lethbridge, AB
Southern Alberta Railfan

Exporail can be gotten to by train only weekdays on the Candiac line, leaving Montreal in the AM and departing Ste Constant around 1:30pm. Otherwise you rent a car, or go through some time-consuming suburban bus gymnastics out of Longuiel and very long walks. 

Good evening Darren
I'll be sending you a private message regarding Montreal
Stephen Wray

Toronto has what seems to be a nice railroad museum right at the base of CN Tower. We had plans to visit prior to our trip west on the Canadian, but Air Canada disrupted our plans and we weren't able to explore it

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