polycon express 2

[British Columbia]A lonely trackside signal guarded a remote but busy stretch of track deep in the mountains of British Columbia. This seemed to be an important route by which grain from Manitoba and Saskatchewan reaches the port of Vancouver; based on the freight trains I saw I concluded that timber from the mountains, probably bound for Asia, and oil products from Alberta are two other important sources of railroad business. I wonder how the railroad keeps the track clear of snow in the winter.

[The end of the train] Here is the "Park" car at the end of the train, as seen from the bottom of the stairs to the dome, looking towards the rear of the car. The device in the center is a cup holder for drinks. Most of the train's passengers were eating dinner at this hour, so the lounge was almost completely empty. Unlike Amtrak, which often couples express freight cars on the end of its trains, VIA usually leaves its "Park" cars with unobstructed rear views. In addition to views from the rear lounge and the dome, the "Park" car offered passengers free fruit, coffee, and orange juice.

[Waterfall] This waterfall appeared on the right side of the train while I was still in the "Park" car, and I somehow managed to get a shot of it. The train was moving quite fast at the time; we had been over an hour late leaving Edmonton and seem to have been trying to make up time. Many of my attempts at photograraphy were spoiled when trackside trees suddenly appeared and blocked my view at the last second; as a result, many sights I think would have made good pictures escaped the camera.

[Locomotives] Two freight locomotives waited on sidings for the Canadian to pass. The deep bass throbbing of the diesels could be felt as we paused for a few moments, then slid slowly by. The engineer in the picture seemed a patient person; freight trains after all do a lot of stopping and starting, particularly on single-track lines like this one, and since they can be a mile or more in length they take a long time to start and stop. Trains running over the mountains seem to have four or five of these locomotives in front; some trains even had "helper" engines pushing at the rear as well.

[River and sky] A brief but spectacular rain storm created the opportunity for this picture. The river in the foreground is the Fraser River; several hundred miles downstream from here, at Vancouver, the river is half a mile across. It was early evening; the train was still about twelve hours from its destination, still running about an hour late. We were supposed to be in Pacific Central Station in Vancouver tomorrow morning at ten minutes of eight, but the actual arrival time would be closer to eight thirty.

[Vancouver yards] From a dining car dome the Canadian could be seen threading its way through the Vancouver freight yards. On either side of the train were grain cars from the Canadian Breadbasket, probably carrying wheat for export. Since it doesn't make much sense for Saskatchewan wheat to travel south via Vancouver, I imagine that all this grain, like the great rafts of logs floating down the river, was destined for Asia. Vancouver is the closest Canadian Pacific port to the grain growing regions of Canada.

[View from the dome] It was really nice up here. Having just had an excellent breakfast of french toast and real Canadian maple syrup, I retreated upstairs to watch the last few miles of the continent slide by. Because there were so many switches to cross, these last few miles took half an hour, including a wait just outside the station for a Rocky Mountain Rail Tours train, bound for Banff and Calgary, to leave. Rocky Mountain Rail Tours is a "land cruise" operation that runs on an irregular seasonal schedule; it's not usable as basic transportation. Incidentally, the lead locomotive on our train, which appears to have been added at Jasper to help us get over the mountains, had a Kool-Aid logo on its side instead of the usual "Canada".

[The last bridge] Crossing the last bridge over the Fraser River, VIA Rail Canada train #1, the westbound Canadian, headed for Vancouver's Pacific Central Station, its three-day transcontinental odyssey almost complete. That evening, as I sit aboard the southbound Amtrak train for Seattle, waiting for the rest of the passengers to clear customs, I saw this train begin its long journey back eastwards as train #2, with a Wisconsin Central business car trailing.

I had several hours between trains in Vancouver, so I headed for Stanley Park via the Sky Train, Vancouver's high-tech automated rapid transit system. The park, and the city as a whole, is a wonderful place; when I come to Seattle for alt.polycon 7 next April I'm going to come up here again. I could spend a couple of days just exploring the park, with its redwood groves, its seawall path, and its many walking trails. The air here is fresh off the Pacific Ocean; it has the same refreshing, invigorating quality as the ocean breeze on the central California coast.

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