VIA Rail Canada at Jasper, Alberta

On the holiday tour with our guests from Switzerland the last stop was Jasper, Alberta - smack in the middle of the Canadian Rockies - from where they left on the eastbound Canadian two days later. But on Aug 28th we were waiting for VIA #1 the westbound Canadian which was 90+ minutes behind schedule.

Also waiting was train #5 "The Skeena" for passengers that were transfering from the Canadian.
In prep for #1's arrival the Skeena had to move from the house track to the mainline adjacent to it.

[video=vimeo;48822748]http://www.vimeo.com/48822748[/video]

While we were driving up the Icefields Parkway the weather changed considerably, brilliant sunshine at Banff and Lake Louise, getting cloudier going North. In Jasper it was blowing big time, but luckily the rain held off.
#1 finally arrived.

[video=vimeo;49735226]http://www.vimeo.com/49735226[/video]

Right after I left for Edson, AB; from where I planned a visit to the coalfields the following day.


PS Why is this in the CN section? Because VIA was on CN's tracks. Aaannnd the VIA station crew was not happy that the Canadian was late (again), from comments made it seems like a regular routine since CN figures that freight is much more important than people.

:question:

Well yes of course, after all this is North America where many railroaders wouldn't know what a well run passenger system looks like.

:uhoh:

Or that trains can actually be scheduled and then stick to those schedules.

 

17 months ago I needed an aortic heart valve replacement - congenital defect - and missed the tour which included the Skeena. My equal half - who is also slightly train crazy - went on the tour and summed up the ride like this: "there sure is a lot of forest between Rupert and PG, I guess you could see most of it from the road, too."


And she was very disappointed that the obs-car wasn't on the train. VIA's excuse: too early in the season. Hmmmm, really???

hboy:hboy:

Be that as it may, the trip is on the list. That is the road trip, getting shots along the ex-BCR line to PG, then the CN line to Rupert, next the ferry to Skagway and shoot the WP&YR from terra firma instead of the train. Come home along the Alaska Highway and if time allows shoot along the ex-BCR around Dawson Creek and all that good stuff.

Man, there's always more railway than time.

 

I don't know much about VIA, but No. 1 is one monster long passenger train. The consist looks much more interesting than AMTRAK here in the states.
:startled:

 

Did you notice that a vista or dome car was every 5 cars ? I counted 25 cars total.

 

Yes, lots of tourist traffic this time of year. And it seemed longer than other times.
I have an eastbound still to edit, yep that one was late, too, and I was sweating it. Between the moving clouds and the sun getting really close to setting ... it was a crap shoot what the light would be like, but my dumb luck held and the sun was on the train at the chosen spot.

 

Hey, I'm just quoting what my equal half related regarding the Skeena ride.

You know that is one of the reasons why I'm not hot to trot on riding the train and filming. Even on the Rocky Mountaineer you need to book Gold Leaf in order to have a decent viewing/shooting platform. I have a sequence of the RM (yet to be edited) where they have a slow-roll over a really nice bridge, but that's really lost if you're on the train. Can't really see the bridge, you just see the trench the river created.

BTW our guests from Switzerland where umming and ahhing for weeks - before coming over - what they wanted to do. Rent a car, ride the Canadian, ride the Mountaineer etc. etc. I finally suggested that I'd play tour guide and we'd go by car Vernon to Canmore and Canmore to Jasper. Well, that dumb luck that I mention quite often, it worked big time. The way things fell into place at the right time and the right place was uncanny.