Part 1
I do not
remember traveling on the train before, but my brother maintains we traveled to
St Catharine’s in the distant past. I do travel on the GO train, from time to
time.
My best
memories of trains, was meeting my Aunt, arriving in Kingston from Montreal.
The steam locomotives where huge, and passenger service was at its prime. A few
things stand out, one was a freight locomotive on its side near the station,
possibly from rounding the curve too fast. The other, the little engine that
could. There had been a problem with the locomotive pulling the passenger train
from Montreal, and the only engine nearby, was a small switcher engine. This
little engine arrived with the passenger train, about an hour or so late. After
unloading and loading passengers, many of the passengers stood on the platform
to watch the little engine. As the little engine prepared to leave, it had
built up enough steam pressure to pop the safely valve, and smoke was streaming
out of the smoke stack.
First he spun his wheels backing up, then he
went forward, the train moved a few feet and stopped, So he backed up again,
After several attempts with sparks flying off the spinning wheels, and smoke
billowing from the smoke stack, he got the train to move slowly away. The crowd
gave a cheer and the little engine a toot toot and train slowly left town.
Nowadays
things are a bit different, steam has gone, not only is the locomotive, but the
train is heated, cooled and otherwise supported by electricity. But the concept
is the same. Via Rail has rebuilt the rail cars, most of which were built in
the mid fifties. There are still upper, and lower berths, plus cabins of
various sizes. The meals follow the tradition of being excellent. Your bed will be prepared for you if you
wish, and the service was very good.
So we start
out a 10pm at night, from Union Station. Actually everyone goes to the lounge
in the station, and we are informed about the dining car times, and we select
our lunch and dinner sitting.
On board I
discovered my cubicle was very small, about 7
X 4.5 ft, but it proved to be well laid out, had a sink, and toilet, good lighting, and a
comfortable bed that folded down from the wall. Only problem the bed folded
over the toilet, and so you had to lift it up, to use the toilet at night. The
cubicle also had a large window, and when the bed was up, you had a comfortable
chair to sit in.
A shower was
located at the end of the car, it was roomy, and lots of hot water. The shower,
and I think the sink emptied out of the train, along the rail bed.
Of course
the first thing to do was find the dome car, in fact all 13 sleeper class
passengers gathered there. In the summer
up to 300 are accommodated on a much longer train.
We were
treated to champagne, and a magnificent view of Toronto, from the dome, and our
hostess explained what to expect on our trip.
See Part 2
Just in case
you were interested
