Ontario Northland service to return

Just-Thinking-51 said:

Does anyone have a old schedule for this train?

I recall it once ran overnight, but the last few years it was daylight service.

Thanks in advance.

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There were two separate trains. The Northlander, operated by ONR, was always a daytime train with various types of equipment during its time. The Northland was a CN/VIA train with sleeping cars, etc., and was definitely an overnight train. It used to zip through the commuter rail station north of Toronto where I'd be waiting many mornings and carried an interesting array of CN, VIA and ONR equipment. I can dig out the schedules when I return home next month unless someone has them sooner.

jiml said:

There were two separate trains. The Northlander, operated by ONR, was always a daytime train with various types of equipment during its time. The Northland was a CN/VIA train with sleeping cars, etc., and was definitely an overnight train. It used to zip through the commuter rail station north of Toronto where I'd be waiting many mornings and carried an interesting array of CN, VIA and ONR equipment. I can dig out the schedules when I return home next month unless someone has them sooner.

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I remember the Northland, the overnight VIA service, ran through to Kapuskasing. It was axed as part of the 1990 cuts. The Northlander, as you say, was a day train, although I believe there was a period maybe 15-20 years ago when for some reason it ran daylight in one direction and overnight in the other, even though it had no sleepers. Apparently ONR was trying to have one train set cover both directions, but the overnight run resulted in really unattractive times for most of the intermediate points.

The old VIA schedules can be found online a few places. Grabbing a schedule before and after 1990 at random:

Summer 1989: VIA Northlander:
Northbound, Toronto 2125, North Bay 0230, Cochrane 0930, Kapuskasing 1145.
Southbound, 1740, Cochrane 2005, North Bay 0310, Toronto 0810.

ONR Northland: (daily except Saturday)
Northbound, Toronto 1205, North Bay 1700, Timmins 2230.
Southbound, Timmins 0815, North Bay 1345m Toronto 1835.

Summer 1994 shows ONR operating to Cochrane with a bus connection to Timmins, but basically the same schedule as before: 1200-2150 northbound, 0850-1835 southbound.

If you go back to the 70s you'll see an additional Toronto-North Bay round trip (morning south evening north), and some variety which the "off" day was for the 6-days-a-week train.

Siegmund said:

If you go back to the 70s you'll see an additional Toronto-North Bay round trip (morning south evening north), and some variety which the "off" day was for the 6-days-a-week train.

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That was the "cottage train". It was Friday northbound leaving Toronto in the evening and returning southbound on Sunday, allowing a weekend visit. My wife would drive up north to a friend's home during the day on Friday and I'd grab the train from work downtown and get dropped at a level crossing on the road into our friend's place. The Dutch TEE sets, pulled by an F7, had a very nice dining car to enjoy for the evening run. We'd drive back together, so I never rode the southbound.

The Northlander schedule from Nov. 1997, which continued through at least the end of 2002:
Southbound Cochrane 6:05, North Bay 11:30, Toronto 16:25
Northbound Toronto 18:20, North Bay 23:35, Cochrane 5:00

By 2005 it was back to daylight in both directions. The schedule from 12/15/10, which I believe was in effect through the end of service in 2012, was:
Southbound Cochrane 8:00, North Bay 13:35, Toronto 19:15
Northbound Toronto 8:40, North Bay 14:05, Cochrane 19:25

Intermediate stops at the end were Porquis Junction, Matheson, Swastika, Englehart, New Liskeard, Cobalt, Temagami, North Bay, South River, Huntsville, Bracebridge, Gravenhurst and Washago.

From the Summer 1980 VIA system timetable:

AmtrakMaineiac said:

From the Summer 1980 VIA system timetable:View attachment 31466

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The Northland consists were conventional "heritage" rolling stock; the Northlanders were converted Dutch TEE three-car sets with a cab car on one end and an F7A on the other. Later the F7s were replaced with four-axle "Geeps" and a generator car made from ex-Milwaukee FB units.

Trains 120, 123 & 124 were the weekend-only "cottage trains" and usually featured the Dutch trainsets. Later Hawker-Siddeley single-level commuter cars were modified with long-distance seats at the expense of ride quality and the TEE dining car.

I would definitely want to take this trip once it starts up. would be an interesting ride.