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MrFSS

MrFSS

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Mar 13, 2004
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9,712
Location
Central Kentucky
My wife and I will take #1 from Totonto to Jasper and then the Rocky Mountaineer from Banff to Vancouver the first part of May.

Couple of questions if I could:

We will be in and Upper & Lower birth on the Via train. Is there a place to store our handbag when the births are made up for sleeping? I have tried to look at the pictures on Via's website and it is hard to tell.

Anyone know if there are any power outlets available in the sitting area that could be used during the day. It looks like, again from the website pictures, that there is a table between the seats. Is there room on a seat for two to sit next to each other or does one have to ride backwards?

For such a long train it appears there are only two domes. Is it difficult to get a seat in them? I would assume they are usually crowded?

I assume it is safe to leave our bag at our seat area when we go to meals, the dome car, etc.

Any comments on this are appreciated.

Tom
 
MrfSS---About berths (note spelling, an "e' not an "i") I have not ridden in one for years but I did see them on the Canadian last fall so I will answer as well as I can.

There should be plenty of storage space under the lower bed berth.

There is not a permanet table but no doubt one can be set up, or perhaps folded out. I do not know about power outlets, I am am not into that.

There is plenty of room in the berth seats by day, you can face each other or not, plenty of room.

The train is not always that long. When I returned from Vancouver to Toronto last September it was 30 cars long (three of them deadhead) and here were about four domes and enough room. People come and go all the time. Should not be a problem.

It is my understanding that the train can be much smaller in the winter time. Of course we are coming upon spring and it might start getting long again.

And dining was somehow not a problem even for a train that huge. Lunch and dinner was all by strict reservation and they made it work.

And the shower will be right around the corner from your berths.

Have a good trip and let us know what happens.

Things have a way of working out on the Canadian.
 
Thanks, Bill - also for correcting my spelling. We are really looking forward to this trip. Your trip report from last year is part of the reason we decided to go.

I will have a full report and pictures when we get home.

Tom
 
I just returned from a Tornoto to Vancouver trip. We had nine cars and picked up five dead heading along the way. The train was pretty full but not overcrowded. There seemed to be plenty of room in the sections for both sitting and "stuff." The done in the "park" car for first-class use did fill at times, but there was always room in the end of the car lounge and frankly the view was often better.
 
Make that "dome" in the park car. The dome car behind the two coaches did appear to be full almost every time I walked back there.
 
Dome will be full when leaving Toronto. Find something else to do for 2-3 hours and there are usually some empty seats the rest of the trip.
 
Again I really did not feel deprived of a dome. My train was very long and had many domes on it. I got a good workout just walking the full length of it about twice a day.

One thing is to sit in the downstairs lounge and wait and see when people come downstairs from the dome.

And don't forget to visit the dome at night---that can be super special---it is a little secret---few people know about it. But what happens you see the lights of the train going around and around and around 100,000 curves. Since your train will almost surely be much shorter than mine, you will also see the locmotive lights snaking around the curves also (much more frequently than I did) .

It is pure fascination....I sat there mesmerized,and almost alone, because people do not know how neat it is just to see the lights of the train going around and around at night. For your probably-much-shorter-than-mine train, you will definately do this from the park car, not anything further up.

And be sure to properly appreciate the observation lounge at the rear of the park car. It may seem funny to call THAT (the rear end, not the dome) an observatin car, since one can obviously "observe" more from a dome. But....the thing is.....observation cars( referring to the tapered rear on the Park dar) were invented long before domes. So, they got the name first!!

BTW, the oldest form of an observation car, from the old heavyweight era, is something you have seen pictures of, no doubt. You, I am sure , have seen photos of Presidents, other politicans and prominent persons speaking from the rear of a train. You have seen railings, awnings, platforms,etc. That was the oldest style of observation car. Then, in the streamline era the round end observation car replaced that.

Some business cars have old style observation platforms, also.

Uh OH, as I re-read this, I begin to realize that some of my fascinating with the train at night was with its monstrous length---you will probably not be so lucky. However---as you will no doubt get to see the locomotive headlights so much better than I did, perhaps one will make up for the other.
 
Thanks, Bill - we are really looking forward to this trip. Other than a few dinner trains that had domes, the last time I was in a dome on a long trip was in 1963 when I rode the Portland rose to Chicago from out west.

They actually had tables and served meals in the dome in the evening on that train. I remember the lights, etc that you mention.

We can hardly wait to take this trip. We are also doing the Rocky Mountaineer from Banff to Vancouver in Gold Leaf class and I'm told that is exceptional service.
 
MrFSS said:
Thanks, Bill - we are really looking forward to this trip.  Other than a few dinner trains that had domes, the last time I was in a dome on a long trip was in 1963 when I rode the Portland rose to Chicago from out west.
They actually had tables and served meals in the dome in the evening on that train.  I remember the lights, etc that you mention.  

We can hardly wait to take this trip.  We are also doing the Rocky Mountaineer from Banff to Vancouver in Gold Leaf class and I'm told that is exceptional service.
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Actually, there was a train called the "Portland Rose" ( a "secondary" train, which I don't think had domes) , but I suspect you were on a much nicer train, a streamliner called the "City of Portland". It had dome diners, dome lounges and dome coaches. On some railroads there were dome sleepers also.

The vast majority of domes were coach domes. But I believe you rode in an actual dome diner, a rare bird. I rode in the same kind of car on another of the "City"trains.

The domes on the Canadian have coach seating at the top , but are on top of lounge cars of two different kinds, the coffee shop and the park car. But when I say "dome lounge" I mean one on the City of Portland but not on the Canadian in whcih the upstairs is in a permanet lounge format. And by "dome diner" it was one in which there was a permanet eating space on the top level as well as below.

When I rode in that dome diner from the "City of Los Angeles" it a was the highlight of my rail experience up to that time. I had the most expensive steak possible(and meals were not included back then) .
 
but I suspect you were on a much nicer train, a streamliner called the "City of Portland". It had dome diners, dome lounges and dome coaches. On some railroads there were dome sleepers also.
Click to expand...
You are correct. It was the City of Portland. I was in the service stationed in Denver and was going home on leave. I even have the timetable that shows the train and its equipment. I had dinner shortly after boarding in Denver and stayed in the dome until near midnight as I recall it, now 42 years later!

UPTable.jpg
 
MrFs,

Have a great trip; I did the same trip two years ago. Park car is great, the dome only filled now and then, and that was July. Other than that, the train was not crowded at all. I actually like the other dome car better. Two different kinds of lounge areas in that car. VERY friendly crew and nice scenery all round. Best train ride ever!
 
I rode the Canatian in Oct. 2004 from Toronto to Vancover as one leg of a much longer trip. It was the most enjoyable trip of my 40,000 miles on trains the last three years. The dome in the Park Car on my train did not have very much use. Lots of the time I was the only one in it. Bill is so right about riding in the dome at night. Night or day the scenery on the entire trip was spectacular. There is an electricial outlet in your room. The rooms are very small (smaller than Amtrak). The attentant will bring you a small table if you ask. About two years ago I bought a roadmap GPS (about $125) and connected it to my laptop. It shows exactly where you are, the trains speed and your elevation. It has been lots of fun to me. I know that you will enjoy your trip.

RK
 
Thanks - as I have mentioned, we are looking forward to it. I bought a new 1 gig card for my Nikon so I now have capacity for about 500 pictures without having to download to my computer.
 
I am sorry about the spelling. I knew how to spell "Canadian" I just hit the wrong Key. The "GPS" has nothing to do with a camera.

RK
 

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