“The Route of ‘The Canadian’and its Branches”, by John Day, 5th September 2023
5th September 2023 Meeting.
For the start of our new season we welcomed back John Day, from the Ipswich Branch, with the theme of following the Route of ‘The Canadian’, VIA Rail Trains 1 and 2 between Vancouver and Toronto including a number of branches off the main East/West route.
There is a publication called ‘The Canadian Trackside Guide’ which is full of information for the photographer, all 700 PAGES of it!!
We passed through the Provinces of British Colombia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, a distance of 2775 miles [4466kms] and takes 3 ½ days [if it’s on time!!]
We saw mainly GM locos and visited various locations including Black Canyon, Ashcroft, Walhachin, Savona, Kamloops, Jasper National Park. We went up the 357 mile long branch line from Swan Landing to Glavin on the Savage Alberta Railway [known as Alberta RailNet] in the middle noughties. This company ran it from 1999 to 2005 until being bought out by CN.
We saw ‘The Royal Canadian Pacific’, the world’s finest luxury train with travel costing CD$14,000 [£8,165] for 4 nights and 5 days!!
CN5374/6034 With an American eastbound manifest at Birch Island BC on 18 Feb 2005. Image Credit: John Day.
Carrying on we saw trains at Revelstoke, Lake Louise, Morant’s Curve, and on the Winnipeg to Churchill Branch [1,054 miles] to mainly see the polar bears of which we saw quite a few and the temperature was -25°C with a wind chill factor of -40°C.
Also visited was the Dauphin Rail Museum in Manitoba and The Northern Ontario Railway Museum in Capreol.
A disappointing crowd of 19 saw an excellent evening from the ever popular photographer John Day.
Rob Davidson, Branch Secretary