We boarded VIA Rail Canadian's Chateau Car 231 (Chateau Cadillac) on Friday evening, September 25, about an hour before the scheduled 8:30 departure. We had purchased Prestige Class tickets for the trip. Our car was the middle car in the three Prestige-Class cars that were the end cars in the train consist, the last car just behind us being the Prince Albert Park dome car where we spent a lot of time on the trip. It was dark when we departed Pacific Central station, and we spent our time unpacking and devouring the hors d'oeuvres and champagne they brought to our room. A quick shower in the phone-booth-sized shower in our cabin bathroom, then onto the double Murphy bed the attendant had lowered for us. We slept well. Here's what our room looked like.
Note: Many of the pictures and videos taken during this trip were shot through the train's windows. The glass was not always completely clean or without imperfections, and the train was usually moving. Also noticeable in some of these pictures is the reflection on the windows of people or objects inside the train. Just remember: Looking at these pictures costs you nothing, at least until you open this page, at which point your credit card will be charged. (Thanks for your patronage.)
When we awoke early Saturday morning and pulled up the window shade, this is what we saw. The train was stopped on a siding waiting for another train to pass in the opposite direction. (Those are not flying saucers in the clouds, just early morning sunlight filtering through water droplets on the window outside. Or maybe the reflection of lights inside our room. Or maybe flying saucers.)
It's interesting to note that, despite the route from Vancouver to Toronto being a main rail line across Canada, it is mostly single-tracked. Since freight trains normally get priority (as they de facto often do in the U.S. except where Amtrak owns the rail line), our passenger train often pulled onto a siding to let one or more freight trains pass. Sometimes the wait was considerable, up to a couple of hours. Not sure why the railroads in Canada don't invest in double-tracking such a heavily used line.
Much of our time on the train was spent in the dome car, which was very crowded with Japanese tourists until we got to Jasper late Saturday afternoon, at which point they all detrained and disappeared. The Prestige Class dome car (there were four dome cars in the train consist) was the last car on the train, and the inside looked like this.
By midmorning we were starting to see some bigger hills on both sides of the train. By noon we were winding our way into the mountains.
A note about dining during our trip. The dining car was located three cars forward from our Prestige car. It was ordinary by dining car standards, one of two (or maybe three) dining cars in the train consist, and served not just Prestige customers but also others traveling under different Class offerings (First, Economy, etc.). The food was almost always excellent, but the real fun of dining was that at most meals we were seated opposite someone new. Some of our tablemates were a couple from France, he a retired court bailiff and she trying to keep up with the English conversation; a couple in their eighties who were still farming in central California (almonds and oranges, I think); a young English traveler who was a district (right word?) supervisor for British Rail; several older women traveling alone--one from Australia whose ultimate destination was her sister's home in Germany; a young couple from Australia out to see more of the world; a South-African emigre who moved to Arkansas looking for a more peaceful life; a truly diverse set of people and always interesting.