Crossing the North American Continent in Canada by vintage rail is a magnificent experience.This trip appealed to me because in the forties and fifties I had taken a several trips from Chicago to Los Angeles on a number of now historic trains, like the El Capitan and The Golden State Limited, so there was a very strong nostalgic element in choosing to do this. Also railways were the central focus of distance travel prior to the age of the airlines. Our town had the familiar experience of many passenger and freight trains passing through or making stops many times a day. The sounds were a part of our aural landscape, even as far back as the chug-chugs of the steam types prior to diesels. My memories are always prodded if I happen to be visiting a locale where across the still night air the sound of a train whistle breaks the quiet of the evening. It seemed to promise mystery and adventure.
 

http://www.cohs.org/index.htm                                            http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/

 

During the depression, the homeless hitched rides on the empty freight cars from place to place, seeking survival if not work. They were referred to as hobos and sometimes would canvass a town asking for food at the back doors of homes. Mother was a softie, often giving them a thick slice of homemade bread with churned butter and an apple, despite the anecdotal warning that the hobos had a grapevine identifying, by some code, where the productive homes were. Hobo was considered a less pejorative term than tramp, I think because everyone realized that except for the grace of God ............................etc.

In the present generation, hobo is more commonly applied to those wishing to delay entry into the world of work, or those wishing to add the depth of education obtained by global travel, these are sometimes referred to as "backpack" hobos. Sometimes they save enough from a menial job to start a leg of their objective, then after using that nestegg,  they obtain another menial job and save to go onward to the next destination. Of course, wealthy parents sometimes subsidize these travels thinking it will add to the maturity and knowledge they want their children to have. Others may take advantage of parents, return home, live-in with them, save again and leave for another trip
.
In Vancouver B.C. a group of gals I pal'd around with met one on the SkyTrain, he was from Australia, we engaged him in conversation and he had quite a tale of travel to share. He looked the part, was coated with coal dust because that was the labor job he was working in order to replenish his funds.

http://world.nycsubway.org/canada/vancouver/skytrain.html

My choice was to take the trip from East to West and to add on an extension in Victoria. It's a 2800 mile ride on the rails. And there was an interim motorcoach trip to locations one does not want to miss in Canada. The trip was to depart Toronto after three days of exploring that interesting city. There was time for a city tour on a double decker sight-seeing bus, a harbor tour and time to explore the museums and other attractions. Our group domiciled at the Metropolitan hotel in central Toronto, a very clean city, handsome buildings, easy to get around, and in July very comfortable temperatures.I hope to repeat this trip in the future going from West to East in late September or early October.

Enter a bit of drama! The train on its journey eastward, several hundred miles west of Toronto had a collision at a crossing with a lumber truck, derailing and damaging a number of the restored cars but luckily there were no serious injuries or fatalities. However it left our group in quite a bind. Our hotel could not extend our stay so the rail operator VIA Rail had to try to find accommodations for us while they scavengered for cars to replace the wrecked ones. After our check out we assembled at the railstation to await announcement of how this was all going to be handled. After a restless couple of hours we were told the interim plan. We could take another city tour or explore on our own and dinner arrangements had been made at the York a very upscale hotel and we could also take advantage of the gym facility there. Then they would try to make another announcement at dinner. By then they had arranged for a charter plane to take us to Winnipeg the closest place they could obtain enough rooms, and to depart from there when they finally assembled enough passenger rail cars. However these would not be the restored historic cars that we had hoped to be provided. In Winnipeg, where we waited two more days, we were free to visit any sights, or theater, whatever we chose to do, and turn in the receipts for reimbursement. We found many places to visit and I especially like the museum there. There was also the option of taking a Red River boat tour ride that many of us used I think to just rest from pounding the pavement as tourists.

All were so relieved at finally getting under way on a train that the disappointment over the restored cars having been put out of commission quickly dissipated. There was so much passing scenery to oh and ah at, and adapting to the routine of the dining car rotations for seating at the meals and so forth. In the dome cars everyone was sharing the forward seats equitably and it also afforded more time to get to know each other. It is always surprising to discover the diversity of the composition of the group. This was a much larger group than I usually choose to travel with, but that was because of the necessity of filling the train, there were other groups too and I have forgotten how many in total . Alaska, New York, Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado, Maryland, Tennessee, North Carolina, Connecticut, Arizona and California were all represented.
 

There was a family from Brazil, I asked them how they had picked this trip and they said they had seen it advertised in a travel magazine. They were somewhat more disturbed about our delayed time schedule. We were not only late getting started but were missing our estimated arrivals at stops along the way. All other rail traffic has priority so we were often sidelined while what seemed like miles of freight whizzed by. This sometimes happened at night and the stopping of movement would wake one from sleep. My accommodation was a roomette, and I found it easy to adapt to with its pull out bed.

After crossing Manitoba and Saskatchewan, having the restful experience of viewing a varied rural landscape, we deboarded at Jasper. Our time here was shortened by the late schedule caused by the many sidelinings the past forty eight hours. But disappointment was shortlived, as we took a motorcoach through the Icefields Parkway, where you get fantastic views of the largest body of ice in Canada, the Columbia Ice Fields. If you book the trip June through September you will get a heart-in-your-throat ride in a snocoach to Athabasca Glacier. I loved the time on the glacier and our tour leader had a tough time getting us back aboard the snocoach to return to the motorcoach and head for Lake Louise where we were scheduled to lunch at the Chateau and then motor to our next overnite at Banff.
 
More later about the remainder of the trip.

.

http://www.pogo.org.uk/railway/index.html

 

I would love to spend a summer in England and ride the vintage trains that have been restored to operation for pleasure and nostalgic purposes. The above site has many features and will tempt you to also dream  of taking time to experience such tempting rides.

 

In my youth there was a two-car passenger train that we could ride in the summer to go to a nearby lake for the day. We dubbed it "The Dinky". The trains on the UK site reminded me of that, hadn't thought of it in years.

---

 
Miscellania  
 Cabooses are no longer used.  Remote radio devices or end of train devices (EOT) tell the train engineer whether or not the last car is moving, the brakes working, and if the flashing red light is working.