In August of 2001, I was e-mailing back and forth with Ed Louzeaux, and he mentioned that several model railroaders from out his way were going to take the train across Canada to the NMRA Convention in Toronto in 2003.
I told him I had always wanted to take that trip. His reply was, "Why don't you come along?" I thought about it and said I would. It was that simple. I was in.
Then at the 2002 NASG Convention in Cleveland I agreed to be the auctioneer at the NASG convention in Wisconsin in 2003.
I somehow had the dates confused, and there turned out to be an overlap in the dates. The NASG convention was well before the NMRA, but the NASG was taking place while we would be on the train. If I rode all the way to Toronto, I'd get to the NASG convention sometime on Saturday.
That wasn't enough time to make it worthwhile.
I talked to Ed, not wanting to desert him when I'd promised to share a room with him on the train. He said why not ride through the mountains and get off somewhere in Manitoba or Alberta. I had thought of this myself, but I wasn't sure how Ed would react. Since he suggested it, I figured why not?
So on July 7th, I flew to Vancouver, where I spent a restless night in the airport.
I met Ed the next morning, and we were picked up by John Whitmore,
the man behind Kaslo Shops. Ed wanted to talk to John about some future S scale
products, so John agreed to tour us around Vancouver and drop us off at the train
station in the afternoon.
All went according to plan, and at about 4:00 pm we bid John farewell at the station and the real adventure began.
Ed and I found our room on the train, and wandered back to the
first dome car to take in the sights as the train left town.
The view was great and the complimentary champagne was a nice addition. After a few hours of watching the scenery, we ambled up to the diner. The food was spectacular.
After dinner, it was back to the dome car where we stayed and talked trains and watched scen- ery until dark as the train rolled through the Fraser River Canyon.
I awoke refreshed after my first night sleeping in a bed on
a train. Before this I'd only slept in a coach seat. Not as nice.
We ate a great breakfast and watched in awe as the train wound through the Canadian Rockies.
We arrived at Jasper where we had an hour layover, so we got out and walked around town.
After getting back on the train we found that a private car that was on the back of the train since Vancouver had been removed. Elated, we headed for the dome car.
After about ten minutes they made first call for lunch and everyone
in the car cleared out except for Ed and me. For the next hour and a half we had
the entire observation car to ourselves. We didn't even go into the dome. We
just sat in the observation and watched the beautiful scenery roll by the window.
It must have been what it was like to ride trains back in the 1950's.
After dinner we retreated to the observation car once more and talked trains with the other model railroaders on the trip.
Somewhere in the night we passed into Saskatchewan. I don't remember much of it because it was dark, but we awoke the next morning in Manitoba, and all too soon the train was pulling off.
It was sad to leave the comfort, and relaxed pace of the train
to rejoin the hectic world of air travel, but the NASG convention was ahead, so
that eased the pain just a bit.
I had seen four new provinces in three days, and I didn't have to drive through any of it. So ended one of the greatest adventures of my life.
Thus concludes Part 1 of Jamie Bothwell's 2003 Canadian Summer Vacation. I'm not sure how many more parts there are to this story. But it is something that many of us would love to do, to travel across the beautiful Canadian provinces by train and enjoy the fellowship of fellow model railroaders.
A Special "Thank You" to Jamie, his story telling, and his photography, both are absolutely spell bounding. Also, many "Thanks" has to go to Ed Loizeaux, who made all this possible. ed.