The Great Canadian Epic, Part 2: Crossing the Canadian Shield

As I stated in the first post in this series, VIA Rail's deluxe trans-Canada train, The Canadian, has no onboard wifi service, and passes through sizable regions where even cellphone signals are hard to come by.

The result is that I am posting my first update on the actual trip from Winnipeg -- already halfway across the country!  Easy to do, because the train stops here for four hours for servicing and crew change.

Before departure from Toronto, all Sleeper Plus class passengers are entitled to use the Business Class lounge in Union Station, just off the west end of the Great Hall.  Free coffee, tea, juices and soft drinks are available.  Train staff come into the lounge to scan all tickets and to make dining car reservations for the first full day of the trip.  When it's time to board, you're called by PA announcement to head downstairs to the departure concourse, and then up to the train.  Staff are on hand to direct you to the proper car.  Since the train leaves at 10:00 pm, the beds are already made up for the night.

One of the oddest features of this trip from Toronto to the west coast (for my money, anyway) is that you start out by travelling almost in a circle before heading off east and northeast!  The Canadian uses the CN line up the east side of Lake Simcoe, but leaves Union Station westbound, before heading north, then east, and finally turning northeastward!  It then continues along a meandering course to the north and northeast, curving around the lake and its northward extension of Lake Couchiching to the northern tip at Washago. 

That’s the first timetabled stop, but (like most of the stops in Ontario) it’s available only by advance reservation.  No reservations, no stop.  The location is significant because Washago is the place where the train crosses the Severn River which flows from Lakes Simcoe and Couchiching into Georgian Bay.  This river’s wandering course marks the edge of the primeval brooding wilderness of the Canadian Shield.

It may come as a surprise to many, but the Shield was actually a far more formidable obstacle to the railway builders than the western mountains – partly due to the diamond-hard ancient rocks but mostly because of its sheer size.  The train entered the Shield at Washago yesterday morning at 12:40 am and didn’t leave the Shield for the western prairies until about 5:30 am this morning – a total of nearly 29 hours.  And for most of that time the train was rolling steadily forward at speeds ranging from 70 to 90 kilometres per hour.  Building a railway across this vast stony wilderness was indeed an epic feat of organization and construction.  The task required thousands and thousands of labourers, and consumed untold tons upon tons of explosives.

That wasn’t all it consumed.  Many lakes in the Shield have gradually filled up over the course of thousands of years with dead plant material.  Eventually, the piled up material rises to a point that the lake turns into a marsh and then into apparently solid ground called “muskeg”.  But don’t kid yourself.  The underneath material is still spongy and soft, and can’t support heavy weights.  Time and again, the railway builders built a mile of track over a nice flat stretch, and then woke up the next morning to find that the brand-new track had disappeared, sometimes taking an entire train with it.  They then tried dumping rock fill into the muskegs, and watched carload upon carload of big boulders vanish without a trace.  More rock.  Thousands of tree trunk pilings.  More rock.  Eventually the muskegs were tamed and the line completed, but the cost had been frightful. 

What you see from the train window today is basically an unbroken sweep of forest, dotted with lakes and interspersed with steep rocky hills.  On some lakes you can see cabins which may be year-round homes or simply seasonal hunting and fishing camps.  The track runs straight for some lengthy stretches, but often goes into an unending series of alternating left and right curves and quite a few of the curves are tight enough to make the wheels groan and squawk in protest.  The line plunges through numerous sheer-sided rock cuttings, proof positive of the amount of blasting needed to make this railway a reality. 

In the area north of Gogama the land turns much flatter, with many lakes, rivers, streams and ponds.  This is the edge of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, and even though you can’t tell by looking out the window, all the rivers in this area are flowing north to the Arctic Ocean.  The other indicator that you are closer to the true north is the forest which gradually becomes more and more dominated by conifers with fewer broad-leafed trees.  Much later on, when evening was coming on, the rocky hills began to reappear northwest of Lake Superior but by then it was too dark for any more photography.

I'll hope to get some nice pictures of the Shield country on the return journey next week!

One interesting discovery was that you can sometimes access the internet via the cellphone at certain spots, depending who your cellphone provider is.  I was able to get online briefly when we stopped at Hornepayne and again at Longlac (with Rogers).  However, a fellow passenger who was with Bell could not.  Later on we stopped at Armstrong.  This time she got the service but I didn’t!  Here's the train during our 40-minute stop at Hornepayne.

One of the great delights of the trip is mealtimes.  According to old railway tradition, a member of the dining room staff walks through the train bellowing “First sitting for dinner – premier service pour le diner” in a hearty voice.  The service director in the dining car has an uncanny knack of seating you with different people at every meal.  Everyone pitches in to keep the conversation flowing and some truly fascinating discussions ensue.

The ambiance of the dining car is like a classy restaurant of the mid-twentieth century, except that the dress code is strictly casual!  There are at least three if not four choices of main course at every meal.  The tables are all set with white linen cloths and napkins and heavy silver, with a small centrepiece.  At lunch and dinner there is a selection of wines and beers available, but contrary to the (slightly misleading) description on some of the literature these do have to be purchased.  The quality is good, and the price reasonable.

After dinner last night I wandered along to the dome car as evening fell.  It could have been a depressing day because of the unending clouds and rain, but wasn’t – due to all the fascinating conversations.  I had one more glass of wine as a nightcap and sat gazing at the unfolding panorama of forest and lake and hill as the twilight descended. 

And that’s a funny feeling I’ve gotten sometimes on train travel.  It can occasionally feel, on a smooth track, as if you are sitting still while the world rolls by outside your window.  Odd sensation.

I slept really well last night, maybe too well as I was feeling a bit groggy this morning.  This is known as taking full advantage of the one-hour-back time change.  The first thing I saw when I ran up the window shade was a spectacular prairie sunrise.

We arrived in Winnipeg at about 7:20 am, and even with a delay while the train was separated into two sections to be placed at two adjacent platforms, I was still off and walking by 7:40 on a glorious, cool, sunny morning.  The first sight was the classically-styled great hall of the station.

Across the street is the chateau-styled Fort Garry Hotel, another of the grand old hotels from the golden age of Canadian railway travel.

I took a good long walk all around the national historic park at The Forks, where the Assiniboine River flows into the Red River.

Nearby is this spectacular modern footbridge, named in honour of Louis Riel, across the Red River to the French Canadian community of St. Boniface.  (I apologize for the Blogger software which insists on turning this picture sideways, even when it has been properly set before uploading).

Close by the bridge sits this spectacular building, home of the brand-new Canadian Museum of Human Rights.  The west side is faced with local stone, giving an almost organic look, and the property by intention is landscaped with native prairie grasses.

After an hour or so of walking around, I was ready to sit, but that was easier said than done.  The area around The Forks is heavily populated with crows, and they tend to start zeroing in on anyone who stops moving for any length of time.  I wasn’t anxious to check out the (possibly) literal meaning of the correct name for a flock of these birds, “a murder of crows”, so I just kept moving back to the station.  Here, there is free wifi and a power outlet, so I can sit in a comfortable chair and work.  Later on, I’ll go out and walk around some more before it’s time to reboard for the West.