The 4-night train trip from Vancouver to Toronto can be fairly broken into two unequal parts -- and is seen that way by a large percentage of travellers:
[1] Mountains
[2] Everything else
This may seem a little unfair to the Prairie provinces and Ontario, but it is a realistic assessment all the same. On each of four occasions that I have taken the full cross-Canada train ride, there have been a large number of passengers who only joined the train for the Vancouver to Jasper or Edmonton portion. On this occasion, we started from Vancouver with a fifteen car train and left Edmonton for the east with only twelve cars. Three sleepers were removed from the consist during the Edmonton stop, as their passengers had all detrained. In fact, VIA assigns passengers to the different cars according to whether they are going only through the mountains or further afield, to make this removal of the surplus vehicles feasible.
The trip begins at the former Canadian National Railways terminal in Vancouver, the distinguished Pacific Central Station on Terminal Avenue, just east of False Creek.
Photo by ⱮOne of the station's seven tracks is sequestered for the use of the Amtrak Cascades trains to and from Seattle, whose passengers clear U.S. Customs in the station before boarding the train. The remainder are used by VIA Rail Canada as a "parking garage" for the rolling stock of the trans-Canada train, the Canadian. I owe that "parking garage" image to the Skyline dome car attendant on my train, by the way. Thanks, Jennifer! But this picture certainly proves the point. Our train is hiding coyly in the middle of the row of five, with only the extreme tail end of the last car peeking around the others.
That picture was actually taken from the outdoor terrace with numerous tables and chairs which forms the main part of the VIA Sleeper Class Lounge in Vancouver. You can wait here, with coffee, tea, juice, water, and cookies until boarding time -- which normally happens around 2:30 PM for departure at 3:00 PM. Here's a map to show the route for the mountain leg of the trip.
Between Vancouver and Kamloops, the two main companies (Canadian National and Canadian Pacific) share and trade sides of the Fraser River and Thompson River gorges, so they very sensibly pool traffic, with all eastbound trains travelling on the CN lines while the westbound trains use the CP lines. This involves several crossings of the rivers in question on both routes. It also means that the intermediate request stops between Vancouver and Kamloops are different on westbound and eastbound trains. Ashcroft is a stop on both routes, but using two different stations.
Sadly, due to the 27-hour running time from Vancouver to Edmonton, it's impossible for the train to traverse all of the glorious mountain country in daylight. VIA's schedule sacrifices the Fraser/Thompson canyons south of Kamloops in favour of the mountains around Jasper. The train leaves Vancouver at 3:00 PM, and only a few views of the lower Fraser River are possible in winter before darkness sets in. The first river crossing is at New Westminster, where four bridges are packed closely together. There's the low level railway bridge, the bright orange arched road bridge, and the futuristic cable-stayed bridge used by Vancouver's rapid transit, the Skytrain. They're being joined by a new and wider highway bridge now under construction.
Farther along the route, the train passes under the new Port Mann Bridge which carries the Trans-Canada Highway across to the river's southern bank for its trip east. I'm old enough to remember when the first Port Mann Bridge was a significant new engineering feat in Canada (1964). After the completion of the new bridge, the old bridge was demolished by "reverse construction," a process which took three years.
More placid views upriver allow a few sightings of distant peaks.
The train is well to the north of Kamloops, in the North Thompson river valley, before daylight returns in the morning. We spent much of this first full day travelling through a gentle fall of big fluffy snowflakes, descending quietly on the earth with no sign of wind at all.
The scenic highlight of this part of the line is Pyramid Creek Falls, which cannot be seen from the nearby highway. The train always slows right down to give all the passengers a good look. I've seen it in summer but this is the first time I've passed the falls in winter, at least in daylight.
The train crosses the height of land at the head of the Thompson River valley and then descends into the Rocky Mountain Trench to pass through the village of Valemount.
Valemount marks the beginning of the big climb to the Yellowhead Pass. Here, CN has preserved both of the ancestor competing railways which went through the Yellowhead side by each. Eastbound trains use the old line of the Canadian Northern Railway, which has a longer and gentler grade, while the steeper Grand Trunk Pacific line is used by westbound trains descending the mountain slopes. The two lines merge together again to cross the Fraser River at the top of the main ascent.
Both lines give a splendid view of Mount Robson, the tallest peak in the Canadian Rocky Mountains -- when the weather cooperates. This day, however, was one of the average of 300 days a year when Mount Robson is obscured by clouds. In this case, it was completely buried as we were ourselves well inside the cloud base.
Once we were up the hill, we joined the downhill line and then crossed the youthful Fraser River and rolled in more snow along the shores of Moose Lake, the Fraser's headwaters.
Believe it or not, these are in fact colour photos. There were no colours to speak of on this snowy day, just monochrome greys.
At the far end of the lake, we passed the summit of the pass and then continued downhill as the snow faded away and stopped, to the railway town of Jasper. VIA Rail has two routes which meet here: the twice-weekly Canadian and the three-times-weekly Skeena which runs northwest to Prince George and on to Prince Rupert on the Pacific coast, just south of Alaska. CN also maintains a multi-track yard in Jasper for its freight operations. The distinctive name makes the Skeena sound important, but in fact it normally consists of a baggage car, one coach, and a dome car. That's it, that's all!
Jasper is one of the extended stops the Canadian makes, and passengers are required to exit the platform if they do choose to leave the train. I never miss a chance to get out and stretch my legs, so I went for a good long walk along the main street. Jasper is a great place to shop for gifts, or for any essentials which you may have forgotten. We had to show our boarding passes again to reboard at departure time.
Across the street from the station, the old Administration Office of Jasper National Park sits in a tree-shaded park of its own.
Here, the Whistlers Resort poses directly across the street from the station, in front of the mountain which gives the resort its name. This peak is not to be confused with the famous Whistler ski resort in southern British Columbia. The mountain was named after the strange whistling call of the hoary marmot, a sizable species of rodent which lives on the peak's higher reaches. The Whistlers is also the site of Jasper's aerial tramway which gives splendid views (on clear days) from the mountaintop along three major valleys stretching west, south, and northeast, with the town at the spot where the valleys join.
The rustic building beside the park must surely be among the most picturesque bank branches to be found anywhere in Canada.
There are several publicly displayed woodcarvings of animals in various spots in town, with bears a favourite subject. The bear was already identified as an animal connected with Jasper long before I was born. But I do recall, as a child, being entertained by the single-panel cartoons of a bear named Jasper which appeared in Macleans Magazine from 1948 to 1968. He was adopted as the official mascot of Jasper National Park in 1968, and his statue still stands there. However, it had been moved after my last visit so I didn't get to visit him this time. I was afraid they'd just gotten rid of him. Instead, I got a picture of this furry specimen on display in the station. Jasper the Bear looked a lot friendlier than this one!
Before getting back on the train to continue the trip, I had to do a selfie in front of the name plaque of my sleeping car.
Most of the sleeping cars on the Canadian are "Manors" although an unrenovated "Chateau" sleeper may make an occasional appearance, especially in the busy summer season. Dining cars have a name drawn from one of Canadian Pacific's classic old railway hotels -- ours was "Alexandra" after the original CPR hotel in Winnipeg. The famous rounded-off dome car at the tail end of the train is always named after a national park. Ours was "Kootenay Park" which I think may have been the Park car on my very first ride on the Canadian, in 1960.
The mountain show continues after leaving Jasper for quite a while as the train follows the Athabasca River valley east from Jasper. Even on a cloudy day with more snow threatening, these peaks still present quite a spectacle.
The train then crosses the Athabasca River and climbs over the high hill of Obed Summit before dropping down into the plateau leading towards the Saskatchewan River valley. At this point, the mountain crossing is over. It's still several hours of forest, hills, and lakes before the evening arrival into Alberta's capital city of Edmonton.
