I got up and went over to a nearby restaurant for breakfast. After, I caught a bus to the Point-Claire commuter train station. I filmed a CP freight passing by. It wasn’t until after I had bought my $4.25 ticket and saw that it was valid for the next 90 minutes that I realized that it would expire before the next train! I ended up catching another bus downtown. On the way, the bus passed the Alstom facility.
I got off the bus and got on the
subway at the Lionel-Groulx station. I rode the
After waiting at the station for a bit, I bought lunch then headed out to ride a Van Hool AG300 belonging to RTL. In my area, VIVA runs the AG300 as well, but I wanted to see how the ones in Montreal differed from the ones in my area.
I boarded RTL Van Hool #20102 and rode it to their Panama terminal. On the way, I caught a glimpse of VIA’s Montreal Maintenance Centre and saw ex BC Rail observation car #1751 “Pavilion”. Pavilion was bought at the same time as lounge car Glenfraser and three glass top coaches, but unlike those cars, Pavilion hasn’t been used on regular VIA trains.
While RTL #20102 had a similar seating arrangement to the AG300s used by VIVA, they had a few extra hand holds for standing passengers as well as hard transit style seats compared to the soft, comfortable seats on VIVA buses. The windows on the RTL Van Hools opened as well, unlike the VIVA buses. When I got off, I took a picture of the bus.
After the bus pulled away, I decided to explore the area around the terminal. I stopped at a pawn shop at one point. I heard the song “Hips don’t Lie” by Shakira, which reminded me of when I last explored Montreal four years before; she had released the song “Wherever Whenever”.
At one point, I saw one of RTL’s oldest Classics that still had a Mylar rollsign instead of an electronic sign. Unfortunately I was unable to photograph it. I caught another Van Hool back to Montreal.
Once back downtown, I bought a daypass for STM and rode to Vandome station. Vandome is near an AMT commuter station. Back in 2002, AMT stored many of their trains in a yard by the station. However, I discovered the yard was gone! I then got back on the subway and rode to the orange line’s eastern most terminus, Henri-Bourassa by way of the blue line. The blue line seems to be the least used of Montreal’s four subway lines. It uses three cars trains while the yellow line uses six car trains and both the orange and green lines use nine car trains.
At Henri-Bourassa, I photographed, and later rode Classic #11-007. I then photographed some Classics belonging to STL, another suburban Montreal transit system.
After photographing STL Classic #6403, I walked a few blocks north to a bridge over a river. I then realized this was the furthest North I’ve ever explored Montreal.
I noticed some firefighters testing their hoses which I filmed. I then photographed an Orion 5 belonging to MRC and an RTS belonging to Limocar.
After, I headed photographed another STL Classic at the terminal, then headed back onto the subway. I rode to the east end of the blue line. I got off and photographed STM Classic #11-058.
Next, I decided to go ride the green line to its eastern end. I did just that. As a result, I had now ridden on the whole Montreal subway system. I then headed back to Central station, filming the green line train I rode as it pulled out of Barri-Oqam station.
I got to Central Station around 4:35 pm. Passengers were boarding the 4:50 pm departure of AMT’s Montreal- Mont-Saint-Hilaire line. I was planning on catching the next train at 5:20 pm. I would ride to Saint-Lambert, (the first stop on the line), and try to film VIA’s Chaleur to Gaspe and the Renaissance and Park car equipped Ocean.
Soon, I bought my ticket for the 5:20 departure. When it boarded, I sat down in the cab car. The train consisted of ex GO Transit single level coaches led by an ex Amtrak F40PH. I took some interior shots of the coach.
By now, I was running low on space on my digital camera’s memory stick. I knew I had to change it before the Ocean came through. I reached into my bag to find I didn’t have a second memory stick like I though. I cursed myself for the bad luck.
The HEP in the train was shut off leaving us in the dark. The train soon started moving, but stopped. After several minutes, we were off. As we pulled out, I caught a glimpse of the Chaleur led by F40PH #6425.
The ride was only 10 minutes. I caught a glimpse of VIA’s Montreal Maintenance Centre. On the Victoria bridge, we passed the consist of train 60 which had arrived from Toronto less than 15 minutes earlier, but now the train was deadheading back to the Montreal Maintenance Centre.
We soon stopped at Saint-Lambert where I got off and took a photo of the train. I didn’t have time to try to photograph the engine.
I knew I had to find a store that sold memory sticks ASAP. (There’s never a Wal-Mart around when you need it!) After two false attempts, I got lucky on my third. After I bought the memory stick, I saw an AMT train deadheading back to Montreal, but didn’t film it. I then sprinted to find a good vantage point to film the Ocean. I knew there was a railway crossing about a mile east of the station. With my new memory stick loaded, I got to the crossing in time to film VIA train 26 passing on its way to Quebec City.
I crossed the tracks. A few minutes later, a CN freight passed. The train had three engines, including a Montana Rail Link SD45 that was still in the NYS&W livery.
After the freight passed, I moved to the other side of the tracks and caught a westbound freight passing through. While waiting, I saw a van with pink insulation on the roof. At one point, a sheet blew right off and landed in a nearby parking lot!
After the freight passed, I filmed the last outbound AMT commuter train pass through the crossing. When the cab car cleared, the crossing still was still activated. I saw someone ride their bike through. The guy was lucky there wasn’t another train! Eventually, the gates went up. I repositioned on the south side of the tracks and photographed another westbound freight.
If you’re wondering why I kept switching sides, it was because there were four tracks and I wanted to be on the side that would best enable me to film the Ocean and Chaleur.
I crossed over to the north side of the tracks again. By now, it was past the Chaleur’s scheduled arrival at Saint-Lambert. I began wondering what was taking so long. Eventually, the Chaleur passed and I filmed it. The train had two F40’s and nine coaches.
I crossed the road and a few minutes later, VIA’s Ocean passed by. It had two F40PH-2’s, 19 Renaissance coaches, and dome-observation-sleeper Revelstoke Park on the rear. I filmed the train passing through and took a picture of Revelstoke Park. Both the Chaleur and the Ocean passed through about 40 minutes late.
Once the Ocean had gone, I walked to the bus stop. I took an RTL Nova LFS bus to the Panama transit terminal and transferred to another Van Hool to downtown. I photographed the Van Hool at the Panama terminal.
The bus soon left and within a few minutes, we were nearing downtown. As we passed underneath the Victoria Bridge, I saw Amtrak’s Adirondack from New York, but I was unable to photograph it. We soon arrived downtown. I phoned my day to let him know I was going to be later than expected and that I rode catch the last AMT commuter train to Pointe-Claire. It left in 40 minutes, but I had enough time to ride the subway one stop to get to the station. I made the AMT station in plenty of time. Soon, the train boarded. As it boarded, I took some photos of both the outside and inside of the train. The coaches were AMT’s new Bombardier bi-level cars.
The train left on time as we stopped at various stops. The AMT commuter stations are very close together on this line, and in some cases, you can actually see the next station down the line!
At one point, I saw an AMT GP9 on a siding, but no other AMT stock. Outside of Dorval, we had to take a siding for a CP freight. We soon arrived at Pointe-Claire where I got off and took a photo of the train and a video of it departing.
Once the train had departed, I caught a bus back to the hotel. Since I hadn’t eaten supper yet, my dad and I went out in search of a restaurant. We eventually found a Burger King. After dinner, we returned to the hotel. I eventually called it a night.
Click here for part 4: Montreal trip report day 4.htm
