After returning from my 33-day train odyssey in August when I thought that I was going to finish Canada, I started to make plans for a return visit to cover the missing 114 miles of the Algoma Central. I also now had an opportunity to use the 50 percent off voucher I received from the Ontario Northland. Getting to Sault Ste. Marie was not a problem after Marty, my excellent night time Amtrak agent at Santa Ana, provided me with the telephone numbers and I made a few calls which set everything up. I then bought a two region See-America ticket and was all set.
Pacific Surfliner 583 12/25/2000Following a wonderful Christmas meal with my family, my brother Jon drove me to the Santa Ana station, a job my father had always done before. Train 583 arrived on the mark and AC John Kennedy and I discussed the recent loss of my father. We arrived at Los Angeles early and I went into Union Station to wait for my next train.
Southwest Chief 4 12/25/2000I was in a 'been here-done that before' mood as I obtained my boarding pass from station services. The westbound Southwest Chief had been late in arriving so the eastbound train was not ready for boarding until ten minutes after the scheduled departure time. My conductor out of LAUPT was Castro Landers, who told the coach attendant to take good care of me. We departed twenty minutes late and after adding the express cars in a good and quick fashion, we proceeeded out, only to return to Union Station when one of the Road Railers was causing problems. Once that was taken care of, we departed Union Station one hour and twenty-five minutes late and raced down to Fullerton, where I called it a night and slept soundly into Arizona.
12/26/2000 I awoke to snow on the ground before I enjoyed a French toast breakfast and other than through the Little Colorado Desert, there was snow-covered ground the rest of the day. As we entered New Mexico, the weather was so bad that the Indian guide did not make the train in Gallup and it was snowing in Albuquerque, keeping away all but the bravest Indian jewellery sellers.
The Chief looked more like the Empire Builder in this setting but the snow gave the scenery a different character than normal especially through Apache Canyon. I was back in the dining car by Las Vegas and had a New York strip and a Turtle ice cream cake for dessert. The evening was spent in the lounge car watching "Rocky and Bullwinkle" and "The Crew". It was a restful day of train riding and just what I needed after the last two weeks. I tried to fall asleep after La Junta, but the rough tracks bounced me around for about an hour before I succumbed and received another good night's sleep on the Chief.
12/27/2000 I awoke just west of Lawrence, Kansas and had pancakes for breakfast then the train stopped for its 1,000 mile inspection and the addition of more express cars at De Soto. We ran into BNSF's Argentine Yard to refuel, which was a new procedure as the train had always refuelled on the pads on the main line, thus providing a new route and a different view of this vast yard. We proceeded to Kansas City where a new policy did not let through passengers detrain. We departed over two hours late and I wondered if we would reach Chicago in time so I could make the 6:30 train to Kenosha out of the Chicago and North Western station. Only time would tell.
It was a beautiful clear day and as we crossed the Missouri River, there was pack ice floating down its course. Near the Des Moines River, I spotted three bald eagles sitting high atop the lineside trees and this river and the Mississippi River were frozen solid as we crossed it and entered Illinois. The sky became overcast as we made our way to the Windy City then at Naperville, I helped a young lady get her hard drive off the train in my shorts and short sleeves and the cold felt really good. As we wyed into Chicago, we dropped off our Express cars and reversed into Chicago Union Station and one hour and forty minutes late.
Metra 349 Express to Kenosha 12/27/2000I went up to the Food Court for a pair of Gold Coast Char Dogs to go and walked the two blocks to the Ogilvie Transportation Centre, which had been renamed from Chicago and North Western station in 1997), where I bought a round trip ticket to Kenosha, Wisconsin. I went to the cab car because I knew it had room for my luggage and the train filled up and we departed on time into the night. Once we reached Waukegan, I rode new mileage the rest of the way to Kenosha then detrained, dragging my luggage down the stairs before walking along the streetcar tracks, past the carbarn of the new Kenosha Trolley, to 6th Street and the Holiday Inn Express at the Harbor. I watched Mario Lemieux's triumphant return to hockey after fighting cancer before calling it a night.
Metra 316 12/28/2000This day was going to be the longest and most varied day of transportation I had had and hoped my plan would work out. The Metra train was a nice and relaxing on-time early morning journey back to Chicago across the snow-covered grounds of very southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. I walked back to Union Station through the snow flurries which was quite enjoyable and had hot cakes and sausage for breakfast, sent a postcard then went downstairs to await my last train of the day.
International 364 12/28/2000I boarded the rear Superliner coach for the journeyto Kalamazoo, Michigan, expecting just a normal trip. However, we made a reverse move at Porter, Indiana due to frozen switches and just before Niles, Michigan, I had to wake a passenger who was going to Niles. Due to our lateness, we had to go into the siding at Lawton for westbound Amtrak Train 361 then arrived in Kalamazoo only thirty minutes late. I purchased a sleeping car room on the California Zephyr out of Denver on January 3rd then waited patiently as I went from the world of the train rider into the darkened world of that of the bus rider.
Indian Trail Thruway Bus / JJ Limo / Taxi Cab Ride 12/28/2000With the wait for the bus shortened by the late-running train, I was thrust into the world of the bus rider, joining the odd assortment of characters aboard. The bus was late in arriving and a full bus departed almost an hour late then at Grand Rapids, we dropped off and picked up more characters and made all the stops off the freeway and down the back roads. There was the remains of a large accident when we arrived at a McDonald's for dinner and the driver, Steve, called JJ Limo to ensure they were going to be at St. Ignace to meet me when we arrived. After Traverse City, Steve kept conversation going with me which helped break up the rest of the trip and the crossing of the Mackinac Bridge was the scenic highlight.
Once across, we entered the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and arrived at St. Ignace where I debussed and was met by the driver of JJ Limo, a van that took me to Sault Ste. Marie. On the way, he called a Canadian taxi company who sent a driver to the first exit in Michigan to wait for me. We pulled up, switched my bags into the taxi and off we went across the International Bridge, through Canadian Customs (just a single question) to the Quality Inn across the street from the Algoma Central station. As I took a waterfall shower I could only think that 'I love it when a plan comes together'. On the van ride, I passed from Day 2,170 to Day 2,171 and it was not too often that I have been awake so late and am usually on a train when the days change.
Algoma Central 2 12/29/2000A mostly clear day greeted me as I walked across the street to the depot and left my bags and walked into the mall across the parking lot to get some Canadian cash for my stay in Canada. Back at the station, I bought 34 postcards to send to people and went outside into the cold morning air to wait for the train to arrive. Every so often I would go back into the depot where on one occasion, I spotted two ladies in the closed gift shop and managed to gain entry and bought three Algoma Central T-shirts. As I was doing this, the train reversed in and I exited to board the last coach and store my luggage.
Wisconsin Central GP40 3027 1995, ex. Algoma Central 191, exx. National Railway Equipment 2034 1992, exxx. SOO Line 2034 1985, exxxx. Milwaukee Road 2034 1968, nee Milwaukee Road 161 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1967. I was disappointed that the railway's F-units were not powering this train but the extra horsepower of a freight locomotivge might come in handy.
We departed on time and passed through the industrial areas and under the International Bridge that I had crossed earlier this morning before going by Algoma Steel, through the railway's yard and by the shops then climbed out of town and had a great view to the left. We ran parallel to Highway 17 for a few miles and further up the line near Milepost 20, crossed the Bellevue Valley on a trestle 810 feet long and 100 feet high. The train ran above the Goulais River Valley before crossing its namesake river at Milepost 31 then passed through Searchmont and about ten miles later, passed Little Achigan Lake on the left then crossed a fill with Achigan Lake on the right, both of which were frozen. We also made our first of the many passenger drop-offs.
Frozen lakes were the order of the day as Ogidaki, Trout, Spruce, Mongoose and Rand Lakes were all in that condition and the train twisted and turned as it climbed and descended into each of the valleys where these lakes were. There was another impressive bridge over the Batchewana River but that was just a preview of what was to come on this line.
The most spectacular and famous structure on the Algoma Central Railway is the 130 feet high, 1,550 feet long curving-to-the-right Montreal trestle over the Montreal River. This was constructed in 1911 and in 1935, the MacKay Dam was built underneath to supply power to the Sault Ste. Marie area. It was a very impressive feat of engineering and I was very glad that I finally managed to cross it. In an attempt to make this train ride even more special, I talked to our conductor about the possibility of riding in the locomotive from Milepost 102 to Milepost 114, that magical milepost where I would finish riding all the inter-city miles in Canada. He called the head end on his radio who said "Send him up!" so I walked through the train and out onto GP40 3027, was greeted warmly and given the fireman's seat. My first views were of Lake Superior to the west, the first time I had ever seen it. We curved to the east and started our descent into Agawa Canyon which was absolutely incredible.
We made our way to the canyon's bottom and arrived at Canyon Siding with everything blanketed by snow and the train being the only sound. Eventually the Milepost 114 sign was spotted, the location where I detrained from the southbound train last August to catch the northbound train that day and with that, I had now completed riding every inter-city mile in Canada. I felt on the top of the world.
The train kept going and the engineer congratulating me on what I had just accomplished. Later, I returned to my coach seat after the most beautiful cab ride on any railway and a special thanks to the employees of the Wisconsin Central for the very special moment of my personal historical trip, one I will never forget.
As we continued to Hawk Junction, I started to address and write the postcards then detrained for a few photographs and finished the post cards as we resumed the journey. At Franz, we met a southbound freight and waited for a Canadian Pacific Railway freight to cross the diamond then lost the last light of day at the second Oba Lake bridge and it was pitch black when we crossed the Canadian National main line at Oba. From there, it was a nice relaxing night run the rest of the way to Hearst, where we arrived early and I had a short block walk to the Queen's Motel and stayed for two nights and one full day of rest.
Ontario Northland GP38-2 1801 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1974. All the postcards were mailed from Hearst.
Ontario Northland 422/698 12/31/2000My 43rd birthday started at 2:00 AM with a wakeup call for a 2:40 AM taxi to drive me down to the bus station to wait for the Ontario Northland van to Cochrane. A gentleman waiting for a bus from Kapuskasing let me wait in his van to get out of the 7 degree Farenheit morning air. The van arrived shortly after and I stayed up the entire trip to see places such as Moonbeam and Smooth Rock, a ride that took two-and-a-half hours down frozen Ontario Highway 11. We arrived at Cochrane and I bought my ticket using the discount coupon from last summer then bought an Ontario Northland sweatshirt before boarding the train pulled by two F-units.
We departed Cochrane on time and I napped as far as Englehart then just south of there, the lead locomotive started putting out great amounts of smoke making it look as though we had a steam engine pulling our train. The smoke filtered into the smoking car, something which those passengers did not notice and then into lounge car, where the attendant did. I smelled it and knew that we had an engine on fire. The train stopped next to the fire station in Armstrong Township, whose equipment and others from the surrounding area assisted in putting out the fire. This was a first for me in over 586,000 rail miles. The burnt locomotive was set out on the connection to the Earlton Spur and we proceeded south after being delayed fifty-five minutes. I thought Ontario Northland would provide uneventful trip on my birthday but I was wrong.
On the move once more, we stopped at New Liskeard before the frozen Lake Temiscaming came into view then the Cobalt depot had about three feet of snow atop its roof, making it a Christmas card scene. The Canadian Shield had a very different look to it as the snow exposed very little rock. It was an overcast day with the sky just a bit darker than the white snow and the evergreen trees had their branches covered with a layer of snow, while the deciduous trees had only their bare branches covered. Of course the roots were all buried in snow, so I covered it all, roots to branches. That is a Jethro Tull album reference.
I was surprised to see the Montreal River flowing while every other water body was frozen and it was the first river I had seen in this manner since the Missouri River back in the Show Me State. A baby had been crying for most of the journey so far but I listened to music, this time "UK Live" to keep me in my good mood.
At North Bay, I found a nice high snow pile from which to photograph our train led by Ontario Northland FP7A 2001, nee Ontario Northland 1501, built by General Motors Division in 1952. From North Bay to Toronto, the train took the Canadian National line and for most of the rest of the journey, I watched "Snow Day" and "Enemy of the State" with Will Smith. That passed the time to within 38 miles of Toronto, where "Alice Cooper Live" lasted until our arrival. There were no delays since it was Sunday and did not have to share this trackage with GO Transit. We arrived a mere five minutes late and I went out in front of Toronto Union Station to find a taxi.
Toronto 12/31/2000With not a single taxi in sight, I walked the mile to the Executive Motel Inn and found an excellent deli a block away where I bought a French dip sandwich to go and ate it as my birthday meal in my room then watched some football, thus spending an uneventful 43rd birthday and New Year's Eve 2000, the end of the true Millennium.
The International 363 1/1/2001A walk and a comical cab ride returned me to Toronto Union Station on the first morning of the year 2001. We departed on time before making station stops at Malton, Brampton and Georgetown then stopped at Canadian National's Silver siding to receive authorization to continue onward since we were in track warrnt control territory. While we were waiting, a Canadian National freight train came flying by in the same direction that we were then we reversed to a crossover where the electric switch was frozen. More joys of winter railroading. We sat and waited for a maintainer to arrive and work on it and since it was New Year's Day, that probably did not help this situation. Once the problem was fixed, it led to another as we now had to clear the mainline for VIA Train 682 from Sarnia, Ontario on its way to Toronto. We pulled forward onto the diverging route at the junction and let that train pass before reversing back onto the main and continuing our journey west. Total time lost by all this was two hours and twenty-two minutes.
The International, led by Amtrak B32-8WH 505, built by General Electric in 1991, experienced no further delays and passed through the St. Clair Tunnel under the United States/Canada border before reversing into the Port Huron Amtrak station for US Customs. As was my practice, I laid out my birth certificate, driver's license, itinerary, social security card and my work identification card on the folding table at my seat. The questions were quick and the agent thanked me for having everything out and wished that everyone did as I had done to speed up this whole process. We left Port Huron an hour and fifty-two minutes late minus two passengers whom Customs detrained.
The train ran fast across snow-covered Michigan reaching Kalamazoo before total darkness took hold on the first day of 2001 and I completed the circle via bus, van, taxi, train, van, train and train. By doing it this way, it was the easiest means to complete my goal of riding every inter-city route in Canada. But with that goal completed, it was now time to start some other new goal. The rest of the journey to Chicago was in darkness and we arrived at Chicago Union Station one hour and fifteen minutes late, after which I walked the six blocks to the Downtown Quality Inn where I would spend the next two nights.
Chicago 1/1-2/2001My two days in Chicago were planned in advance so I could finish riding the rest of the METRA system. I was up at 5:30 AM and walked to La Salle Street Station for the first commuter train of the day to Blue Island since I needed the main line segment to Blue Island but was routed down the suburban line instead. The crew advised me of which numbered trains went that way, so I knew I could do it later that afternoon. I boarded a Metra Electric train at Blue Island which gave me this branch line to the Illinois Central main line for the trip to Randolph Street. I walked across the street to a Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast then boarded a South Shore Line train for the South Bend Airport. The South Shore, although not part of METRA, was a line I always wanted to ride as it was the last of the great interurban lines in America. We ran late due to adding cars to transport to the railroad's shops. There, we had a resistor problem which took thirty minutes to repair so I had only ten minutes at the South Bend Airport before my return train to Chicago departed.
The westbound ran perfectly on time and all too soon, I was back at Randolph Street Station and tried the CTA for the first time, taking the subway back over to La Salle Street Station. With time to spare, I walked over to Union Station to Gold Coast for a Char steak sandwich and bought John Grisham's "The Brethren."
Back over to La Salle, I rode the 3:45 PM mainline train to Blue Island, where I photographed the commuter action before returning to Chicago on the 5:00 PM express then enjoyed a nice walk back to the hotel with only one more piece of METRA to finish.
1/3/2001
Up early once more, I walked over to the Ogilvie Transportation Centre (Chicago and North Western station) to board the 5:53 AM train to McHenry and made a pre-dawn journey with the sun barely up when we arrived on
time, thus I completed riding all the lines of METRA.
Upon my return to Chicago, I visited a Walmart to buy a few items before returning to the hotel to pack and check out. It became colder and windier than it was earlier so I walked at a more brisk pace than normal back to Union Station and had a Gold Coast Char hamburger for lunch, read some of "The Brethren", chatted with a woman from Oregon and listened to "Steve Miller Live" before I boarded my next train.
California Zephyr 5 1/3/2001I was boarded in seat one at the forward end of the car and while there was no table, the ample legroom made up for it. We departed forty five minutes late waiting for baggage from a late-running Lake Shore Limited and I read more then had a steak dinner with a Turtle cake for dessert before returning to the book prior to calling it a night. At Omaha, I was awakened so the crew could move a single man was sitting across from me so that a couple could sit together. The funny thing was that they did not know each other and were going to different destinations.
1/4/2001 I fell back to sleep and awoke in western Nebraska, had a pancake breakfast and continued with the book then at Denver, detrained to board a sleeping car for the rest of the journey to Sacramento. West of Denver started the most beautiful train ride in the United States, one that I have been on many different times in all four seasons. We met coal trains at Rocky, Plainview and Rollinsville then I had an Olympic Burger and Turtle cake while passing through Moffat Tunnel.
Our passage through Byers Canyon; we also travelled through Gore Canyon. I finished my book in Red Rock Canyon and we passed the eastbound California Zephyr at Dell before I enjoyed Glenwood Canyon from the lounge car. Dinner was prime rib and Turtle cake as darkness took hold then DeBeque and Ruby Canyons were passed under the light of a bright half moon and I retired to bed for my last night on a train on this trip.
1/5/2001 I slept soundly for over ten hours except for a brief period in Salt Lake City and was up by Elko, Nevada and enjoyed Palisade Canyon with another pancake breakfast. As the sun rose, the darkened landscape transformed itself into the usual light dirt brown tumbleweed northern Nevada scenery with a light dusting of snow on the peaks above the valley. After a quick station stop in Winnemuca, I napped until almost to Sparks, where I ventured off the train to buy a world edition of the Los Angeles Times then at Reno, I was given a USA Today. From Reno to Truckee, I caught up on the happenings of the real world and it became lunch time as the train climbed Donner Pass, so as we ascended I enjoyed a chicken sandwich and my last Turtle cake of the trip passing through the Summit Tunnel.
The Zephyr descended the west slope of Donner Pass and we passed our eastbound counterpart at Cape Horn, which was carrying a pair of private cars on the rear. We stopped briefly at both Colfax and Roseville before arriving at Sacramento fifteen minutes early, where I detrained and called my brother Bruce to pick me up. I visited Old Sacramento and the gift shop at the California State Railroad Museum then returned to the station where my nephew, Eric, picked me up and took me to their house for a one-night stay.
San Joaquin 702/ Thruway Bus/Pacific Surfliner 578 1/6/2001
As I said goodbye to Bruce at the station the next morning, I was in my 'I want to be home mood' but I had no ruby slippers, so patience and the train/bus/train system would get me home to Santa Ana. Other than detraining at the Stockton ACE station for a picture of the train, I just sat back with my headphones on as we proceeded south down the length of the San Joaquin Valley. At Bakersfield, I transferred to the bus which took me to Los Angeles and this was the earliest that I had arrived there which allowed me to stroll to Pacific Surfliner 578 and the quick ride back home to Santa Ana, where my mother picked me up. Thus ends an excellent trip.
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