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Riding VIA Rail Train #1 "The Canadian" from Toronto to
Vancouver.
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Having both flown in yesterday from Abbottsford, BC and Spokane, WA
respectively, Mark and I have one day to explore Canada's Largest City. We
stayed two nights at the
Fairmont Royal York. Tomorrow, our great journey on VIA #1
begins.
Night and Day views from my room. Hey, that's a song!
A light breakfast (Tim Horton's, of course), sounded just right before
sightseeing. Casually, we wandered across Front Street to the
underground
shopping mall in Union Station. Bad move.
We hadn't counted on the morning rush hour. Trainloads of commuters clogged the
station. Huge lines made sustenance here impossible. Back above ground, we
spotted a Timmy's inconspicuously located just past the York with no line.
Hallelujah!
First stop, the CN Tower; Crossing the tracks, I spotted
a UP train
(Union-Pearson Express); Downtown Toronto below, with Lake Ontario to our right.
That white line is a GO (Government of Ontario) train.
Lindsay and Mark take each other's mug shots. I do not care for heights and once
Mark found this out, he continually egged me on to look DOWN through glass
panels in the floor and to get close to the edge of the windows. Big brother
torture. ;p
I will risk acrophobia for trains, however, and here's a passable image of the
GO Train coach yard with trains coming and going from Union Station.
Union Station looks like a toy from this height. There always seems to be a
commuter train of some sort arriving and departing.
A close up of the Fairmont Royal York. I have now stayed at
ex-Canadian Pacific
Railway hotels in Victoria, Vancouver, Lake Louise, Banff and Toronto.
CP Spans the World!
Finally coming back to earth, yet another GO Train trundles by.
Right next to (beneath) the CN Tower, is the old
Canadian Pacific Roundhouse.
The structure is split between the Toronto Railway Museum and a brewpub. We
toured the outdoor railroad rolling stock, but the inside museum was closed.
Alas.
CN #9159 WAS a GMD F7A diesel locomotive built April 1951. However, most of the
engine from the cab back has been lopped off. Those fiends!
First of all,
MANY THANKS to Steve Boyko whose website helped me identify the
following locomotives and rolling stock!!
CP Baldwin road switcher #7069, a DS4-4-1000 built in 1948.
CN #6213 is a U-2-g class 4-8-4 steam locomotive built in August 1942.
CP #7020 is an Alco S-2 switcher built in 1944.
Canadian National Railways #79144 "Serves All Canada" caboose is resplendent in
orange and green.
TH&B (Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo) #70 caboose.
Canadian Pacific's "Cape Race" observation car originally built as "River Liard"
in 1928 for CP's Trans-Canada Limited.
Don Station and
Cabin D signal box.
Hawker-Siddeley GO cab car 104, built in 1967.
After our railway museum visit, we headed back to Toronto Union Station (early
afternoon and no hordes of commuters). This was a good time to do a dry run of
tomorrow's check-in and train boarding.
Toronto Union Station is a LONG structure. Carved in the granite is:
Canadian Pacific Railway
U N I O N S T A T I O N
Erected by the Toronto Terminals Railway Company
unreadable - MCMXIX (1919)
Grand Trunk Railway (later became Canadian National)
Dry Run: 1. Cross Front Street from Royal York. 2. Turn right towards VIA ticket
counter on the left (Security is evicting a bum sleeping on a bench). 3. Mark
has a good laugh as his little brother admires the architecture. Hey! This is my
temple! ;p 4. Walking down a ramp to the VIA departure/arrival tracks. 5.
Checking out VIA Arrivals (including the eastbound Canadian train #002).
Trivia. Woman at VIA ticket counter had no idea how or where we should board The
Canadian tomorrow morning. At the blue arrival board, a VIA employee pointed us
back up the ramp to a non-descript, well-hidden VIA business lounge ACROSS from
the ticket counter. Mind you, I like the French description better, "Salon
Affaires". Ooo-la-la!
You can't visit Toronto and not see the
Stanley Cup! So off to the
Hawkey Hall
of Fame we go.
First a quick glance up at our massive (and expensive) hotel. Railways thought
BIG back then (1929), when they had transport absolutely sewn up.
Let's see now. The Hawkey HOF is a few blocks down Front Street, start looking
for the entrance at Brookfield Place, 30 Yonge Street and...all I see is a gift
shop.
This "official store" has exit doors only. Can't get to the HOF that way. The
actual entrance is hard to find. There are no signs directing you to it, so we
start through those doors to the lower right.
Well. We seem to have entered an indoor shopping mall. With a Tim
Horton's on the right. Outside Timmy's are displayed jerseys of each NHL
franchise in Canada. Here are a couple samples from Toronto and Vancouver.
Across the mall is a small sign tersely stating, "HOF downstairs". I look waaaay
down the length of the mall and notice a downstairs escalator. We take it.
At the bottom, no signs. Now thoroughly confused, we pick a direction at random,
luckily finding the well-hidden entrance after a brisk walk.
It appears to be an ordinary sporting goods store. Mark stares doubtfully and
wonders if this is actually it. Apparently so, 'cause it says "Admission
Tickets" above the beige counter. We pay the fee and enter the hallowed halls of Hawkey.
I want to see two things: Everything they've got on "The Great One",
Wayne
Gretzky (my favorite player), and the actual Stanley Cup.
Hmmmm... Not too much on ol' Wayne. And what's with that
Lanny McDonald Leafs
jersey, thrown in there haphazardly? At least "The Next One" (Mario Lemieux) 66
Penguins sweater is in good company.
Anyways, the assortment of jerseys and memorabilia on display truly WAS impressive.
They even recreated a Montreal Canadiens locker room from the days when they so
dominated Hawkey (5 Cups in a row).
So where's the Cup? A docent explained you just follow the red line...which led
to an elevator ride upstairs into an old Bank of Montreal.
And there it is! The current Stanley Cup (there were many versions created).
And there HE is!
Lord Stanley. The big Kahuna, with the ORIGINAL Stanley Cup
carefully kept in the massive bank vault.
For comic relief, I pose with
the Ted LINDSAY trophy. Oh boy, that's mine!
In the ceiling is this absolutely gorgeous stained glass dome. Banks also
thought BIG back in the day.
Mark and I solemnly pose with the current Cup. O, CANADA!
Tomorrow, we ride North America's finest long-distant passenger train, VIA #1,
the westbound "Canadian". All Aboooooard!!!
 
 
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