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VIA RAIL CANADA'S PARK CARS -- A TRIP REPORT
By
Rob Klara
Hi Ted,
By far, the VIA Rail Canada Budd equipment on the Canadian was the highlight of the whole trip--though I did enjoy the high-level Amtrak cars on the "Empire Builder." Riding the old "El Capitan" must have been similar, and the high vantage was really special.
Whatever the extra cost I paid to be booked aboard the Park Car (I got Bedroom B) was worth it. It was really the penthouse of the train. Not only did the car attendant wait on me hand and foot, but the pleasure of having the train's social center just steps from one's door cannot be underestimated.
Plus, one thing I never hear mentioned but is nonetheless an important consideration, is that the car's additional weight created by all of that dome glass creates a ride that's smoother than anything you'd get elsewhere on the train--and elsewhere on any railroad, period. The Park Car glides beautifully, and I was able to write in my journal with few distruptions, even when the train crossed a switch at high speed. Sleeping on the car was a pleasure--in fact, I've seldom slept better anywhere.
The trip really, truly was amazing because your arrangements were flawless. The Park Car was a dream. I'd have been SO envious had I boarded that train and seen others occupying that car while I was in one of the usual sleepers. It was just worth the extra money to feel so important. And all the other details you worked out, from the rooms at the center of the cars (fewer vibrations) to the hotels, it was all just terrific.
I'd love to do another train trip. I'd like to investigate some of the choo choo fantasies still in mind (the Orient Express, the Trans-Siberian, etc.).
Rob Klara
Managing Editor, Architecture Magazine
PS: Sylvia
Rob Klara here once more. Hope you got the thank you note I sent. I am still basking in the afterglow of my fabulous train trip. Just completed my photo album, too: 110 pages' worth of photographs and keepsakes. Eeek. I neglected to mention before that I took a small side trip by train in the midst of the bigger one. In Chicago, I hopped the South Shore Line--the last interurban left in America--and took it to South Bend, Indiana, and then back. That tacked on 180 miles (peanuts) to my route miles.
It's funny to look through this album of mine, now, because I don't think there's a single shot in there that doesn't have a train or at least a visible set of tracks somewhere in each shot. I advise people that, if they don't happen to like trains, there's really no point in even opening the album.
Already, my thoughts turn to the next trip. I do very much like this train stuff. But I'm left with quite a problem, now. There are not too many trips I can take that would compete with the sheer mileage and amount of time spent on the rails as this one! The trip I just took had no real geographic imperative; I merely wanted the chance to spend as much time living aboard trains as possible--eating, sleeping, showering, reading, napping, everything. Because I'm sure you'd agree from your many travels that it takes a couple days before you can really get into the flow of train life. A mere overnight trip is not enough. The "Canadian" is unique in this respect, because it allows you to experience what becomes a railroad community of sorts--to commune with people who are taking the whole continental trip with you (I counted about 10 people who were doing this on my trip). A society of sorts emerges amid this group, and it's a remarkable thing to experience.
Rob Klara
Managing Editor, Architecture Magazine
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