TED & SYLVIA BLISHAK'S UPDATES
ON
AMTRAK, ROCKY MOUNTAINEER, AND VIA RAIL CANADA
May 7 to May 15, 2006
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
North Vancouver to Whistler on Rocky Mountaineer’s brand-new Whistler Mountaineer
Day 4: Wednesday, May 10 2006.
The Pacific Palisades is one of the Vancouver hotels that Brewster Vacations recommends in the moderate category. Not only do we save money on the hotel, which is very comfortable and pleasant, there are several restaurants on the same block that are quite reasonably priced.
This vacation is all confirmed, including hotels, train segments, and transfers. All we have to do is follow the directions and hand over pre-paid vouchers for each item on the detailed itinerary they have provided.
Brewster’s vouchers include tax, so there are no surprise extra charges when we check out. If we had confirmed the Pacific Palisades Hotel directly with the hotel, we’d be paying a 7.5% provincial tax, a 2% city tax, and the federal goods and services tax of 7%.
Rocky Mountaineer’s bus picks us up at 7:20 AM and takes us to North Vancouver, in time for the 8:15am departure of the Whistler Mountaineer. The train boards just a few yards west of the former BC Rail passenger station. Rocky Mountaineer has built a large open sided gazebo-type structure with benches where passengers wait to board.
BC Rail ran passenger trains from North Vancouver to Prince George until a few years ago, including vintage, self-propelled Budd cars as well as steam-hauled excursions from North Vancouver to Squamish.
While BC Rail still owns this railbed, Canadian National Railways has leased the track and rights to run freight trains, and Rocky Mountaineer Vacations has purchased the rights to operate passenger trains.
The Whistler Mountaineer, all single-level cars pulled by a specially painted locomotive, consist of two former Canadian National carriages, reborn as Glacier Dome cars (coaches with high side windows topped by windows curving into the ceiling) and two Coastal Classic conventional coaches. Between these pairs of cars is an open-air observation car, built in 1917 for Canadian Pacific, and available to all passengers.
Click on the images for a larger view. Images will open in a new page; close the page to return here. |
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 Whistler Mountaineer Glacier Dome car |
 Interior of Glacier Dome car |
 Sylvia and Ted in Glacier Dome |
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Breakfast in the Glacier Dome cars begins, served by our three car attendants, as soon as we leave the North Vancouver Station, with orange juice laced with champagne and a fresh fruit plate, followed by coffee and a full English breakfast of ham, cheese omelet, broiled tomato, and home fry potatoes. We enjoy this delicious repast while passing parks with waterfront hiking trails – where people stop and stare, then wave – as passengers trains only started running here again on May 1. We continue through the beautiful West Vancouver residential area with its mansions and extravagant gardens where purple and pink rhododendrons are in full bloom; then into a forested area where white dogwood flowers grace the trees.
The Glacier Dome seems to be floating along over the tracks. These well-maintained rails are a welcome change from the rocking and lurching we experienced yesterday on the BNSF tracks into Vancouver.
Curving north, we pass through a 4000 foot tunnel and emerge high above Horseshoe Bay, a ferry terminal village, with BC Ferry routes serving Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
We continue east now, along Howe Sound to our left, with occasional glimpses of the Vancouver to Whistler Highway above to our right. We traversed this alarmingly overcrowded highway once, on a drive to Whistler, and vowed to never to go again, except by train. The train ride seems 100% more scenic, and while we’d traveled this route a number of times while BC Rail ran trains here, it seems that the mountains are higher, the waterfalls wilder, the lakes more sparkling every time we come.
Howe Sound
Some construction projects on the adjacent highway indicate that it is being improved and widened in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics to be held in Whistler. We also hear that Rocky Mountaineer will be operating shuttle trains to the Olympics, which should take a lot of pressure off this highway, which must be much worse in the winter than the mild time of year in which we drove it.
We reach Squamish, at the head of Howe Sound. This is the home of the West Coast Railway Museum, which now owns the former Canadian Pacific steam engine Royal Hudson, retired some years ago by BC Rail. It is now under restoration by the West Coast Railway Association, with the assistance of Doyle McCormick, of SP4449 fame.
We make a lengthy stop here to take on a helper engine, a General Motors streamlined F7 unit in original Canadian Pacific colors, to assist us over the hill to Whistler. What a thrill to see this vintage unit on the head end, even if it is preceded by one of those contemporary locomotives with no styling whatsoever. We slow for photographers when crossing the Cheakamus River, with its rapids and waterfalls.
General Motors FP7
Photo: West Coast
Railway Association collection
 Cheakamus River Canyon |
 Falls of the Cheakamus River |
We arrive into Whistler Station at 11:30am. Construction is underway on a new hotel and station complex here for Rocky Mountaineer. Local busses whisk us away to our various hotels in Whistler Village, which lies 4 miles east of the station. We stay at the Summit Lodge, which happens to be another Kimpton Group hotel, situated in the heart of the village, surrounded by shops and restaurants of every variety. It is quiet in Whistler today, between seasons. Skiing is nearly over, and golfing has not yet begun in full force, but this is a sportsman’s paradise, not to mention a shopper’s and a gourmet’s paradise. We also notice that there are several medical facilities in the village, always necessary where skiing is the big industry.
The big decision tonight, where to eat. German, Indian, Italian -- the choices are legion. We choose the Tandoori, an Indian restaurant across the street, and while we are the only patrons, we are served the most exotic and tasty East Indian cuisine we have ever experienced.
Tomorrow we experience yet another new train, the Rocky Mountaineer along the Fraser River Discovery Route.
NEXT: Day 5. Thursday, May 11, 2006: Rocky Mountaineer’s Fraser Discovery Route, Whistler to Quesnel
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