TED & SYLVIA BLISHAK'S UPDATES
ON
AMTRAK, ROCKY MOUNTAINEER, AND VIA RAIL CANADA
May 7 to May 15, 2006
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
Quesnel, British Columbia, to Jasper, Alberta
Day 6. Friday, May 12, 2006
This morning dawns with clear air and sunny skies. We board the GoldLeaf Dome today, looking forward to great views of the Canadian Rockies.
Click images for a larger view!
Sylvia and Ted boarding the GoldLeaf Dome
Here are the differences between the two classes of service:
RedLeaf is a standard single-level coach with large windows, and comfortable reclining seats with leg rests and plenty of legroom. A cold breakfast and cold lunch are served at your seats. There are two menu choices for lunch. Each coach has two restrooms, one accessible, and two vestibules with Dutch doors. The vestibules are limited to four persons at a time, but with even one other person in the vestibule, there is some jockeying for position and it is difficult to get a good photograph if the other person is on the side of the train where the photo op occurs. Fortunately the windows are clean and we have no problems taking photos from our seats. Tasha, our car attendant, keeps us happy with food, and rolls an airline style cart down the aisle frequently offering soft drinks, juice, beer, wine, and liquor. We also enjoy three snacks (one hot) in addition to breakfast and lunch served at our seats. Red Leaf passengers stay at moderate hotels in Quesnel, and must pay for their own dinner there. We enjoyed yesterday's Red Leaf trip very much, had good views of the scenery, and got some great photos.
Is GoldLeaf worth the higher price? We think so. It offers a double-level car with a large open platform that can hold eight people. The restrooms and dining room are on the lower level. The large, reclining passenger seats are upstairs, where the glass curves up into the ceiling so one can gaze straight up at the sky. An elevator is available for passengers who cannot manage the spiral staircase. Car attendants come to your seat to take your drink orders. Hot meals with several menu choices are served in the elegant lower level dining room, decorated with fine paintings and fresh flowers. Since the tables are for four, one gets acquainted with other passengers. So Gold Leaf lends itself to a more sociable atmosphere both in the dining room and on the spacious open platform. By 10 AM, we have already chatted with passengers from Australia, Ireland, and Maryland .
Interior and seating in the GoldLeaf Dome
The dining room can accommodate only half of a fully booked dome, so meals are served in two sittings during the busy season. But this does not mean that the second shift is ignored while the first is enjoying breakfast. Coffee, juice, and pastries are served at your seat upstairs while the first sitting is dining downstairs.
On this trip the dome is only half full, so we are all served in one sitting. While waiting for your entrees to be freshly prepared, coffee, juice, and croissants are served at breakfast. At lunch, coffee, freshly baked sourdough bread, and your choice of soup or salad accompany the four choices of entrees for each meal. Wine is complimentary for lunch, and we are offered a choice of a white or a red British Columbia wine, a treat not available outside of Canada .
Mealtime can be lengthy, as the staff needs time to prepare 32 meals in the small kitchen. Today there is a staff of four in this car: Two kitchen workers and two servers. In Red Leaf, Tasha took care of us all without any assistance. Of course, in the high season, there are two servers in Red Leaf, and four in Gold Leaf. Our train manager, Wade, has the run of the train and helps whenever and wherever he is needed, in addition to performing his managerial duties.
Up in the locomotive cab there is an engineer and a conductor, while a third crew member, the technician, roams throughout the train, taking care of all of the electrical and mechanical equipment. We are out in the wilderness here, and if there is a kitchen, plumbing, or A/C breakdown, we rest assured that we need not wait until we reach the nearest railroad yard, which can be hours away. The cars are equipped with emergency medical equipment and the crew is in constant touch with the outside world with cell phones and two way radio. The crew has regular training in emergency first aid, which is required by Transport Canada.
GoldLeaf domes are equipped with two restrooms, both decorated with fresh flowers. One is accessible.
Are there any disadvantages to GoldLeaf? Nothing is perfect, of course. While the vast dome windows permit sightseeing in all directions, they also create reflections in the glass, which are hardly noticeable to the eye, but need to be considered when taking photographs from your seat. Forward viewing is not the same as in a conventional dome car from the 1950s, as there is a forward view only from the first of the two dome cars. Also, Gold Leaf passengers tend to spend a lot of time standing in the aisles conversing with their neighbors, which restricts forward viewing. If you are a fan of looking out through the front window, request the first row of the first dome, though even then, you will have a serving station between your seat and the front window.
The GoldLeaf domes are quiet and ride quite well; though, due to their height, are not as smooth and steady as the old Canadian National coaches used in Red Leaf. But, unlike on Amtrak, one can walk around without having to adopt a bent-knee, Groucho Marx-style gait, or grab seat backs, to keep from falling. All of the cars are much smoother than the Talgo trains that Amtrak uses on rough American track, and due to lower speeds and smoother roadbed, there is not the same amount of swaying and lurching that you might experience on the faster-running Amtrak Superliner trains.
Gold Leaf passengers stay at superior hotels, which, in Quesnel, a lumber-mill town rather than a tourist center, was the Sandman. They also receive pre-paid dinner vouchers at the hotel in Quesnel.
Lumber Industry in Quesnel
Quesnel is a major lumber processing center and does not offer much in the way of photo ops, but after joining the Prince Rupert line at the city of Prince George, we loop southeast down the Rocky Mountain Trench, with the Rocky Mountains to the left and the Cariboo Mountains to the right. The weather has turned cloudy and rainy, with short burst of hail. The mountains are dark and brooding, with fresh snow dusting the trees at the higher elevations, and of course permanent ice and snow at the higher elevations over 7000 feet. Yet sunbeams illuminate some of the high snowfields.
This is all on too large a scale for good photography, so we simply marvel at the view.
We pause at the junction of the Prince Rupert line and the Canadian National main line to allow a westbound freight to pass, then proceed climbing Yellowhead Pass, the crossing of the Rockies . This is heavy-duty railroading, with Centralized Traffic Control, full signaling, much double track, and long passing sidings for moving passes.
Moose Lake is the source of the Fraser River at the Continental Divide. Then we highball downhill to the Town Site of Jasper in Jasper National Park .
Moose Lake
Several black bears are sighted by passengers, and with great excitement everyone rushes to the proper side of the train to look. Soon everyone on the dome has seen at least one bear, with the exception of Sylvia, the only one to raise her hand when the car attendant asks, “Is there anyone here who hasn't seen a bear?”
Two more bears are sighted, and everyone asks if Sylvia has spotted them. We are traveling at high speed now, and if one doesn't look quickly at the right spot, one becomes, well……..bear-challenged! Oh well, there's one in every crowd, right?
We have never approached Jasper without seeing a herd of elk, and this ride is no exception. “It is best to stay away from elk, especially if they are tagged, because that means they have caused trouble for humans,” warns our car attendant. “The same goes for wolves and bears, especially if they have their young nearby.”
It is hard to believe that our three days of riding Rocky Mountaineer have come to an end.
Nobody ever asks on a train ride, “Are we there yet?”
We are transferred, with our pre-paid voucher, to the Lobstick Lodge. We've been served so many snacks on Rocky Mountaineer that we decide to skip dinner and go to bed early.
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NEXT: Day 7. May 13, 2006 Jasper National Park to Vancouver
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