While I am a life-long Michigan resident, I have been riding Via’s Ontario-Quebec corridor now for more than a quarter century. The weekend of July 5-8 brought me back to the corridor for a round trip between Windsor and Kingston, Ontario, marking my first trip to eastern Ontario in six years and the first time I have made the trip by train with my children, ages eight and five.
I have to give high marks to Via’s on board service crews. They were especially helpful with our little boys, joking with them, talking to them about their favorite hockey players and patiently counting out change when they bought snacks. The service provided by Via reflects what we have experienced on Amtrak as well- and leads me to conclude that railroaders are a kid-friendly bunch.
My wife and our boys departed Windsor on train 72 on July 5 and enjoyed a comfortable ride in facing seats at the end of an LRC coach. The riding qualities and big windows of LRC equipment have always been a plus, although the interiors, having now seen a quarter century of service, are starting to look a bit shopworn. We sat through a delay of about 20 minutes just west of Chatham as we waited for a Canadian Pacific freight to clear, but we made up some time and arrived in Toronto about 15 minutes down. Crew members provided the kids with some folding cardboard models of a VIA P42 and a Renaissance sleeper and coach, and the guys had fun playing trains while on the train.
We had a layover of around an hour-and-a-half at Toronto Union Station. While Union is humming with GO trains, I miss the days when the station had a major intercity presence. Although we always drove through Ontario on trips as a kid, we usually stopped for a night in Toronto and my dad would often take me down to Union where a friendly station employee would always let us go up to trackside. Looking back to the 1970s, I can recall the Turbo with its bright red nose, the Super Continental, CP Rail RDCs to places like Buffalo and Peterborough and the old Reading Crusader equipment. The time when I could go into the station and pick up a thick CN or Via timetable, unfortunately, is no more.
Our three-car train 46 from Toronto to Kingston was headed up by P42 923, and we made a quick, on-time run, arriving in Kingston about a quarter to six. We staked out seats on the south side of the train, and the kids enjoyed the view of Lake Ontario rolling by.
My dad’s family included some of the early settlers in the region around Kingston and I wanted to show my sons some of the railroad heritage of the area. Accordingly, we visited the old Kingston and Pembroke station in downtown Kingston on the Lake Ontario shorefront and looked at CPR 4-6-0 1095 the “Spirit of Sir John A.” which was built by the Canadian Locomotive Company in Kingston. We also hiked a short stretch of the abandoned K&P (or Kick and Push as the locals used to call it) around Harrowsmith. Meanwhile, the old CNR line between Napanee and Ottawa was visible from the home where my grandmother grew up in Sydenham, and we also walked some of right-of-way of that route, now the Cataraqui Trail, along Sydenham Lake. My grandfather liked to tell me how he would ride the train from Ottawa to Sydenham, getting off at 3:45 in the morning. I can remember seeing a few trains using the line myself as a kid, and was visiting Sydenham in the summer of 1981 when the tracks were being pulled up.
We left for home on Sunday, July 8 on train 643 with F40PH 6414 ushering our consist back to Toronto. 6414 is the unit painted for the Quebec Lottery. Over the years, I have seen locomotives emblazoned with kittens, horses, and, in the case of the Canadian Pacific, the noble and hard-working beaver. This was the first time I’ve seen a locomotive adorned with a chicken, though. Track work east of Oshawa delayed us by about 30 minutes, cutting our afternoon layover in Toronto a little shorter than we had hoped. Nonetheless, Via keeps its trains on the corridor moving; I hadn’t even sat down when 643 pulled out of Kingston.
The Toronto-Windsor segment of our journey enabled the kids to experience a rare commodity- a trip on a streamliner made up of matching stainless steel equipment built by Budd. Train 675’s seven silver cars were hauled by F40PH 6419. We sailed along in coach 4107 and the kids were able to sleep some as the long trip home neared its end. The ride quality of the old stainless steel warriors is noticeably different from the LRCs, especially west of London, but the look of the train was timeless.
We covered a lot of territory in four days, especially since our travel involved two little kids. Still, the warm crews and the generally smooth ride made our journey a very pleasant experience. I grew up on stories about the Kick and Push, and the last conversation I had with my father just before he died was about riding the train down to Kingston. So I’m grateful that Via was able to help me bring back some of the past and help two little boys get in touch with some of their family’s heritage.
I have to give high marks to Via’s on board service crews. They were especially helpful with our little boys, joking with them, talking to them about their favorite hockey players and patiently counting out change when they bought snacks. The service provided by Via reflects what we have experienced on Amtrak as well- and leads me to conclude that railroaders are a kid-friendly bunch.
My wife and our boys departed Windsor on train 72 on July 5 and enjoyed a comfortable ride in facing seats at the end of an LRC coach. The riding qualities and big windows of LRC equipment have always been a plus, although the interiors, having now seen a quarter century of service, are starting to look a bit shopworn. We sat through a delay of about 20 minutes just west of Chatham as we waited for a Canadian Pacific freight to clear, but we made up some time and arrived in Toronto about 15 minutes down. Crew members provided the kids with some folding cardboard models of a VIA P42 and a Renaissance sleeper and coach, and the guys had fun playing trains while on the train.
We had a layover of around an hour-and-a-half at Toronto Union Station. While Union is humming with GO trains, I miss the days when the station had a major intercity presence. Although we always drove through Ontario on trips as a kid, we usually stopped for a night in Toronto and my dad would often take me down to Union where a friendly station employee would always let us go up to trackside. Looking back to the 1970s, I can recall the Turbo with its bright red nose, the Super Continental, CP Rail RDCs to places like Buffalo and Peterborough and the old Reading Crusader equipment. The time when I could go into the station and pick up a thick CN or Via timetable, unfortunately, is no more.
Our three-car train 46 from Toronto to Kingston was headed up by P42 923, and we made a quick, on-time run, arriving in Kingston about a quarter to six. We staked out seats on the south side of the train, and the kids enjoyed the view of Lake Ontario rolling by.
My dad’s family included some of the early settlers in the region around Kingston and I wanted to show my sons some of the railroad heritage of the area. Accordingly, we visited the old Kingston and Pembroke station in downtown Kingston on the Lake Ontario shorefront and looked at CPR 4-6-0 1095 the “Spirit of Sir John A.” which was built by the Canadian Locomotive Company in Kingston. We also hiked a short stretch of the abandoned K&P (or Kick and Push as the locals used to call it) around Harrowsmith. Meanwhile, the old CNR line between Napanee and Ottawa was visible from the home where my grandmother grew up in Sydenham, and we also walked some of right-of-way of that route, now the Cataraqui Trail, along Sydenham Lake. My grandfather liked to tell me how he would ride the train from Ottawa to Sydenham, getting off at 3:45 in the morning. I can remember seeing a few trains using the line myself as a kid, and was visiting Sydenham in the summer of 1981 when the tracks were being pulled up.
We left for home on Sunday, July 8 on train 643 with F40PH 6414 ushering our consist back to Toronto. 6414 is the unit painted for the Quebec Lottery. Over the years, I have seen locomotives emblazoned with kittens, horses, and, in the case of the Canadian Pacific, the noble and hard-working beaver. This was the first time I’ve seen a locomotive adorned with a chicken, though. Track work east of Oshawa delayed us by about 30 minutes, cutting our afternoon layover in Toronto a little shorter than we had hoped. Nonetheless, Via keeps its trains on the corridor moving; I hadn’t even sat down when 643 pulled out of Kingston.
The Toronto-Windsor segment of our journey enabled the kids to experience a rare commodity- a trip on a streamliner made up of matching stainless steel equipment built by Budd. Train 675’s seven silver cars were hauled by F40PH 6419. We sailed along in coach 4107 and the kids were able to sleep some as the long trip home neared its end. The ride quality of the old stainless steel warriors is noticeably different from the LRCs, especially west of London, but the look of the train was timeless.
We covered a lot of territory in four days, especially since our travel involved two little kids. Still, the warm crews and the generally smooth ride made our journey a very pleasant experience. I grew up on stories about the Kick and Push, and the last conversation I had with my father just before he died was about riding the train down to Kingston. So I’m grateful that Via was able to help me bring back some of the past and help two little boys get in touch with some of their family’s heritage.
