Fall Foliage Through Domes Thursday, October 6, 2011, Part 1 The Final Afternoon: First Passage to the West (Kicking Horse Route) Day 2, Part 2 Down the Fraser River, by Hells Gate and Through the Rail Yards For an Early Arrival into Vancouver

The Final Afernoon: Down the Fraser River, by Hells Gate and Through the Rail Yards For an Early Arrival into Vancouver

At noon it is time for a final lunch on the Rocky Mountaineer and we sit with a couple from Vancouver Island who are on RM's Sea to Shining Sea package, taking the train across (mostly VIA) from Halifax with a tour almost identical to ours down from Jasper

• 12:30 — Start entering and then through Boston bar
• 12:50 — I run out to the observation platform during lunch to pass Hells Gate. I almost get into a fight with another photographer for not letting me kneel in front. I'm young and will stay out of your way!
  
• 1:51 — Done with a nice leisurely lunch, as the Fraser gets wider. I go back outside as we speed the fastest I have gone this trip. It is quite hard to chat with people outside
  
• 2:25 — The line is getting more developed. There are now houses and farms off in the distance as we pass hoop houses and feedlots now with a grey Pacific Northwest sky.
• 2:30 — passing through the city of Chillwack including an autobody shop and then a McDonalds.
• 2:33 — Quickly pass farmers fields, logging operations and other industry and the always railway present scrapyard. We're still going slower than traffic on a nearby highway thouhg.
  
• 2:39 — MP 80 — Slowling down we see the Fraser River again and more fisherman; here it is extremely wide. Logs are floating down it and there is a seaplane and we slow down
  
• 2:52 — Slow down again smelling steel on steel, passing by more fields and Matsqui Junction
  
• 2:56 — pass Page and a feedlot
  
• 3:00 — A CN freight train going in the other direction
  
• 3:07 — While in the vestibule I chat with the operations manager who introduces himself as the onboard mechanic. This morning he saw me taking pictures in Kamloops. He says jokingly that he is happy to see me actually on the train and not just lying about being on the platform. Don't think RM would care if you wandered down though, just for pictures.
• 3:19 — Langley full of horse farms and then crowded suburban houses on farms and pass more houses
  
• 3:30 — Wend our way through Thornton Yard, a large CN Intermodal hub and one of the largest in Canada, going slowly. The experience of being in a rear vestibule through a train yard is a railfan's dream!
  
• 3:42 — Pass the Port Mann Bridge, both the current span and a new span under construction.
  
• We continue through the train yard, including passing two small replica models of a caboose and engine on a trailer CN drives around to teach kids about railroad safety
  
• 3:53 — We keep following the south bank of the Fraser River passing a BNSF freight train, colors that are familiar but look out of place in Canada (they have a branch up to the port) and another scrapyard, this one dealing with melting down the finer parts of the metal
  
• 4:00 — We slow down and cross the Fraser River one final time on the New Westminster Bridge, a low-lying swing bridge (reminds me of so many railroad bridges along the NEC) in view and dwarfed by the cable-stayed Skybridge used by SkyTrain and the Pattullo Bridge, an arch shaped truss for roads.
  
• 4:07 — New Westminster and pass the Millennium Line's Sapperton Station, along with a BNSF (with the new logo) caboose of all things
  
• 4:12 — Piper as we zoom into Vancouver at the speed of traffic
• 4:14 — Sperling Interlocking
• 4:19 — Slowly entering following SkyTrain's Millennium Line one of the train attendants announcing transfer information and tells us about taxis not crossing the picket line. Those needing taxis can take a bus to a central area in downtown Vancouver. "Thank you for traveling with us." As we keep following SkyTrain.
• 4:21 — Pass Rupert SkyTrain, a level crossing just next to the SkyTrain ROW.

We slowly enter the station passing it by first since because we have to back in and at 4:34 finally arrive an hour early, a first for the attendant.

After two straight days of sitting I send my grandmother onto her motorcoach and I walk into the impressive but completely unique modern yet historic looking station building that feels more like an event space (that it does double duty with) than a train station. The design just big and wide open, no ticket counter anywhere, few places to put luggage (but luggage carts are provided) only works for a tourist train like the Rocky Mountaineer.

I then walked out of the station after getting my photos of the rather impressive station building, through the protesters (don't think anyone else left the train station on foot), walked the mile to Pacific Central Station and picked up my Amtrak ticket for Monday morning (wanted to save a line) and walked another excellent mile, around False Creek and BC Place to our hotel, the Hampton Inn again. We had a small late dinner (we were in the first seating for lunch) at a Japanese noodle shop, not quite believing our adventures were over.

Continue as I Have a Full Day Rail Fanning in Vancouver including the West Coast Express!

• Flying Newark to Vancouver
• Vancouver to Whistler on the Sea to Sky Climb
• Riding 3/4 of the Rainforest to Gold Rush (Fraser Discovery) Route: Day 1, Part 1|Day 1, Part 2|Day 1, Part 3|Just Half of Day 2 Until the Train Broke Down in Shelley
• A Wet Day in Jasper
• Jasper to Lake Louise via the Icefields Parkway
• Lake Louise to Banff including the Spiral Tunnels
• Final Day in the Canadian Rockies Flying Through Them
• Riding the Last Departure for 2011 of the First Passage to the West (Kicking Horse) Route: Day 1, Part 1|Day 1, Part 2|Day 1, Part 3|Day 2, Part 1|Day 2, Part 2

Last Updated: 8 November, 2011
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