| Quebec City by freight train Halifax, Nova Scotia to Charny, Quebec distance: approx 950km by rail duration: approx 16 hours, including diversions, to Quebec; 2.5 days round trip. date: 09-11 August 2001 (and i have a city bus ticket from QC to prove it!) Well, I finally did it - I hopped on a westbound freight train and I had the time of my life. It really was the most amazing thing I've done in a couple of years. I made it all the way to Quebec City before returning! I really had planned on Toronto but, as you'll hear, I ended up in Quebec. I got to the container piers at 10:30am on Friday and established myself a little base camp on top of a hornet's nest by the side of the rails. They weren't too nuts about me being there and they let me know it...oddly enough, that was the only negative thing to happen to me on the whole trip! Around 1:00pm a container train long enough for me to think at least part of it must be going to Montreal rolled by and I hopped aboard. The weather was gorgeous, the views unparalleled in my travelling experience. And how's this for luck - not only did I manage to locate a solid-bottomed hopper, I actually managed to climb on the only one on the whole train that had a platform at the back, so instead of spending the trip hunkered down beside the container in the four-foot-deep space beside it, I spent the whole time up in the sun on the walkway on the platform. The typical eastern Canadian freight train hinders the ability of a rider to take the train - we do not transport livestock, but rather are a container handling facility. This means that there are no boxcars, only containers and the gondola cars that hold them. Gondola cars are actually theoretically better than boxcars as they offer a smoother and quieter ride than a rickety, rocking boxcar...but someone at the rail company realised this and thus today's gondola cars have grid patterned metal crossbars on the bottom - in effect, there's nowhere to sit/lie/stand. I lucked out by managing to locate a solid-bottomed gondola car. I had also done a lot of research prior to heading out on the rails of Canada. I joined a couple of rail riding groups online, visited websites, and went down to the container terminals here in Halifax and talked to rail crews. I was fully prepared for the trip, but I was absolutely not prepared for the experience. It was so much more amazing than I had dreamed. Even when, as you'll hear, I ended up more or less lost in a small Quebec town, the surprise at being stranded was outweighed by the thrill of being where I was and doing what I was doing. Anyhow, I was about two-thirds of the way back on the train, far enough that I could not be seen from the engine, so I was having the time of my life! I was like a big ol' dog with his head out the window of a car...we sped along incredibly fast (they really don't look like it, but those trains go 70 mph at times) and I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it. I was kind of worried about getting stranded at Windsor Junction about 20 miles out, but the train didn't even stop there. I suddenly realized there was going to be no second-guessing and going back...as it was, the train literally did not stop until it was in NEW BRUNSWICK. How shocked was I to see the tidal mud flats of the Nova Scotia/NB border rolling by! There were plenty of places where the tracks diverged and I was concerned about the possibility of the engineers breaking up the train and putting pieces off to the side for other trains to take in other directions. As surprised as I was that the train was not stopping anywhere, I was happy we were rolling! Let me tell you...NOTHING looks the same from the tracks. I caught the train at the container piers at the start of the Bedford Basin. I was astonished to find that everything, even in this area of the city with which I was relatively familiar, looked completely different. The ocean looked gorgeous, the sun shone, and the breeze lifted my spirits. The most incredible part of Nova Scotia to see was the Cobequid Mountains. Of course, this part of NS doesn't really have "mountains", as such, but the 500-800 foot steep hills certainly seem big and menacing enough when you're speeding along through them. Yeah, I tell you, nothing looks the same from a train. For another thing, it's the only way to see unspoiled wilderness in this world anymore! Believe it or not, the train actually HIT three moose walking on the tracks, one in NS and two in NB. Of course, highways are paved through the gentlest areas possible but railroads cling to the sides of the hills, unable to take the dramatic ups and downs of a paved road...it was amazing to roll through the Cobequid Mtns looking hundred of feet down into the valleys. In Moncton, the game was nearly up...as the train rolled to a near-stop a CN Rail truck pulled up. I thought for sure I'd been spotted. I hopped off and ran into the brush and ran back aboard when I realised it wasn't after me! of course, I was being really paranoid. Every time the trains topped to break up or let another pass, I assumed I'd been spotted. Once I met the crew, however, I became a lot more at ease. But I'm getting way ahead of myself...so eventually night came on and it got cold, cold, cold! Fortunately I was prepared for that. What I was not prepared for, however, was at midnight when (in the middle of nowhere) the train stopped and started being broken up onto side rails. Worried that I might end up stranded and wanting to be assured of staying on the part of the train sticking with the engines, I approached the crew as they waited for another train to pass...and here's where my luck REALLY came into play! I knew I had found a good guy - in the middle of night, in the middle of nowhere, he sees this guy run out of the darkness into the lights and instead of being afraid of me being a weirdo, the first thing he did was to be concerned for my safety and warn me another train was coming. Off to the side, we shook hands and he asked me where I was from - my classic line was "About eight cars back." He was amazed (not many people ride freight trains anymore!) and said he would "get me set up alright". I thought that meant he was going to string my by my heels from the front of the engine, but get this - he actually put me, alone, in the second engine cab for the night! I had a heated cab with washroom and refrigerator for the night! We certainly are a rare breed these days, railriders - he said in the past six years he hadn't had a single one! Once I was "set up" I popped on my discman and was amazed to hear which CD was in there - Bob Dylan's Blood On Tthe Tracks! What are the odds?! lol... He told me the train was going to Toronto, but unfortunately in the middle of Quebec there was a crew change. He also gave me tons of tips on railriding, including only take a train with a 5600 or 5700 series engine, since they're the only main line trains that run all the way from Halifax to Toronto. About 16 hours after I'd gotten on we hit the HUGE rail yard and I thought "Finally, I'm in Montreal!" but it turned out to be Charny, PQ. I had no idea where the hell that was, but it sounded small. The second crew turned out to be more strict and didn't want me on board, so they gave me the boot and I walked to the west end of the yard to wait for another train. I found out from a local along the way that I was over 250km from Montreal after 16 hours of riding, so I decided to give up on going all the way to Toronto. To backtrack...from the engine cab, looking out ahead into the deep black forests illuminated by the bright headlamp of the front locomotive, everything took on a ghostsly but serene and peaceful feel. It was really remakrable to see just how different everything looked. Occasionally, when a river or lake was nearby, steam would waft through the trees, veiling everything in astonishingly beautiful mists. Ah, the lakes and forests...so beautiful! All the way from Halifax to Charny, the train spent most of the time rolling by pristine lakes and waterways with no human presence. Also, the forests had more wildlife than I've ever seen from a highway. The bridges were really something else, too... I'm not afraid of heights, but it was pretty darn scary to traverse some of those bridges. For one thing, most (whether over valley or river) don't have sides, only the flat track base, so looking down both from the observation deck of the hopper and from the inside of the cab, I got this intense feeling of weightlessness, of flying. And speaking of flying... I spent a lot of tiem watching the controls in the cab and I had never imagined a freight train could go so fast - the dials kept pushing up over 65 mph! (115 kmh). Unfortunately, the tracks wind such a great distance and meander so dramatically that speed alone can't compensate. Iit took 16 hours, as I said, just to get to Charny. So I walked to the east end of the Charny yard but after seven hours with no 5600 or 5700 trains rolling by, I gave up and walked into Charny, and do you think I could find a single person who spoke a word of english?! I needed to find a Greyhound terminal but Charny - I told you it sounded small - didn't have one. I found a local cop who VOLUNTEERED to drive me all the way to Quebec City! I could not believe it! It was a little weird getting out of the cop car in front of the bus station, but I was still pretty galdurned lucky! I got to spend an entire day and night (Saturday and Sat night) in Old Quebec City. It was SO beautiful! I had completely forgotten how much I love that town! Coincidentally, it was Jours D'Histoires festival week so there was plenty to see! But here's the one thing that really crushed me - guess who was playing that very night one mile away? BOB DYLAN!!! He was in the very same city I was and I didn't know about it in advance! I could have seen him for the second time in a week after Halifax! Anyway, after a wonderful time in Quebec, I was heading for Edmundston, where I caught another train back here, but those French folk screwed me up and told me to get on the wrong bus. I didn't misunderstand them, they really did tell me the wrong bus, so when the bus stopped at the end of the route beside a giant sign saying 'Gare D'autobus - Rimouski' I knew I was in trouble. I had to get on another bus to Riviere Du Loup and another to Edmundston. It was a worthwhile side trip to Rimouski, though, because I'd never been that far up the Gaspe Pen and it was lovely rugged country! In Edmundston, NB I waited only one hour before train 5616 rolled by and I hopped aboard. The fellow from the first train had told me that the second engine is always unlocked and unoccupied but 5616 had a French crew (damn the French!) and I was worried they might kick me off like the other ones did, so I spent a long but amazing night and morning in a flatboard hopper halfway back on the train. I got back to Halifax about six hours ago. And lest anyone should believe I made all this up - I have a Quebec City bus transfer that clearly says "le 10 Aout 2002", not to mention four days of amazing memories. I highly recommend freight trains to anyone travelling anywhere! It takes a long time to get anywhere (damn Canada!) Look at it this way - I got a four day trip a third of the way across the country with 20 hours in Quebec City for only the cost of the $80 bus ticket to Edmunston plus food! I did so much research and talked to lots of rail crews before leaving, but the trip was still so radically different from anything I might have expected. The rail crews sure are decent folk, though! I probably wouldn't expect my luck to be so good next year - what are the odds that I'll find another small town cop willing to drive me all the way to a city with a Greyhound terminal - but I will DEFINITELY be heading out again next summer! Anyone wanna come with?? return to my website |
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