new design train model

By Paul Ullrich

A very special tour, exclusive to the Rail Travel Tours group, was a visit to the Port of Churchill. This was a special treat for railfans. It's the northern terminus for the Hudson Bay Railway and the northernmost point of any Manitoba rail line. It's Canada's only arctic seaport, and it's one of the largest grain elevators in the province.

The only reason for Churchill's existence was the port. The rail line was completed to Churchill in 1929, after it was decided that a rail line to Port Nelson wasn't feasible because of the heavy silt buildup from the Nelson River.

Farmers using the port had the advantage of not paying charges laid by the Saint Lawrence Seaway, and the route from Churchill to Europe is much shorter than any other North American port.  But the track was built on muskeg and permafrost, which limited the size of the rail cars, the length of the trains, and the speed which the trains could travel.  Standard three bay hoppers carrying a full load of grain were just too heavy.  The short shipping season also impaired grain traffic. 


For many years, the port was owned and operated by the Province of Manitoba. It was turned over to the federal government, who operated it for about a decade, until it was sold to OmniTRAX - for ten dollars!

The port was almost entirely reliant on grain shipments from the Canadian Wheat Board, but grain traffic has decreased considerably at the port when the CWB's monopoly was ended.

OmniTRAX purchased trackage north of The Pas from CN Rail to form the Hudson Bay Railway in 1997. Since then, they have been able to run heavier rail cars and longer trains, bringing increased business to the Port from various mines and pulp mills.

Much thanks to Rail travel Tours, who provided us with this rare opportunity to visit this historic Manitoba railway site!

We passed the time taking photos the wolf mural in Thompson, Manitoba, while waiting for our flight.

By Paul Ullrich

After a pleasant sleep in a non-moving sleeper car, we woke up the next morning and found out our proposed schedule for the day.

We were told that we were to board a bus at 1:30 PM, which would take us to the airport. If we wanted to go into Thompson, we were asked to be back at no later then 12:00 noon for lunch, so we'd have enough time eat and to prepare for boarding the bus with all of our belongings.

To make our wait more pleasurable, Via ordered dozens of donuts, pastries and muffins from Tim Horton's, along with gallons of coffee, and had them placed in the station for all the passengers.

When we first arrived in Thompson, a member of our group had checked the fuel gauge on the head end unit. He checked it this morning, and found that the engine had gone through 700 litres of fuel, just to keep the train's services going!

A group of us took advantage of the time and visited the Heritage North Museum and Information Centre. This is a wonderful little museum housed inside a log cabin, and it's just packed with many fascinating displays about Thompson's history and wildlife. We also posed in front of the Wolf Mural, which is a Robert Bateman design painted by Winnipeg's prominent mural painter, Charles Johnson. It's painted on the side of the Highland Tower, a 10 story apartment block.

We got back in time for lunch in the diner car. There were usually five selections for lunch, but this time we only had two. Robert, our tour guide, announced that the plane that was chartered couldn't fit all of our group. He asked for eight volunteers who wouldn't mind flying on a later plane, then passed a sign-up sheet around.

After lunch, we packed up our belongings. We could see the Greyhound Bus waiting for us behind the station. At 1:25 we all left our quarters and waited in line to disembark from the train. Ten minutes later, we were told to go back to our seats.

More muffins were brought from Tim's as a series of frantic phone calls to Via's head office in Montreal, Hudson Bay Railway, Rail Travel Tours, Calm Air, and Perimeter Airlines. We were allowed to leave the train, but not the station.

Amid all of this confusion, we met an 85 year old woman with a delightfully lilting Scottish accent who took the new of our delay with an enviable calm. She had lived in Churchill for many years, and had taken this train often enough to expect any sort of misfortune to befall her.

"You don't know how lucky you are, dear." She said. "This delay happened in a city.  It could've occurred in the bush, and then what would would've become of us?"

We felt a bit better after hearing that.

Finally, at 5:00 PM, we were told to get our luggage from the baggage car and board the bus. Being in a tour group had its advantages, for we were the first to leave. The passengers who were not in our tour group stayed overnight in a Thompson hotel, and were flown into Churchill the following day.

One plane was waiting for us at the airport. It was a 16 seater from Perimeter airlines. We were told that another plane would be there in just a few minutes to take the rest of us to Churchill. 16 people from our group boarded the plane. It was so cramped that you couldn't stand up straight. Little packets were handed out. They looked like gummy bears. They were actually earplugs.

The plane took off at 5:50 PM. As soon as it left, the airport manager announced that the next plane would be here at 7:30 PM.

So much for "the next plane will be here in a few minutes".

Thompson airport is like no other airport in the south of the country. The secure area's door was left open so passengers could get coffee and snacks. There was a sign in the washroom cautioning us not to drink the water, as it wasn't potable. The luggage scanner was an old woman with a cane who closed up shop promptly at 6:00 PM. We had no luggage inspection whatsoever. All they did was weigh and tag our luggage.

There was a Transport Canada sign by the baggage counter listing the things you couldn't bring on a plane. One of them was an aerosol can. I had a can of shave cream in my toiletry bag in my carry on. When I asked the clerk what I should do with it, she shrugged and giggled and said, "I don't know!"

The one thing the took seriously was take-out food brought into the planes. Boxes of donuts were subject to inspection by airport officials because they had several incidents where marijuana was smuggled inside of them.

The airport manager ordered a pizza for supper. Several members of our group did the same. He offered to pick it up so we wouldn't have to pay the delivery fee. That's Thompson airport for you.

The Calm Air plane arrived on time. It was a spacious 44 seater, and you could stand up in it! They even had snacks! We arrive in Churchill exactly at 9:00 PM, exactly 12 hours later than we were supposed to arrive.

We were greeted at the Airport by Paul, our guide for the next 48 hours. He looked like a cross between Grizzly Adams and Dumbledore. The school bus that he drove to take us us to our hotel had a gun rack with a very large an menacing looking rifle. We weren't in the south anymore.

Dinner, and the rest of our party, were waiting for us at the Seaport Hotel. We celebrated our arrival by having a delicious meal of fresh Arctic Char.

We made it!


          That's the 16 seater from Perimeter Airlines that took some of our group to Churchill.
            

By Paul Ullrich

This year my wife Margaret and I decided to go whale watching in Churchill, a destination on our bucket list. Being a railfan, I had always wanted to travel there by train. I also wanted to see what northern Manitoba was like, as the farthest north either Margaret and I had ever been in the province was Duck Mountain Provincial Park.

We signed up for the History and belugas of Churchill group tour offered by Rail Travel Tours, which is run by long time WMRC member Daryl Adair. We opted for the upper and lower berths on the train. Not only are they the least expensive sleeping option, but they have the biggest beds, and they're more sociable than being locked away in a room, or in a roomette.

There was a horrendous rainstorm on the morning of our departure, which was so bad that we had our doubts about even getting to Union Station. But 15 minutes before were about to leave, the rain stopped! We were grateful for that, but what we didn't know was that the rain was going to play a significant part in our adventure to Churchill.

We arrived at the station in time to have our luggage checked and to join Daryl's tour of the Winnipeg Railway Museum. Daryl gave a very enjoyable and thorough tour. He's a long time member of the museum, and he knew every piece of rolling stock in the museum inside and out.

The only problem was the heat. Remember that morning's rain? After that downpour, the temperature climbed rapidly, and with all of that extra added humidity, the museum turned into a sauna. It was well before noon when our tour ended, but by the time it was finished we were all dripping with sweat.

When we got back downstairs to the station, we found that the train was running late, as it didn't arrive in Winnipeg until 7:00 that morning (over 14 hours late) and the crew needed more time to get the train ready. Lunch in the car's diner was cancelled, but Via supplied us with a lunch from the snack bar in the station's main foyer.

The train was ready for boarding quicker than anticipated, and we boarded right after we ate. Before we left, Daryl cautioned us about the schedule of the Churchill train.

"It's supposed to arrive in Churchill at 9 AM, but if it arrives on the same day, it's considered to be on time!" He said. And he was right about that.

Our guides for the trip were Robert and his wife Deborah, and they were absolutely terrific hosts. Much to our surprise, we found that most of the tour group were from Manitoba. When we booked the tour, Daryl told us that most of his customers for this trip were usually out-of-towners. He said that in Churchill they refer to this as 'perimeter-itis", reflecting on Winnipegger's well known reluctance to vacation in their own province. But it was a welcome surprise, as we got to know a lot of great people who lived nearby.

Wonder of wonders, the train had an domed observation car! The dome car has been featured this summer on a number of trips on the Churchill service as a pilot project. The domes were also featured a few years back during polar bear season in the fall and at the odd time for special groups. Boy, was it ever popular! It gave us the perfect place for our group to get to know each other, and to enjoy the scenery as no other passengers on the train to Churchill had ever been able to before.

After a hot, humid morning in the station, it was a blessed relief to travel in air conditioned comfort. I was giddy in anticipation as we left Portage La Prairie for the Gladstone subdivision, for it was a route that I'd never travelled before by rail. We weren't breaking any speed records. It was a bit disconcerting to see cars zipping by us on the road next to us, but none of us cared - we were in the dome car, it was a beautiful sunny day, and we were all having a wonderful time!

We went through Gladstone, which I had only seen from Highway 16. The track through town was elevated, and everybody laughed when we passed mere inches away from the second floor window of a Chinese restaurant! If our windows had been able to open, we all could've got some take out!

We had a wonderful dinner in the diner as we slipped through the Togo subdivision, then crossed the border to Saskatchewan and into the Assiniboine subdivision. We went to bed when we reached Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, looking forward to what the next day was going to bring.

But the next day was full of surprises that no one had anticipated.

 

 On the year of 100th anniversary of the last spike of the Canadian Northern Railway, Rail Travel Tours will conduct a special rail tour to celebrate the completion of Canada�s third transcontinental railway.

   Scheduled for August 18-20, 2015 this tour is a fundraiser for the Winnipeg Railway Museum. It features a round trip from Winnipeg through western Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan on the  Canadian Northern's prairie route � now part of Canadian National Railway.

  The tour begins with a visit to the Winnipeg Railway Museum (located in Winnipeg�s Union Station). The passengers will board Via rail's Winnipeg � Churchill train, which will travel through Gladstone to Dauphin, Manitoba (where the railway originated) with amazing views of Riding Mountain National Park.  The tour stops at the town named after the first 2 letters of the railway�s name (CAnadian NOrthern RAilway) - Canora, Saskatchewan.

   The tour will spend two nights and a full day in Canora. Those on the tour will experience how this railway supported the farmers and promoted immigration to the Canadian Prairies by visiting the National Doukhobor Heritage Village and the Ukrainian Heritage Museum. There will be a special demonstration of vintage farming equipment and a visit to the recently redeveloped Canora Station House Museum. 

   Also the tour includes a visit to Canada�s only Toy & Autograph Museum and a special themed banquet to celebrate the Canadian Northern Railway.  On the third day of the tour, guests will transfer south by motor coach to Melville, SK to visit the railway museum and the community's original Town Hall and Opera House before boarding VIA Rail�s Canadian to travel through the Qu'appelle Valley and return to Winnipeg.

 For more information about the tour, call Rail Travel Tours in Winnipeg toll free 1-866-704-3528