The Mountaineer

We boarded the Rocky Mountaineer this morning and set off at 7.45pm for Kamloops.

The Rocky Mountaineer at Vancouver

Our train is comprised of 22 'pieces of equipment' as they call the assembly of carriages and other cars. It carried 665 passengers on this service with staff of 72. We were in a 'Gold Leaf' double deck carriage as seen in this photograph. Other carriages were of single level.

We sat in the upstairs observation deck which contained a small server for all day refreshments and snacks. Our dining room was on the lower level and we were served breakfast and lunch in two sittings for each.

Breakfast menu

Lunch menu

The service does not run to a specific timetable. Once on the move, the train follows others travelling on the one track and takes turns at siding to be passed by, or pass, trains travelling in the opposite direction. These are trains are freight trains and they are immensely long. I counted 153 'pieces of equipment' as the rail staff referred to them on one of these trains and 172 on a subsequent train. This sharing of directions on one track seems to work smoothly no doubt controlled from some remote point and electronically.

But it does mean that each train runs slowly at times, stops for periods, and gathers speed according to where they are on the this 'share and shuffle' track.

We could have arrived at Kamloops at around 5.30pm under most advantageous conditions but our arrival was around 7.30pm. The Mountaineer has arrived sometimes as late as 11.30pm.

The transition to (and the next morning from) our hotels in Kamloops for the overnight stay was staged with exquisite and praiseworthy precision.

A massive thunderstorm struck as Hn and I ate a Mexican meal in a local restaurant.

Will post photos from the train separately.