Banff to Vancouver

G'Day all,
                The trip on the Rocky Mountaineer was spectacular, apart from the first class service on board the train, the scenery was amazing, changing from sheer rock faces to lush forest and raging rivers. Vancouver was a great city full of trains!!, the areas surrounding the city are full of industry with lines everywhere and I have to come back to explore some of them as 2 days is not even close to see even a small part of it! Spent a few hrs riding the robotic "skytrain"system, a mainly overhead and underground rail system which is fast and very easy to use, a bit freaky as there's no driver but you soon get used to it..LOL.

Two very gracious model railroaders showed me some of the hot spots and we went back to a friends house to view his layout, thanks heaps guys for a great night!
On the way to Essex in Montana and the Izacc Walton Inn, set in the beautiful Glacier National Park it will be home for 4 days! Sitting in Seattle now waiting to board the "Empire Builder" for the overnight trip to  the Inn.
Cheers for now!
Gregg.

More of Lake Louise .

More shots of the stunning scenery at the Lake!. The Hotel is in a National Park, so you are free to visit the lake and surrounding trails anytime. But if you wish to take in the luxury that the Fairmont is famous for, have deep pockets , it's 5 star service at a premium (ouch!!) price..LOL But you have to do it once!!
Gregg.

Lake Louise.

 
G'day all,
                 The last three days have been spent at the historic and opulent Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. This is a scene out of a movie and the lake is still semi frozen so I got the best of summer and winter scenery. The ski season only finished 2 weeks ago at Lake Louise fields, so there is still plenty of snow on the ground and today I hiked 10km through the trails around the lake, many of them with knee deep snow and deeper!!! More photos of the stunning lake and Hotel to come.
In Bannf tonight for 2 days to catch some CP action on the main line, then board the Rocky Mountaineer on Wednesday.
Hooroo for now.
                           Gregg :-)

G'Day all,

                 Today saw more great CN trains in crystal clear morning skies, even a black bear on the tracks was captured by "Fishplate Films"  ..LOL Then a fantastic day in the snow on top of Whistler Mountain. caught the cable car up to the snow and then walked another 200m up to the summit!! My first ever "real" snow and it was in beautiful warm sunshine!! Only a day and a half left in Jasper then off to Lake Louise!

Hooroo for now,Gregg ;-)

In Jasper!!

G'day all,
                Sorry for the delay, no coverage in the vast wilderness of central Canada!!, only briefly as we went through towns. Had a fantastic time on the Canadian , met some great people and saw countless freight trains as we waited in sidings!  I saw many different loco types including BC rail, Standard cab Dash8's and many different EMD variants.The Dome cars were even better than I expected and I spent the whole trip ( apart from sleeping and eating )in the rear Park car and it's dome! Didn't wan't to get off in Jasper, even though we were 6hrs late!!

    Jasper has trains leaving and arriving almost non-stop and the new camera is getting a workout already! Will be up early in the morning to catch the sun on the beautiful snow topped mountains and get some trains in the morning light!

Horroo for now!
                            Cheers Gregg.