On Saturday it was finally time for my 7th birthday train trip to Niagara Falls!  We woke up early, at 6am. Then we drove down to Union Station. We went into the business lounge and met the woman at the front desk.  And it said happy birthday Nathan on the big screen under the clock!

We went into the business lounge and met the woman at the front desk. I got apple juice at the lounge.  

There we met VIA manager, Bill McDonnell.  He has worked at VIA for 30 years. He knew lots about trains and he was very nice.
He introduced me to Chris and Edric. They worked their way up until VIA said 'ok, you can be an engineer.' Chris cleaned the VIA trains. Chris and Edrik met when they were in engineer school 4 years ago. They were the engineers on the train that we took to Niagara Falls. Before we left they let me in the engine to ring the bell. It was very nice of them.

It was an AMTRACK train and it was going past the border into New York. But there was an announcement on the train that said at Niagara Falls they were switching engineers. Emi was, the conductor on the train (Bill told me they're not called that anymore. They're called the service manager). He sat with us in the cafe car.  He told me some stuff about trains that I really didn't know before. Like the VIA train's top speed is 160km per hour maximum.  But they actually go 130km per hour unless they're going through a station or a busy area and then they go slow down, and then they speed up again. Here's a picture of me going to the cafe car.

We got off the train and went into Niagara Falls. We had a fun time there. We saw the falls like never before. There was ice on the falls.

And we went swimming and we stayed overnight. Then we took a taxi back to the bus station. We waited for 10 or 15 minutes and then our bus came. It was a GO bus. We took a bus ride all the way to Burlington station where we saw a CN train go by. You can see the video here:

And then we got on our GO train. Here's another video:

I enjoyed the smooth ride home. We sat on the top floor of the train. And then we arrived in union station. In fact it was the same track that we took our GO train tour from!
And then we went down to the platform of the subway station and we got on the TTC train and took it all the way to St. George Station because there was construction on the line. And then we went home from there.
I enjoyed my VIA trip. Thank you to everyone at VIA who made it happen.

I am taking my birthday trip (finally!) to Niagara Falls this weekend on a VIA train with my dad. I am looking forward to it. I am going to get to meet some VIA crew members before my train leaves. I will post all about it on my blog when I get back.

Also, I just signed up for Twitter. You can follow me there at @aboylovestrains.

Thanks for reading!

 On Thursday I was invited to GO Transit for a tour. We had an entourage including Anne Marie who works with Metrolinx and she was the person who invited us for the tour, Officer AJ, who is with the GO Transit police, and one reporter and a photographer from the Globe and Mail.
And we met lots of nice people along the way.
I got showed around the building. We saw the big clock. Officer AJ said that at least 10 or 20 people ask him where the big clock is every day because most people meet there. We also got a look from the upstairs of Union Station which was a pretty good view of Union Station.

And we saw a golden sign that was to remember a VIA engineer who saved a lot of people's lives.

And then we walked over to the bridge and we saw VIA and GO trains coming in and out.And then it was almost time for our train to come.

We climbed up the stairs and waited on the platform for about a minute and then we saw the headlight of the train coming.

 
That's where we met Rob who has worked in train operations for 22 years and is a complance officer. He came with us on the train.

The train came in and I got to climb up the stairs and stand beside the driver. It wasn't the locomotive. It was actually the back of the train. The conductor and the engineer sit there to drive the train when it was going west. I got to look out the window and the engineer, Aaron, and the conductor, Jeremy, let me ring the bell.

We went all the way to the Willowbrook maintenance facility which is in Etobicoke. We were picked up at Aldershot station by Kevin, another Metrolinx police officer in a GO van. And then we walked on the bridge with the big train painted on it.It was also Anne Marie's tour because she had never been to that yard before.

And then we went into the maintenance facility and met Al. Al was surprised we had such a big entourage. But he gave us vests and hard hats and safety glasses. 

He gave us a tour around the maintenance yard. We saw lots of big trains getting repaired and we saw a bit of inside an engine. It was grey and the engine has a lot of horsepower so it uses a lot of fuel.

And then we went to the wheel place where the old wheels from trains are "remachined" and they make them like new wheels.

 Thanks for the tour Al!
Then we went back to the train station.
The Train Ride Back to Union Station:

Rob was there to see us again. I climbed up into a cab and I sat where the engineer sits.
The engineer's name was Anna (my sister was excited to hear there was a girl driving!) and the conductor's name was Chris. I sat in the driver seat and honked the horn and rang the bell again.

Anna went into the engine room to release the hand break. That's an extra break to make sure the train is stopped from going, even if you have the regular breaks on. Like Officer Morrison said, any time is train time so the hand break is an extra break to be more careful.
I sat in the engine car with my mom but everyone else had to sit in the passenger car. I got the special spot of the train.
Here's the view I had from my seat:

Anna and Chris told me a lot about how the train works and how they drive and how the signals work. I learned that trains should usually be 2 blocks apart (those are the poles over the tracks with lights on them). And I also learned when the top signal is green that means go and that different lights shown together mean the train should drive at different speeds. 

When we got back to Union Station we said our goodbyes to everyone.  Everyone was very nice to me.  I had a really really good time. 
And you can read more about it in the Globe and Mail.  Oliver, the reporter, was with us on the tour.  He was very nice.  Here is a link to the article. 

Thank you to everyone at GO who made my day great!
(And keep reading - I have more pictures and videos from my visit to add to my blog soon!)

Officer Ron Morrison of the CP Police was a good guest to our school. He taught us all about rail safety.

He taught us to not take short cuts through train tunnels, bridges, under trains or climbing through train cars. You never know when trains are going to move.
And officer Morrison taught us a saying: Any Time Is Train Time.

Which means you can walk across a crossing 10 times and you wouldn't see a train, and then tomorrow you could come to a railroad crossing and a train could be coming. There isn't a schedule for trains.

Officer Morrison showed us a video about a fox and a bird. The fox was doing all the stuff you shouldn't do, like putting stuff on tracks and throwing things at trains and walking on train bridges and through train tunnels. And the bird seemed to be much smarter than the fox.

Officer Morrison taught us a lot. I think the grade ones enjoyed it. We made him a thank you card. He gave us activity books about train safety and CP pencils.

Thank you Officer Morrison!

I met Kenny. Kenny is from Newmarket and he read the article in the Toronto Star about me and he emailed me. Kenny is a boy who likes GO trains. In fact I am meeting the GO train people soon. They invited me to see the trains in about a week from now.

We played with my model construction train (the one in the other blog post from my birthday). And we looked at my CP engineer outfit and we looked at my CP and CN maps. Kenny's mom came over with him and we had lunch. And then we went downstairs (after we were excused) and we started making a wooden train set.
I hope to see Kenny again and maybe go to his house one day when we're finished with my sister's horseback riding lesson.
Keep reading my blog because something else is coming up (I don't want to ruin the surprise!)