My GO Train Visit

 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.

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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. 

Metrolinx puts a train-mad seven-year-old in the driver seat

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!)