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.
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.
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.
