The "Ocean" VIA Overnight Sleeper

NS VIA FAN wrote: Actually the Ocean was shown as running from Gaspe to Montreal in the October 1971 CN Timetable. The e/b train to Gaspe was the Scotian. These were the Gaspe sections of the main Hoalfax<>Montreal trains...added or split out at Matepedia, The Chaleur name had been dropped.

Alright, well, you got me there Need to be more careful with the "never" declaration...

However, I highly doubt that the original post was thinking back several decades, and certainly for recent context the thread would be more accurately titled as "Restoration of the Chaleur"

Here's a link to a little history on the Chaleur posted here in 2009 (so it does need some updating)

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=64697" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's July 1975 in Matapedia, Quebec and the power from the e/b Scotian is placing the through cars to Gaspe on the back station track.....then the waiting RS18s and Steam Generator back down onto the train.

In 1979.....the through cars were replaced by a connecting RDC Railiner to Gaspe......then in 1983 the Chaleur was restored.

Our "group" of eight had a delightful round-trip to Halifax on the Renaissance equipment. Most of us have made countless trips to the east coast by train and all were impressed. Those who were on our last trip in September of last year noticed an improvement in the meals. Since the Westin Nova Scotian hotel started providing the meals for the westbound train there was a noticeable improvement and the meals were even better this time.

VIA has a new supplier in Montreal. The service co-ordinator (aka dining car steward) told me the name of the company but I was not familiar with it and can't remember it. All eight of us agreed that the meals were better even out of Montreal. I was surprised that one of my friends, a railway retiree who is usually a complete reactionary, commented that the re-heated meals were better than the traditional dining car meals in the latter years prior to Renaissance. This was my experience and I well recall the meals (without fondness) on the last round-trip I made with the Budd equipment. "Bring on the Renaissance" was my attitude - and I was not disappointed. The dining car meals on the Christmas HEP extra trains get good reviews, so I am not referring to them as I have not travelled on those runs.

As I don't sleep soundly on trains I saw the last HEP-equipped Ocean at the meet on our eastbound trip. There is a rumour amongst the crew that the Ren. consist we were on will be temporarily replaced by a HEP consist when the peak season is over. If it needs work it wasn't obvious. The present Ren. consists are not yet full-length. Our train had three coaches and five sleepers. My experience in peak-season is four or five coaches and eight sleepers.

The SM on the eastbound train told us that sleepers were sold out. As is usual in off-peak, most sleeper passengers had detrained by Moncton. There was a much larger sleeper load out of Halifax than we had arriving.

All of us were in agreement that we would like to do this again soon. We have a trip on the Canadian in autumn and some of us have an ocean voyage to look forward to, so it won't be this year. Pity!

I had heard there was a fire at the VIA station, but it would be restored. We were in Gaspé in October (on a cruise aboard the Queen Mary 2 - its first call at that port. If you can't get there by train, a splendid ocean liner will do!) and noticed the station is gone. My attempt to post photos has failed - invalid it says.

The large VIA sign near the end of the bridge is still there. Also, the "Train L'amiral" with its four former GO Transit single-level coaches is at the location of the former station. The people in the tourist office say it is stranded there due to the condition of the track.

VIA built a new station in Gaspe after the fire....but it has yet to see a VIA train. The Tourist Info Centre is the new Station.

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Glad you had a great trip! Always good to hear about positive experiences like that, shows the efforts that VIA has continued to put into running a good service are paying off Also nice to hear you had good meals out of Montreal. My experience from that end has been rather hit-or-miss lately, with some meals excellent and some really awful, so glad yours were the former!

There have been a couple of sleeper sell-outs on recent eastbound trips, which is always good to see. I'm a bit surprised they haven't expanded the consists quite yet, as they should be getting up to peak length by around this time. I'd expect that to happen before the end of the month. 4-5 coaches and 8 sleepers is indeed the peak norm, with some trains getting up to 9 or even (in a few rare cases) 10 sleepers.

I've also heard the rumours about pulling the second Ren set in the fall for work. The interiors are generally in ok shape (depends a lot on the specific rooms/cars you're in), but the major issue is the same problem that sidelined the other set and has been causing serious issues for the Corridor sets - corrosion. As that works its way into the trainline wiring (the issue on the other set), you can start having all kinds of serious problems that affect the operation of the train, so it's better to deal with before it becomes a major issue. The second set hasn't got quite to the point of needing to be pulled immediately, but there's no reason to expect it's in much better shape. So a fall overhaul when HEP equipment is freed up from the Canadian would be worthwhile. VIA needs to keep those cars going...

Some encouraging words from the President of VIA during the 2017 Annual Public Meeting's Question and Answer session:

https://youtu.be/Bty5eWfYlek?t=2301" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For anyone interested, I have started a blog to document my cross-Canada trip from April. This includes the stainless steel Ocean in both directions.

Here's part 1, which is all on the Ocean: http://timstraintravels.blogspot.ca/201 ... day-1.html

It continues in part 2, which then leads to the Canadian: http://timstraintravels.blogspot.ca/201 ... art-1.html

Feel free to follow, if you're so inclined

Excellent Blog so far ! What are you waiting for ??? Click on the link !!!:):):)

gaspeamtrak wrote:Excellent Blog so far ! What are you waiting for ??? Click on the link !!!:):):)

Thanks! Today I added Day 3, which is the first full day on the Canadian (through northern Ontario). The trip was 9 days in total, so I'm a third of the way through! Though I may have to split a couple more of those days into multiple posts, and there will also be a separate post in there just to tour through the interior of the train.

Thank you, Tim, for posting your blog and photos. I'm sure it takes a lot of effort to do so (I couldn't do it).

marquisofmississauga wrote:Thank you, Tim, for posting your blog and photos. I'm sure it takes a lot of effort to do so (I couldn't do it).

It is indeed quite a bit of effort - on average, each post takes me about 2 hours to write up and get all the photos in, and that's even with working 90% from my detailed notes that I took on board, and not doing any major editing to the photos. I could easily spend a lot more time on this...

But I enjoy it, which is why I'm doing it. I've always liked writing up trip reports, and I've always enjoyed reading others' reports, so since this was such a special trip I felt it deserved special documentation!

What happened to the "Ocean #15" last night after she left "Matapedia" 3 minutes late and lost almost 11:45 leaving "Causapscal" at 10:55 this morning!!!???
She is scheduled to arrive in Montreal at 23:30 tonight ! ?
I don't mind being on late trains but this may be a little much???
Can anybody provide any info on what happened ???