Transitions

We were back on CP lines this week, which means we were running the joint bar picture station again. But with two of us, it’s not that much work. We left Sudbury on Monday and travelled to Chapleau, where we ran into some trouble. There’s a lot of water running through pipes to cool the train engine, and if it gets cold it could freeze and bust the pipes. So there’s a plug that if the temperature gets close to freezing it will pop off and dump all the water out. That happened Monday night, and we lost all the water in the engine, so the engine wouldn’t start. There’s supposed to be a smart start that starts the engine up if it gets cold, but I guess it wasn’t working. They noticed it in the morning, and one of the guys saw some oil and though there might be an oil leak, so they weren’t allowed to move the engine at all, even if they brought another engine to push it out of the way. So we spent the day stuck in Chapleau with no internet or tv. I had gone for a run the night before, and pretty much saw all of Chapleau – it’s a pretty small northern Ontario town. They found out during the day that there wasn’t an oil leak, so we kept going on Wednesday. 

Trains don’t like changes in elevation, as that requires a lot more fuel and energy. They like to stay as flat as possible, and water also likes to stay as flat as possible, so we’re usually travelling beside water. And when there’s a huge lake nearby, like Lake Superior, we travel along it for quite a fair ways. Some of the area is pretty hilly, resulting in the train track clinging to the side of these hills, with a rocky cliff on one side and a steep rocky slope down to the water on the other side. I had always taken it for granted that the train stays on the rails, but on this track with such a steep slope on either side and no guardrails of any kind at all, I realized how precarious those two thin strips of steel seem. The wheels did their job though, and we passed through the spectacular scenery safely.

I really wanted to go climb one of those hills though… it looked like it would be a lot of fun plus a good view. I think I’m going to start a list of places I should come back and visit again and spend more time. So far it would be here and moosonee. And northern Ontario in general, but I’m for sure returning there this spring to do some white water kayaking, which will be awesome.  

Saw a fair amount of wildlife this week. Finally saw a beaver after seeing countless beaver huts. Also saw deer three times – first time they were running through a yard, but they disappeared into the bush just as I was able to snap a picture. The second time I just caught them running away. But the third time there was a bunch of them in a field with nowhere to hide while I snapped a picture.

We crossed over into Manitoba, but was still seeing hills and rocks, we were still in the Canadian shield. It flattened out a bit into some large marshes, then got rocky again, and then within a couple miles it got really flat. I was surprised how quick the transition was. I’m finding it a lot less interesting to look out the window, you look once and you’ve seen everything you’ll see for the next 10 miles. Before there were trees and each curve had mysteries and unknowns behind it, and at any point the trees could open up into a picturesque river or lake or marsh. Here I know what’s coming well ahead of time. Oh, and there aren’t any curves anymore. It’s straight for miles.

We’ll see if it gets better this week, we’re going from Winnipeg to Calgary. We are finally swapping boxcars to get the DGRMS (Deployable Guage Restraint Measuring System) which measures the lateral resistance of the rails. We have the whole week scheduled for maintenance, and I don’t know how long it will take or if we’ll get more free time.