Did I mention it was 35C but felt like 44C with the humidex?
I don't know about you, but hot ash and the smell of burning coal on a hot, steamy day coupled with sitting inside of a steel and iron coach with no air conditioning is totally fun. No really. It's a good time.
We expected the ticket office to be hammered. It wasn't.
Were there rude passengers? You bet.
In fact, the whole 55-minute train ride was just like riding the LSE into work! Only I rode that train like it was 1883.
That's the year the locomotive was put into service according to the tour guide who talked more than CSA Debbie and was as funny as now-retired CSA Tom. Her jokes were bad. They weren't even funny because they're bad funny. She was terrible but her knowledge of locomotive technology and history in Canada was impressive but her delivery needs work.
She didn't try as hard as she could have to enforce any of the rules she outlined over the P.A. at the beginning of the trip. One of those being to sit the hell down while the train was in motion. Kids were running up and down the aisle. Their parents were running up and down the aisle. Kids were climbing over seats. Their parents were hanging out of the windows.
I'm no wallflower. I voiced my annoyance numerous times actually telling the children how rude I thought they were when we exited the train and also telling one parent that when someone asks you nicely to do something and others comply and you don't, that makes you selfish and entitled and sets a bad example to my kid. But for the sake of my father-in-law, I didn't stick around to hear what the parents had to say for themselves and exited stage left.
My daughter was perplexed by these other children who refused to listen to adults asking them to sit or outright ignoring the tour guide who asked them a few times to remain seated but nope, wait, there goes dad running down the aisle to talk to relatives seated at the end of the same coach. Ridiculous.
Trust me, it was hard for me to refrain from sticking out my foot into the aisle.
IF YOU GO
Try to pick a nice, fall day. Avoid 30-plus temperatures.
Bring a camera.
More information here.
Check out this hot bitch. That's coal up on top.
My daughter who was melting in the heat.
Note the interior lighting. Oh you fancy, huh?
Does it have quad-seating? Is that an overhead baggage rail? What year did you say this train came into service?
ReplyDeleteThere's any easy way to sort out self-entitled shits. Give them the full 100 years ago experience. After the train ride, give them cholera. Twas all the rage in 1912!
ReplyDeleteIt was put into service in 1883.
ReplyDeleteIt was used to deliver crews to BC to finish the last leg of the railway that joined Canada from east to west.
And yes, there was quad seating.
More... http://www.ssrhc.com/about.htm
It's a shame about the unruly children. It makes me quite nervous that these kids will "be the future". If they can't behave now, can you imagine what they will be like in 20 years? shudder.
ReplyDeleteAnyhoodles, thanks for including the link. I sent it to my train-loving father as an idea for a post-retirement activity.
I blame the parents of those loogans. 20 lashings for all, 1880's style!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I took my son on that same train ride as he loves trains, esp the GO train.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't as bad as yours CJ, everyone stayed seated and it was a cooler day than when you went. We barely listened to the announcer as we were in the 2nd coach and could barely hear him/her. But I agree, it was a fun train ride, esp for my son!
You should see the GO train from Hamilton to Toronto on the summer weekends. Kids screaming, yelling and running down the aisles without any discipline.
ReplyDeleteCute kid - looks like a child version of Babs Streisand.
ReplyDelete