Canada's Tilting Train - VIA Rail's LRC in Business Class

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Toronto's Union Station is definitely an incredible work of art! The current Toronto Union Station is its third iteration as the first one opened in 1858, replaced in 1873, and the third opened in 1927. It was designed by Ross and Macdonald who also worked on Ottawa Union Station (across from Parliament Hill), Montreal's Les Cours Mont-Royal, Winnipeg's Fort Garry Hotel, and Ottawa's Château Laurier! The Great Hall's walls are made with Zumbro stone from Missouri, and its floors were constructed of Tennessee marble! The exterior facade was made with limestone from Indiana, just like many US state capitols and even the Pentagon. Ottawa was originally incorporated as Bytown in 1850. The name was changed to Ottawa in 1855. Ottawa was named after the Ottawa River, the name of which is derived from the Algonquin adawe, meaning "to trade". Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as Canada's capital in 1857 because Ottawa's location on a cliff face while surrounded by dense forest made it a defensible location and putting on the border between Quebec and Ontario was an important political compromise.

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

I love that the Great Hall features the different provincial flags! I especially like the provincial flags of Atlantic Canada. On the New Brunswick flag, the big lymphad evokes NB's historical shipbuilding industry and the ships utilized by numerous Loyalists to land in the province after they fled the US after the American Revolution. On the Newfoundland and Labrador flag, the flag design is that of etchings on Beothuk and Innu decorative pendants worn hung from a cord around the neck. Blue for water, white for snow, red for effort, gold for their confidence. Nova Scotia's flag represents their Scottish heritage, with the royal arms of Scotland in the middle and an inverted version of the Saint Andrew's Cross. PEI's flag has a large oak tree with three saplings. One for England, and the three represent the island's counties. Taken altogether, the trees tie in with the province's motto of Parva sub ingenti ("the small under the protection of the great"). The three oak saplings are interpreted as the descendants of the British oak tree and are guarded by the British lion. The territorial flags aren't featured, but I also appreciate Nunavut's flag. It features an inuksuk and a blue star, which represents the Niqirtsuituq, the North Star, and the leadership of elders in the community. The colors blue and gold represent the riches of the land, sea and sky.

[@meltingtomato]

10:06 Given that the announcement for Brockville was right after, it seems more likely it was your train decoupling from the train to Montreal that was attached from Toronto, rather than waiting for a freight train. Via always decouples the mixed trains at the yard just shy of Brockville station.

[@jfmezei]

Pedantic: The LRCs were built by a consortium of MLW (Montréal Locomotive Works, Dofasco and Alcan. The snowmobile maker had shares in MLW in the 1970s (MLW helpd it build its first trains, the MR73 metros for Momtreal) and by the time the LRCs were ready for delivery, Bombardeir had purchased all of MLW so the LRC was delivered as a Bombardier product. It was the first with active tilting in North America. The Turbo was mechanical tilting using jacobs bogies and pendulum. The tilting didn't last long and was disabled within a couple years in early 1980s. It made people sick, and had plenty of problems on on Montreal-Toronto, lack of curves meant tilting didn't reduce travel time at all. It is false to state that the heavy steel Acellas delivered in early 2000s had tilting derived from the LRC. Bombardier/Alstom may have used the LRC as a lesson on what not to do. The Turbo train was designed by United Aircraft Corp using aircraft designs and was way too advanced for the railroads who still had steam heated passenger coaches. The LRC was designed to bring the train back to simpler tech railways could understand, and that meant mechanical relays for the tilting system and that proved to be highly unreliable. The second batch of LRCs towards 83-85 had more electronics in them but no change in tilting that was already disabled. So there is no way the steel Acellas would have used any of the tilting systems from the ealry 1980s designed to be more familiar to railway workers used to maintaining 1950s tech. 10 of the LRC cars had full rebuild in Moncton circa 2010 (they have the pocodot seats in coach) and those have modern electronics to control HVAC, doors. The tilting hardware and controls totally removed from the cars to save weight and simplify bogie maintenance.

[@trainswow2]

That was a MASSIVE station, especially for just VIA rail. 😂

[@szm-qf4lp]

GO transit is also at Union station, they got way more trains than Via Rail

[@michaelbujaki2462]

@@szm-qf4lp And TTC Subway.

[@simonhicks5222]

That business class meal looked like a good offering. Not gourmet but totally satisfactory for business class on an intercity trip. It always surprises me that so few rail operators can even provide the equivalent of an economy class meal on a plane to their business/first class long distance passengers. Especially on departures from cities with large airports where this stuff is already being produced at scale!

[@TheRandCrews]

Did this trip in late March Toronto to Montreal, enjoyed the business class LRC than the Budd HEP cars, though hope the new Charger fleets start getting used for Toronto-Montreal

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

The tilting system was not only deactivated, it was actually removed when the coaches were renovated in the mid 2000s. This reduced weight and simplified maintenance. The hydraulic pistons you showed on the bogies are just dampers, not part of the former tilting system

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

@@engrpas The whole point of the LRC coaches was to introduce active-tilting technology. The TurboTrain had passive tilting.

[@jfmezei]

Only 10 cars got the full rebuild that included will rework of electrical systems, door systems, HVAC and removal of the tilting deadweight. The rest of the fleet (down to fewer than 75 now that VIA has been cannibalizing it for parts since COVID) still has the tilting mechanism as deadweight on the cars.

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

Although the idea was for the tilting system to enable 125 mph (200 km/h) on existing tracks, that never actually happened, because the maximum speed permitted through a level crossing was still only 100 mph (160 km/h) and none of the lines were grade separated. The permitted speed through a level crossing has since been increased to 110 mph (177 km/h) to match the U.S. regulations but no tracks have yet been upgraded to that speed.

[@robmausser]

Something not noted (or at least I didn't hear it) its that the track from Brockville to Ottawa and then from Ottawa to Montreal is some of the only track owned by VIA. The rest is owned by freight companies who get priority.

[@kryptotransit]

They also own some track between Chattam and Windsor. Has the fastest track speeds in Canada of 100 mph

[@jessicaburdell7779]

Pretty awesome that along with the trip itself, you got to see what it now looks like with the former Canadian Pacific, now CPKC.

[@ncard00]

What about Brightline’s commuter service in south Florida, whatever happened to that?

[@jessicaburdell7779]

@@ncard00 They still operate and recently made an upgrade and expansion to it, as seen in one of Lone Star Trip's previous videos.

[@EthanRailfanProductions]

Nice. You should ride Via Rail The Canadian

[@kietero]

Does Amtrak business class also grant access to the lounge since the train's operated by VIA until Niagara Falls?

[@WaynoGur]

I have very dear friends in Brockville.

[@michaelbujaki2462]

Really? Who?

[@baseballfan99]

The seats in the latest U.K. trains suffer from being too thin and uncomfortable. I often find long distance bus seats are more comfortable. I believe it’s cost cutting by the Government using the minimum spec. Not a bad food offering and the lounge looked nice. I bet the fares were better than some U.K. premium class operators.

[@kevinf1]

Impressed that in your Toronto videos you pronounce the city name the local way - "Tronno". 😄

[@jfmezei]

The local way to pronoucned it isn't Tronno, it is Trwanna 🙂

[@AndreiTupolev]

Speeds seem a sight higher than Amtrak (though I know that's limited by government legislation). I was a bit surprised to see 100 mph running on single track out in the sticks.

[@kitchin2]

The Wolverine goes 110mph in Michigan. Requires good track and quad gates at crossings I believe.

[@jfmezei]

Technically, VIA i limited to 150kmh (I think 95 US miles per hour) but they have been seen cheating from time to time on their own tracks (Brockville-Ottawa, and Ottawa to Coteau (to Montreal). The very max is 160kmh. On the Kingston Sub, it is generally around 130kmh.

[@viahogger]

@@jfmezeiengineers are not cheating as the maximum speed on Via Rail owned territories is 100mph or 160kph. Certain portions of the CN Kingston sub east of Brockville are also good for 100mph or 160kph

[@jasonbrown6139]

A couple of mistakes here man. First, your train is heading east, not north (the geography may look confusing on a map but that’s how the railway describes it and how Canadians describe it. Second, that CP train was running on a parallel main line of their own that has no connection to the CN line you were on. Third, the stop at Brockville yard wasn’t for a freight train, it was for your train to separate. That process takes about 15 minutes. 52 then pulls up to the station and 62 follows and changes tracks to go around, not stopping at the station. Source, I’m formerly an RTC for CN on that corridor.

[@LonestarTrips]

For starters, I am aware that east is the prominent direction, however the train also heads north, so it is not an incorrect statement. I am also aware that the CP line was a parallel, which is why I stated that we stopped for another one (as in another freight train), not the same one. As for the separation point, I wasn’t sure where it took place, and I had seen footage of the separation taking place at the station, so I assumed that’s where it happened. Plus my GoPro footage got corrupted so I couldn’t cross reference anything.

[@jasonbrown6139]

I’m not replying to be critical, you do great stuff on this channel. I just figured you’d like to know some details. If you told a Canadian you were heading north to Ottawa from Toronto you’d probably get this look 🤔. It’s also east in the railway timetable.

[@LonestarTrips]

@@jasonbrown6139 yeah no worries. I’ve just always considered it north, though I did say east in the map section, so clearly even I’m not consistent.

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

@@LonestarTrips I can confirm that although Ottawa is geographically north of Toronto, we always describe it as "east". It would indeed sound strange to us if you said you were going "north" to Ottawa. I suspect that this is because the street grids in most southern Ontario cities are aligned with Lake Ontario, so "grid east" is actually geographically northeast.

[@danc1513]

@@jasonbrown6139 I mean.. I'm from Ottawa, and I wouldn't frown if anyone mentioned going north to Ottawa. It's north-east of Toronto, so it's fine.

[@sarahmoore135]

My friend! Your Patreon seems to have a misspelling! "Michelle Gruben" is the correct spelling of her name! Check your past videos ( and my wife's name) also love your train vids! #railfan

[@SkysTrains]

OTTAWA MENTIONED, RAHHHHHHH OTTAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[@SkysTrains]

HUH, A VIA WASHROOM WITH RUNNING WATER AND PAPER TOWEL. WHATTTTTTT