Canadian Rockies by rail.

[Feog]

Can any advise on the best Canadian Rockies railtour for a life time raill nut!
Best route, best time of year, best tour company.
As much railways as possible (but don't tell the wife).
I know there are many different routes, but don't know which to choose?

 

[30907]

See post on The Canadian below, my daughter - enjoys train travel but no rail buff - has just done the trip and is enthusiastic.

 

[Llanigraham]

This might help:
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=107359

 

[Bletchleyite]

The Canadian is a proper, almost-movie-style experience. Definitely recommended.

I haven't done the Rocky Mountaineer but it's a tourist train, and I always enjoy travelling on real service trains far more than tourist trains.

Neil

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I know it's cheating, but if you are driving, there are excellent viewing spots of CP's Kicking Horse Pass route (west of Lake Louise).
It's particularly impressive watching eastbound freights navigate the Yoho loops and spirals up the final slopes to the summit.
Time in Jasper (CN) is also very rewarding, with the Canadian coming through during the day as well as all the freight.
The route through the Fraser Canyon is spectacular from the road (Highway 1) and you get bird's eye views of trains on both banks for long distances.
CP and CN tracks run on opposite banks and swap half way, with trains of both companies sharing each direction.
Some of the freight traffic is epic. I was particularly impressed by the trains of raw sulphur (a by-product of the oil sands industry).
The sulphur is shipped to Vancouver and on to China to be turned into fireworks and other explosives. http://www.cpr.ca/en/our-markets/sulphur

I would also recommend Mike Walker's Railroad Atlas of Western Canada for the route detail (SPV).

 

[ac6000cw]

I know it's cheating, but if you are driving, there are excellent viewing spots of CP's Kicking Horse Pass route (west of Lake Louise).
It's particularly impressive watching eastbound freights navigate the Yoho loops and spirals up the final slopes to the summit.
Time in Jasper (CN) is also very rewarding, with the Canadian coming through during the day as well as all the freight.
The route through the Fraser Canyon is spectacular from the road (Highway 1) and you get bird's eye views of trains on both banks for long distances.
CP and CN tracks run on opposite banks and swap half way, with trains of both companies sharing each direction.
Some of the freight traffic is epic. I was particularly impressed by the trains of raw sulphur (a by-product of the oil sands industry).
The sulphur is shipped to Vancouver and on to China to be turned into fireworks and other explosives. http://www.cpr.ca/en/our-markets/sulphur

I would also recommend Mike Walker's Railroad Atlas of Western Canada for the route detail (SPV).

I'd agree 100% (even if it it did rain hard enough to close the line over Kicking Horse Pass - due to debris washed onto the track - while we were there in June 2012). As my wife put it when we got to Vancouver - can we go back to the beginning and do it all again please !

We did look seriously at doing the CP route over Kicking Horse and Rogers passes on the Rocky Mountaineer, but it was so expensive that we decided that a cruise up the coast from Vancouver to Seward, Alaska was much better value (with a side trip on the White Pass and Yukon railroad from Skagway - 3 foot gauge with 4% gradients and open platforms at the end of the carriages - yum ).

For reference, our driving route in Canada was Calgary -> Banff -> Lake Louise -> (Icefields Parkway) -> Jasper -> Kamloops -> (Thompson and Fraser River canyons, following the railroads) -> Vancouver.

 

[Llanigraham]

Our trip is going to be Toronto - Vancouver by train, drive from Vancouver to Kimberley to Medicine Hat to Regina, and then fly back to Toronto.

 

[ac6000cw]

As far as 'time of year' to go, we found that the locals regarded mid-June as late spring - with a fair amount of snow still on the mountains higher up. When the sun was out it all looked fabulous, but we also had a lot of cloud and rain in Banff/Lake Louise/Jasper on some days.

If you want the best scenery from the train, the Rocky Mountaineer route on CP Rail Calgary-Banff-Lake Louise-Golden-Kamloops has to be the one to choose, I think (it's the only passenger train to cover that route). The Canadian uses the more northerly, flatter, route via Edmonton, Jasper and Yellowhead Pass on CN.