As luck had it the train was not sold out that day, but it WAS on the 7th and the 9th.

As one of the other forum members said, how many places can you ride a self-propelled RDC these days?

The line itself is jointed rail, with tall grass along much of the track. British Columbia still has large section of thick forest along the route also.

Most any railfan would enjoy the trip, but non-railfans might get tired of the repeated horn blaring.

While Canada has converted almost all measures to metric (including the distances listed on the timetable) the line-side mile posts were still actually "mile" posts.

I saw maybe 20 freight cars on various sidings, with none south of Duncan. A single boxcar and caboose were next to the abandoned roundhouse in Esquimalt, but I couldn't tell if they were still in active train service. The roundhouse area had a large number of transients and graffiti-covered walls so I did not explore much.

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I saw maybe 20 freight cars on various sidings, with none south of Duncan. A single boxcar and caboose were next to the abandoned roundhouse in Esquimalt, but I couldn't tell if they were still in active train service. The roundhouse area had a large number of transients and graffiti-covered walls so I did not explore much.

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There's no regular freight service south of Duncan to Victoria. The last regular freight train to Victoria was on Nov. 29, 2001 to pick up the last 2 propane tankers off the Superior Propane spur in Esquimalt. That may change soon, there are rumors that a new customer is setting up shop north of Langford. The boxcar and caboose in the Victoria yard belong to the E&N Division of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association, we're also trying to get ex-CN GMD1 1070 which was the last CN unit on the island and was used right up until CN abandoned their operations in 1990. Believe it or not the shops in Victoria are still active, they are used to service the VIA Rail equipment, rather than deadheading them all the way up to the Wellcox yard in Nanaimo.

All railways in Canada use miles, and other imperial measurements.

You are correct, the Interlocking signals at the Johnson St. bridge in Victoria are the only signals on the line. The rest of the E&N is OCS/Dark Territory. Except the barge slip at Wellcox which is signalled.

[This message has been edited by ENR3809 (edited 01-21-2005).]