Friday 13th July 2012 ­ Rocky Mountaineer ­ Embarkation for Kamloops

The Rocky Mountaineer was to be my home for the next two days – well apart from the overnight stay in Kamloops.  Swish as the train is there is no overnight accommodation on board.

7.00am and right on time the Rocky Mountaineer representative arrived at the hotel and within minutes my luggage had been tagged and set aside for delivery by road to Kamloops and I was on the bus ready for the short journey to the dedicated Rocky Mountaineer station.  Initially the Rocky Mountaineer used to leavefrom the Canadian Pacific station in Vancouver but this became such a busy terminus that it was decided to build a dedicated station in Vancouver for the departure and arrival of the Rocky Mountaineer.

We were the last bus to arrive at the station to join over a 1,000 people joining the train which today is formed of 18 cars in their resplendent blue and gold livery – 9 of the cars would be taking the “First Passage to the West” route  via Kamloops to Banff – my journey and the other 9 cars would be taking the “Journey Through the Clouds” to Jasper via Kamloops.  The train would split tomorrow morning after the night in Kamloops.  I had booked Goldleaf that gave me a seat in the two-tier double dome car (See Photo), breakfast and lunch downstairs on the bottom deck and numerous snacks and drinks throughout the journey.  In all this $3m dollar coach seated 70 guests and I was in seat 65 and thankfully as a single traveller had the use of seats 64 & 65 so very comfortable.  Today there 64 guest so only 6 spare seats.

We were greeted by Ron, David and Roxanne who were to be our hosts and who doubled up as guides, waiters as well as performing many other roles.  Led by skirling bagpipes – a reminder of the Scottish ancestry of many in this part of Canada – the amassed throng were escorted onto the platform.  The loading was remarkably quick – no baggage of course only carry on luggage which Dave - my coach host - described as a ‘bag of rocks’ as we negotiated the winding spiral staircase to the upper seating level but he quickly changed his tune when he found what camera equipment I had!!  He was only joking about the rocks of course!

By 7.30am we were ready to leave but the communications were down with Canadian Pacific Railway HQ in Toronto so we had to wait for 30 minutes for the train crew orders and we then pulled majestically out of the station as the RM Station team waved on and the bagpipes skirled away.