Comments by "smwca123" (@smwca123) on "DownieLive" channel.

  1. - When then BC Transit built the Expo Line in the 1980s, they deepened the Dunsmuir Tunnel by one foot to allow stacking the platforms at Granville and Burrard Stations. - The name SkyTrain was chosen as the winner of a public contest. A VERY quickly rejected idea: Fraser Area Rapid Transit.
    98
  2. As does Vancouver - the last of what were once 16 Canadian cities that had trolleybuses. That system marks its 75th anniversary in August this year; Mike might cover it.
    11
  3. Hi Mike, 1. The hotel looks awesome, though I've never been in it. My union's BC-Yukon Region sometimes holds events there. 2. Grant McConachie Way is named for the founding CEO of Canadian Pacific Airlines, which in 1987 merged with Pacific Western Airlines (Russ Baker Way commemorates PWA's founding CEO) to become Canadian Airlines International Ltd. CAI merged with Air Canada in 2001. 3. The Delta Airlines plane you saw being pushed back from the gate at 5:38 reminds me: Delta has a reputation as the airline to avoid, being #1 for poor on-time performance and lost baggage. Their name is said to be an acronym for Don't Ever Leave The Airport, or Direct Everyone's Luggage To Atlanta, their biggest hub. 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    6
  4. Not for nothing was it called the Hercules.
    5
  5. 1. Vancouver's own West Coast Express - about which you've never done a video, BTW - uses cars very similar to those GO uses. One car of each WCX train used to have a coffee bar - nice for a good "cuppa cap" in the Big V - but those disappeared some time before COVID. GO developed the cars in the 1970s because they needed more capacity than the old single-level cars offered. They were built at Thunder Bay by, successively, Hawker Siddeley Canada, CanCar Rail-UTDC, Bombardier, and now Alstom. 2. Vancouver has double-deck buses very similar to those GO uses, as does Ottawa. 3. I was on the "Maid of the Mist" once, on my own visit to Niagara Falls in 2010. I went all the way there and back by GO train, on a Sunday. The "Maid of the Mist" was also featured briefly in the 2003 movie "Bruce Almighty". 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    5
  6. Awesome as ever, Mike! I was expecting that the biggest disappointment would be the cancellation of the Edmonton-Vancouver train, but I guess getting a second chance to do it - in style, no less - made up for it. Love your new sign-off, but mine is still: IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    4
  7. Its name happens to be the same as that of the current CEO of Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway.
    4
  8. Sorry, you can only ever be Jimmy Fremgen, the only one that ever was or will be. Mike and others like him can me mentors and role models, but only to a point - beyond which you have to go your own way.
    4
  9. Southwest Airlines had one of those years ago, a woman who after almost every flight wrote a letter complaining about something or other. Her thick file finally made it to CEO Herb Kelleher, who promptly wrote back: "Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb".
    3
  10. A bakery that could specialize in brötchen, as what we call dinner rolls are called in Germany. They're crusty, and shed a lot of crumbs when broken.
    3
  11. I'm watching from Ottawa, though I've visited Vancouver every few years since 1983. I'm most interested in your behind the scenes videos of the transit system; the trolleybus system - now the only one in Canada - would be a good subject.
    3
  12. Mike did the Toronto-Windsor trip in Economy, and didn't have lounge access.
    2
  13. As only an awesome son can do.
    2
  14. She'd have to be awesome, to have raised such an awesome son as Mike!
    2
  15. It would appear that not all Australian trucks that size have the 3 Michigan marker lights centered at the top on each end, amber front, red rear. North American trucks of that size (and buses) have them.
    2
  16.  @justmike10  Let the sharing begin.
    2
  17. He has only 23 minutes per episode. Chances are he wanted to do the RCMP but didn't have time.
    2
  18. And a washroom tour.
    2
  19. The Burnaby Lake right-of-way is not the only repurposed infrastructure. The Sky Train Expo Line also uses the ex-CP Dunsmuir Tunnel, which was deepened by one foot to allow stacking the platforms.
    2
  20. That's even wider than the Toronto Transit Commission's subway/streetcar gauge of 4"10.875" or 1495 mm.
    2
  21. Awesome as usual, Mike. However, I had half-expected something on the tragic devastation in Lytton this week.
    2
  22.  @ianinvancouverbc  They already are getting new trains for the Corridor, from Siemens. The first one was delivered to VIA's Montreal Maintenance Centre last week; it passed through Ontario. Maybe Mike passed it somewhere on his travels without realizing it.
    2
  23. Awesome as ever, Mike. 1. You needed an engineer's cap, blue and white pinstripes (or pink and white for girls/women). 2. The red ramp plate that you put down to rerail cars is called a rerailer. 3. The transit systems in Toronto and Montreal have transfer tables in some of their shops: TTC Harvey Shops at Hillcrest for streetcars; and STM Youville Métro shops. 4. There used to be a manually-operated turntable in Wakefield, Quebec, north of Ottawa. 5. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  24. VIA Rail Canada's new Siemens Charger trains will be very similar to Brightliners.
    2
  25. For the last 9 years of operation , CN branded their Newfoundland operations as Terra Transport. Since 1997, the old railbed has been reclaimed as the Newfoundland T'Railway Provincial Park. Also, until 1987, Marine Atlantic was CN Marine.
    2
  26. 3 more episodes.
    2
  27.  @corybourrier9722  I meant when we all get to see it.
    2
  28. The mention of Agassiz reminds me: In glacial times there was a huge Lake Agassiz that covered much of Manitoba. The remnants of it are Lakes Winnipeg, Winnipegosis, and Manitoba, plus a bunch of smaller ones. All are named for geologist Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, 1807-1873. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  29. An ancestor of Burlington Northern and of present-day BNSF.
    2
  30. When a flag flies at half-mast, it may be offered to the family of the person being honored. For example, when former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed died in September 2012, the flag that flew on the day of his funeral was eventually presented to his widow Jeanne.
    2
  31. Or the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, which at the end descends in a chain of 7 locks toward the Ottawa River just east of Parliament Hill. Never used for the military purposes for which it was built almost 200 years ago, for the past 50 years it's been the world's longest skateway in winter.
    2
  32. It's probably included in NOTAMs - Notices to Airmen.
    2
  33. Juneau.
    2
  34. Only 4° warmer and it would be equally cold C or F.
    2
  35. Where they really know how to do transportation in all forms, not just railways. The whole country is all about precision. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  36. VIA called it Rockies by Daylight.
    2
  37. Maybe on your own 75th birthday your own son will treat you to something equally spectacular. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  38.  @christophermerrick1100  But still they're always ready for the call...
    2
  39. The channel name in French would be "Downie en direct". On ne sait pas où il ira prochainement, mais on sait qu'on sera là avec lui.
    2
  40. There once was a railroad named for your state, now part of NS.
    2
  41. Reminds me of Jack Nicholson in 5 Easy Pieces. Stuck in traffic behind a truck that's carrying a piano, he jumped onto the truck and started playing - while the truck drove off.
    2
  42. Toronto Union Station would be the best choice, Mike. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  43. Did you get to try any Jarlsberg, by any chance? Not to be found in Ye Olde Cheese Emporium, which of course is certainly uncontaminated by cheese.
    2
  44.  @Dark_Dragon3366  Monty Python's specialty was poking fun at absurd situations like that.
    2
  45. Cabo San Lucas was a regular port of call for the Love Boat.
    2
  46. 🤣🤣Did you get to sample any Jarlsberg cheese? Of course that was not to be found in Ye Olde Cheese Emporium.
    2
  47. In Washington they were once called "freedom fries".
    2
  48.  @raynemichelle2996  Yes, it was certainly uncontaminated by cheese, wasn't it?
    2
  49.  @evecottom9966  And the Rideau Canal that runs from Kingston to Ottawa.
    2
  50.  @Binnacle33  And that ain't no horse hockey.
    2
  51. Ski Patrol provides first aid at Canada's #1 music festival, Ottawa Bluesfest in early July - though not for the past 2 years because of COVID. I've been a volunteer there for 20 years, currently as a gates supervisor and often in charge of the main gate. If you're ever in Ottawa again, Bluesfest would be a great subject for another video. So much happens in areas other than Gates that I don't know about, and IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  52. I've never been on a seaplane, so that's high on my list for the next time I'm in the Big V. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  53. 1. Hong Kong's modern airport reminds me of the old Kai-Tak airport, which was one of the scariest to get into and out of. There was (maybe still is) a Checkerboard Hill that pilots watched for on approach. https://youtu.be/YdVupou9ZZA?si=r_uF02Ie8aDGmUug 2. The A380 has thrust reversers, which help slow the plane after touchdown, only on its 2 inboard engines # 2 and 3. That's all it needs, and the 2 outer engines 1 and 4 often overhang the runway and might ingest foreign objects that could damage the engines. 3. The camel traffic just past 10:00 reminds me of a nickname for the long-ago British Overseas Airways Corporation: Better On A Camel. BOAC merged with British European Airways (Back Every Afternoon) in 1974 to form present-day British Airways (Bloody Awful). 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  54. I once heard it called BOSNYWASH - yes, it overlooks Philly.
    2
  55. Bombardier Transportation no longer exists; Alstom bought them earlier this year.
    2
  56. I already suggested a song that Stompin Tom Connors, a New Brunswicker, could have written: There was a vlogger from Vancouver, his name was DownieLive, He travelled all across Canada sampling everybody's lives...
    2
  57. Wirth hats off?
    2
  58. Mike, did you pass through Gibsons on your way? That of course is noted for being the setting of the TV series "The Beachcombers"; Molly's Reach still stands there as an active restaurant. I was there once on my first visit to BC in July 1983, on a Beachcombers filming day. Someone spotted Robert Clothier (Relic), but I was too far away to spot him. On the way back from Langdale aboard the Queen of Alberni I met a pen pal of the previous 2 years, who I knew worked for BC Ferries; he turned out to be the Chief Steward. Does BC Ferries Sunshine Coast fare still include, on a single ticket, either Horseshoe Bay-Langdale, then Earls Cove-Saltery Bay, or either of those 2 legs as a round trip? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  59. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass helped popularize mariachi music in North America throughout the 1960s. Even before that, Johnny Cash used mariachi style on his hit "Ring of Fire".
    2
  60. I think he especially wanted to go to Canada's oldest flying school.
    2
  61.  @DownieLive  You earned it, Mike. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  62. Yes.
    2
  63. The day after Gord's death all city buses in Kingston, Ontario showed GORD, WE'LL MISS YOU on their electronic destination signs.
    2
  64. The dining table would need a train to carry the salt and pepper shakers around!
    2
  65. Greyhound et al run on highways built, maintained, and paid for on the public dime.
    2
  66. Reminds me of a much more ordered version of the 1965 movie "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines", a comedy about an air race from London to Paris in 1910. I highly recommend it but beware of the theme song! Once you get it in your head there's no getting it out! IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  67. Runs in the family, I guess. I've seen videos with Mike's sister, she's just as enthusiastic as the most famous member of Clan Downie.
    2
  68. Mike probably wanted to fit in more of Ottawa, but he has only 23 minutes per episode. In fact Ottawa may be worth an episode in itself - and he's already done videos about the Peace Tower clock and carillon. I don't know where he's going next, but I know I'll be there with him.
    2
  69. 1. Happy Birthday Mike, and many more! 2. Ottawa's original football team was called the Ottawa Rough Riders (2 words). When they were playing Saskatchewan, the standing joke was: "The Roughriders are gonna win tonight". They later became the Renegades, and are now the Redblacks 3. About it getting dark early, at 14:35: Saskatchewan stays on Central Standard Time year-round. Depending on when you were there, the time would have been the same as in either Alberta or Manitoba. 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  70. Don't forget the discount code DOWNIELIVE to save 10%.
    2
  71. 1. Wow, this must have been your longest-ever single video! Almost equal to riding through the Canadian Rockies. 2. Ottumwa, Iowa was the home town of the M*A*S*H character Radar O'Reilly. Iowa generally is associated with "The Music Man", so there should have been a band with 76 trombones waiting for you. Imagine your ears after hearing that kind of a welcome! 3. Did you pre-order some flowers for your hair once you got to San Francisco? 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    2
  72. What's the SPF? Anything under 30, forget it.
    1
  73. Yes, it did. The 1980 movie "Airplane" was mostly a spoof of "Flight Into Danger" - with a side lesson on how not to greet a friend named Jack in an airport.
    1
  74. 1.Thanks for the news about the Cherry Blossom Festival, I didn't know Vancouver had one. Washington DC, is also noted for its cherry blossoms. If you're ever in Montreal, you may be interested to know that the brake shoes of its Métro (subway) cars are made of cherry wood lubricated with peanut oil. Fodder for another video, of course. 2. The SkyTrain Stadium Station: I went to Expo 86, and remember the Canada Place shuttle. At the Waterfront end, the platform was split in half. The Expo shuttle used the Howe street (west) exit that led directly into the Canada Pavilion. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  75. VIA requires it.
    1
  76. Almost fits the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's "I Am a Rock".
    1
  77. The waterfall looks like a smaller version of Ottawa's Rideau Falls. In fact the word "rideau" is French for curtain; Samuel de Champlain so named it. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  78. Did you get to attend the wedding? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  79.  @MattMort  Certainly it should become more popular, if not the most, once the Burlington extension opens.
    1
  80. In a way, you're still using your marketing degree. Every video you do amounts to marketing for the subject of that video. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  81.  @fotomann40  You can always go back and edit.
    1
  82. Every video is better than the last - but not as good as the next one will be! IDKWHGNBIKIBTWH.
    1
  83.  @DownieLive  Is it from one of your previous rail travel videos? I seem to recall the restaurant named on the shirt.
    1
  84. You could have easily fit in Fogo and Moreton's Harbor...all around the circle. You'se the b'y!
    1
  85. One of the Canadian Pacific Railway's CEOs was born in Revelstoke: Norris Roy "Buck" Crump, on whose watch (1955-1972) steam operation on CP ended. He once said about senility: "You know, there are three signs that you may be going senile. The first is that you begin to lose your memory...and Goddamned if I can remember the other two!" IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  86. Again you came through, Mike. 1. I'm disappointed that you apparently skipped Calgary, where all my close family lives now - but it's not far from the Badlands, where they've all been before. 2. I haven't been in Edmonton since 1999; when I was there, I tended to spend as little time as possible at the Mall. 3. Could you feel the nearness of someone's warm soft kisses when you rolled into Alberta westward bound? At least you didn't have to work on an oil rig to make some money. 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  87. There is such a thing as getting too long. I like Mike's short and sweet approach to this video.
    1
  88. AA191 was a result of poor maintenance practices.
    1
  89.  @DownieLive  Copenhagen even has its own unofficial anthem, courtesy of Frank Loesser who wrote it for the 1952 film Hans Christian Anderson.
    1
  90. That's coming; just a matter of time.
    1
  91. Gerry and the Pacemakers got it right in the song "Ferry Cross the Mersey".
    1
  92. Canora is named for the CAnadian NOrthern RAilway.
    1
  93. He took his shoes off for that.
    1
  94. ​@lanners86 Australian seasons are 6 months out of phase (as electrical engineers say) with Canadian ones.
    1
  95. Canadian provinces have Premiers, not Governors.
    1
  96.  @pavelpekun5424  True, while the Premier, as head of government, looks after the day-to-day running of the province.
    1
  97. The flight over NYC is a real Miracle Over the Hudson. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  98. 1. The seats on that coach, with the fold-out leg rest, are called "Dayniter". Ontario Northland once had buses like that, maybe still do. 2. Although last refurbished in the 1990s, those coaches were originally built in the 1950s. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  99. Make sure to tie your kangaroos down, sport.
    1
  100. 1. For me, Business Class is better for a trip of at least 4 hours in the same train, in a period that includes a meal time. Among trips I do regularly, only Ottawa-Toronto qualifies. For shorter trips like Ottawa-Montreal or Ottawa-Kingston, Economy is OK. Likewise for a trip where there's a change of trains, like Ottawa-Quebec City with a change of trains in Montreal and enough time between trains to get something to eat. 2. On both trains your coaches looked like HEP cars, and the Business Class car looks like it was refurbished to the same standard as LRC Business Class cars. My impression of it largely agrees with yours. Although I don't like riding backward in either class! 3. Do you have a VIA Preference account, analogous to Aeroplan? Last time I went to Toronto in Business Class I redeemed points. With the money I saved I stayed at the Royal York. 4. For your Windsor waterfront walk, I hope it was much shorter than your 28-mile walk along the Vancouver seawall, and that your feet held up better! 5. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY!
    1
  101. Downie, Michael Downie. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  102. I don't think Mike has time to fit in everything he wants.
    1
  103. Is the city as wonderful as the song says?
    1
  104. At several points I see along the side of the road a pair of overhead wires that look like they would power trolleybuses, certainly in Vancouver (the last of what were once 16 Canadian cities that had them). What are they for? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  105. Canada had only 3 aircraft carriers. The last was HMCS Bonaventure, scrapped in 1970 - only 2 years after a major refit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMCS_Bonaventure. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  106. 1. Awesome as ever, Mike! 2. Did you get to see any of the preserved locomotives? Especially the 2 class GG1 electric locomotives that were the backbone of the Pennsylvania Railroad's NYC-Washington mainline for almost 50 years, 1934-1983. They are 4800, the riveted 1934 prototype that ran from 1934-1979, and 4935, restored to its original appearance in 1976-77. Here's Part 1 of a 4-part 1984 movie: https://youtu.be/tC6W0XEqOLw 3. Thomas not having his characteristic peep-peep whistle, or Annie and Clarabel? 4. No washroom tour? 5. Is Surf Shark a VPN provider? 6. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  107. What an adventure, Mike! Looking forward to your wrap-up. Since you'll probably be reverting to your usual sign-off, you and Nicole should do it in the plural: "We don't know...". And of course as usual IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY2.
    1
  108.  @DownieLive  See my slight edit to my OP.
    1
  109. Gotta start somewhere.
    1
  110. 1. The balls in the display at 2:00 look like the ones used in the Gastown steam clock, which I love. 2. Once I saw the play "The Number 14" at Granville Island Theater. It's a stage play about social interaction on a #14 Hastings bus. For props they used seats from a 1960s GM New Look bus, with green and blue upholstery. Those are still BC Hydro's colors, the green representing BC's forests and the blue its waters. The letter H of course stands for Hydro. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  111.  @DavidBennettPiano  Was the king Henry VIII? And I don't mean the bloke who married the widow next door who'd been married 7 times before, every one was an Henry...
    1
  112.  @DownieLive  He may capture the last days of some place that will shortly close for good. I already tipped him off to one such place; I really hope he can make it there before the end. Mike: IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  113. Actor McLean Stevenson and his most famous character, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Blake of M*A*S*H, were both "Bloomingtonians", if that's the word.
    1
  114.  @DownieLive  Nor the spoilers, but you found the thrust reversers and pulled them. That should trigger the spoilers if they weren't already armed, which would cause them to auto-deploy on touchdown. If you landed without a fire, there should be no need to evacuate the passengers.
    1
  115.  @DownieLive  I wish YT had a Sad icon.
    1
  116. Mike, did you get to Promontory, which is to the Union Pacific as Craigellachie is to Canadian Pacific? The last (golden) spike was driven at Promontory on May 10, 1869. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  117. Imagine 6'3" Riley at the wheel of the Transit Museum Society's Museum Bus, # 730, an old-look GM. Those have a low ceiling over the driver's head. Ottawa had over 100 of those, which drivers called "head knockers". IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  118. Mike, has your TruEarth partnership run its course?
    1
  119.  @DownieLive  Which stretch of the Fraser did you cover, and which bridges did you pass under? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  120. Well worth the wait, Mike! I remember another cable ferry at Treesbank, Manitoba in 1969, which I took on a family camping trip: https://goo.gl/maps/STExPyycrX8MctjJ6. About 20 years later, a bridge replaced the ferry. I don't know where you're going next, but I know I'll be there with you.
    1
  121. Cable cars are San Francisco. That was an electric streetcar - the only original one in any Old Spaghetti Factory in Canada. All others are replicas.
    1
  122. Did the crew of the trailing speeder retrieve your phone?
    1
  123. 76 according to Mike's commentary.
    1
  124. O'Downie Live Travels By Train - Irish Edition.
    1
  125. It's closed now.
    1
  126. Another of Hitler's targets was a then top-secret room in Grand Central Terminal that housed the power generators for New York Central's NYC-area commuter lines. In WWII everyone was afraid of sabotage.
    1
  127. Because VIA shares most of its tracks with freight trains, whose cars need more clearance.
    1
  128. 1. Your route out of NYC and much of the way north could be the old New York Central Railroad's "Water Level Route". That route passed to Penn Central in 1968, then after PC's 1970 bankruptcy, to Amtrak and/or various commuter rail authorities including Metro-North. 2. The New England Central Railroad that runs through Vermont was until 1995 the Central Vermont - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canada's very own CN, with its own variation on the CN noodle logo. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  129. I've seen Nicole in some of Mike's previous videos going back several years, including a cruise. Maybe one day the sign-off will be updated to both of them saying, together: "We don't know where we're going next, but we know we want you there with us".
    1
  130. Which never gave the U.S. a President. The closest it can claim is a First Pilot, Colonel Ralph Albertazzie, USAF (1923-2011), who flew Air Force One during the 5½ years that Richard M. Nixon was President - right up to and including his August 9, 1974 flight to California on his resignation. Albertazzie was born in Cassville, near Morgantown.
    1
  131.  @DownieLive Unlike Riley, at Party Time 11:33 you didn't bother with slippers but just stayed in your socks.
    1
  132. The waving wheat should sure smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain.
    1
  133. No, in California.
    1
  134. The best is yet to come. IDKWHGNBIKIBTWH.
    1
  135. Nice shot of you in the mirror at 3:45 - and wearing flip-flops. You're not underdressed.
    1
  136. Did you get any souvenir "klompen", as the Dutch call wooden shoes? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  137. This is a Corridor train.
    1
  138. Chiloquin, Oregon.
    1
  139. At 3:12, a prequel to your standard train washroom tours? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  140. The Kingston Trio had a 1960 hit "Everglades", which is available on YT. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  141. Once more you didn't disappoint, Mike. 1. Glad you made Ottawa however briefly, I wish you could have crammed more of it into your allotted 23 minutes. 2. What were the names of your assigned sleeper car and the Park car on your Canadian? 3. The Swiss gentleman Andy could show you how his country's trains are really to die for! 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  142. One of my favorite videos: a woman complained to a flight attendant about a black man sitting beside her. The attendant spoke to the captain, who told her to move one of the 2 passengers to first class - and it wasn't Ms. Poison Tongue! She sat there looking totally deflated. I always love seeing people like that get their comeuppance.
    1
  143. The Outback can reach 121° in the shade - and there's no shade. Probably the Nullarbor Plain, whose name literally means no trees.
    1
  144.  @thomasbarca9297  About that, give or take a bit.
    1
  145. No washroom tour? Are there even any washrooms on that train? If so, they'd probably have to be specially built. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  146. Welcome home, Mike! 1. My first visit to BC was in 1983 when the theme was "Super, Natural". Mostly I was in and around the Big V, but I also did Victoria, Nanaimo (quick pass through), and Squamish, the last in connection with a Royal Hudson trip. My subsequent trips included Expo 86. 2. Glad you were able to finish the trip by train after all. You looked great in a tux! Lucky you didn't slip and fall on the icy steps (re)boarding the train in the Big E, and hope those patent-leather (if that's what they were) shoes didn't hurt! 3. All that was missing from the welcome-home party was Nicole. Then you could close by singing: "I got to British Columbia and Heaven, On your tracks I made it back to my true love". 4. I guess at the end of a trip like that you feel a certain sense of deflation, which I can understand, but also of well-deserved elation. All I can add to that is: IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY!!
    1
  147.  @DownieLive  I love my corduroy Wirth hat; I sent you some selfies of me wearing it. I wondered what that cord was for. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  148. He's done several, most recently Air Canada Signature Class YVR-LHR for his canal boat series.
    1
  149. Trolley buses were apparently rolling even when diesel buses were not. Through the rain, through the snow, everywhere you want to go, and the trolleys go rolling along...
    1
  150. Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz should have it as easily as you do at 4:09.
    1
  151. The spiral staircase going nowhere reminds me of the line in the song "If I Were a Rich Man" from "Fiddler on the Roof", in which Tevye fantasizes about the house he'd build. The staircases include "one more leading nowhere, just for show". IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  152. It's a turboprop, a gas turbine engine drives the propellers.
    1
  153. Mike, locomotive # 70 on your train is ex-CN and ex-VIA FPA 4 # 6760, built by Montreal Locomotive Works in 1958. One of 4 that NVWT has, acquired in about 1988. The Vista Dome car is née Milwaukee Road # 52, later CN 2405 and VIA 2705 "Qu'Appelle". They used to operate on CN's and VIA's "Super Continental" between either Winnipeg, Edmonton, or Jasper depending on season, and Vancouver. So a little bit of Canada thrown in. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  154. @joshuanishanthchristian5217  MLW was Alco's Canadian subsidiary, which built the designs under license. MLW became Bombardier in 1975, then Alstom 2 years ago.
    1
  155. He already did, in https://youtu.be/fDYNZk4uluQ
    1
  156. Like a scientific measurement the Ångstrom, equal to 0.1 nanometer.
    1
  157. TruEarth sponsored the series. Mike mentioned that in each episode; and the discount code that will get you 10% off any TruEarth products.
    1
  158. They didn't write songs about "little (whatever color) SBU's" - sensing and braking units", the black boxes hung on the last couplers of freight trains that replaced cabooses.
    1
  159.  @tazkforcealpha  Ask Murphy.
    1
  160. A Canadian connection: The locomotive 6776 is a model FPA-4, built to the design of the American Locomotive Company (Alco) of Schenectady, NY. Built by Montreal Locomotive Works for CN in 1958, and transferred to VIA Rail Canada about 20 years later, used mainly in the Quebec-City-Windsor Corridor until about 1989. I'm not sure when GCRY got it, but it kept the same number under all 3 owners. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  161. Some of the ex-Milwaukee Super Domes and the Skytop observation cars were sold to CN in the 1960s, in anticipation of a traffic surge for Expo 67 in Montreal. They didn't last too long past Expo: the Skytops' CN careers were cut short by the lack of an emergency exit at the rear. The Super Domes, called Sceneramic on CN, lasted a few years into the VIA Rail era. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skytop_Lounge and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Dome_(railcar) give more info. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  162. If he did, he probably couldn't squeeze it into the 23 minutes he's allotted for each episode. Same is true for a lot of other things I remember from my time living in Winnipeg from 1967 to 1973 while my dad was posted there with the military. Among them: Assiniboine Park, with its zoo and "Poohseum"; Kildonan Park with Rainbow Stage where my family went at least once each summer, usually during my grandmother's annual visit from Montreal; Old Fort Garry; the two Universities; the Legislature, whose theme song should be "They say the Golden Boy smiles down on Broadway...". The Transportation Museum at the VIA Rail station he covered in a previous episode in connection with the Churchill train.
    1
  163. Port Alberni is the hometown of Canada's first - and still only - woman Prime Minister, Kim Campbell. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  164. Looks like a bit of "Bruce Almighty" thrown in with good old 007.
    1
  165. Is it First and Jasper, or Jasper and First in Edmonton?
    1
  166. And your sister too; she certainly shares your passion and some of your interests. IDKWHYGBIKIBTWY.
    1
  167. 1. The most I ever saw of Vancouver Island, outside Victoria, was Nanaimo and the highway south to Victoria, by bus in 1983. 2. Which BC Ferries vessel(s) did you sail on? 3. Love your new sign-off. I can't change mine - IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  168. I imagine you're a great advocate of repurposing things that can be repurposed. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  169. Captain Mike, you've again earned your Master's ticket. Nicole is beautiful, and the two of you together are a lovely couple. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  170. Wonder what the zip code is? Can't be H0H 0H0 as Canada Post has used since about 1982.
    1
  171. Including the old Ottawa Union Station about a year before it closed, which was July 31, 1966. Now the temporary home of the Senate. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  172. Do you have a vendor and/or discount code for your Birkenstocks? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  173. Better than those at IKEA in Vancouver?
    1
  174. Who knows?
    1
  175. Missed by that much!
    1
  176. As Australian Rolf Harris often sang: "I hit Vancouver in the blazing sun On the 9th of February 61 And from the 10th of February through till May It rained and poured all night and day!"
    1
  177.  @ZCarsMuppets  Don't - it's a scam!
    1
  178.  @ZCarsMuppets  No, someone else taking advantage of him to scam.
    1
  179. The Desirio train was probably a descendant of the Regio Sprinter that Calgary tried for 4 months in 1996. Ottawa got similar vehicles for its O-Train Trillium Line, first the Bombardier Talent, then the Alstom LINT.
    1
  180. @vicsams4431  Of course Siemens has supplied LRVs for 40+ years, most importantly to Edmonton (which started it all), Calgary, and San Diego.
    1
  181. I expected you'd go into the projection booth, and show how everything works there. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  182. To paraphrase part of a song from a very popular musical, you look so natural together, just like two newlyweds should be. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  183. The Old Spaghetti Factory at 53 Water Street is the only one in Canada where the streetcar, BC Electric # 53, is the original car and not a replica. Getting it in there almost 50 years ago was a story in itself. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  184. Really a class act, Mike, especially providing the context up front and your generosity toward devastated Lytton. Did the air conditioning in your car conk out? Not good news. I was surprised you'd wear closed shoes on a day that hot, but in an air conditioned car, you can slip them off while you're driving.
    1
  185. To...?
    1
  186. As former Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher once wrote to a chronic complainer: "Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb".
    1
  187. Looking forward to your Iron Odyssey, mike. IDKWYGEBIKIBTWY.
    1
  188. Biker Miker? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  189. The car is a 1961 Pontiac; the giveaway clue is the V-shaped grille divider. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  190. Mike, once more you didn't disappoint. Great video and wrap-up to your series. All the best to you, Nicole (BTW where was she?), your crew, and all your families. As I look into 2023 IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY2.
    1
  191. 1. My dad was posted to Germany with the military, we loved our time there. The heart of Vancouver's "Kleine Berlin", if that's what you'd call it, is Robsonstrasse. 2. A lot of the places you visited are along trolleybus routes. Those are very common in Europe; in Canada Vancouver is now the only one of what were once 15 Canadian cities that still operates them. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  192. At first I had thought King's Cross was named after one of the "Eleanor Crosses", but it turns out not to be (Charing Cross, however, is so named). IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  193.  @thomassu5546  A feedwater heater, to preheat the water that goes to the boiler to produce steam.
    1
  194.  @thomassu5546  Coal-burning originally, though some of the class were converted to oil-burning. I don't know whether 6015 was among those converted.
    1
  195. As Mike said, on train trips, unlike planes, you can recline your seat before the train leaves.
    1
  196. And across from the Royal York in Toronto.
    1
  197. What's the C hat that Blair is wearing? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  198. Or tour?
    1
  199. What position are you applying for?
    1
  200.  @donjohnston3776  The Russian Tupolev Tu-114 had counter-rotating props on each of its 4 engines. Many of the biggest choppers have counter-rotating rotors front and rear.
    1
  201. Mike, my experience in 787-9 Signature Class Toronto-Calgary just before Christmas last year was much like yours, but shorter and nothing behind the scenes. I didn't have time between flights to use the lounge in Toronto. I loved the pod seats but the table took me a while to figure out. Surprisingly, no washroom tour which I've come to expect. The washroom on my 787 was just a few steps back from my seat; it was spacious and had a folding door. The downside: my bag missed the connection in Toronto; AC sent it to me at my sister's in Calgary the next day, and gave me a 15% credit for my next flight. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  202.  @DownieLive  Maybe one of these days a Downie Live Travels By Train - Oriental Edition? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  203. Congratulations, Mike and Nicole. I've seen this coming for a long time, that you would one day present Nicole as the new Mrs. Downie Live. I'm sure both of your families are delighted as well. I wish both of you the utmost love and happiness in the years ahead, whatever may come and wherever either or both of you may go. I only wish we'd had the chance to meet when you bounced through my city on your Taking the Train Across Canada series. I would have loved to see Nicole join you for your sign-off, which at least this time should be: "We don't know where we're going next, but we definitively know we want you there with us!" And of course IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  204. He may remind Mike of a certain Vancouver West Coast Express conductor, now 10 years retired, who was very passionate about his job.
    1
  205. The Downie Street sign at 0:31 is in the maroon and gold colors of Canadian Pacific Railway long ago. One of its CEOs was born there: Norris Roy "Buck" Crump, on whose watch (1955-1972) steam operation on CP ended. He once said about senility: "You know, there are three signs that you may be going senile. The first is that you begin to lose your memory...and Goddamned if I can remember the other two!". IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  206.  @DownieLive  You'll probably find one someday, somewhere. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  207. He has one awesome son there.
    1
  208. And some of the ins and outs of BC Ferries. A friend of mine in Victoria is a long-retired Chief Steward.
    1
  209. Last month my sister was on the MS Koningsdam from Vancouver to Ketchikan. She got off in Skagway to ride the White Pass and Yukon, and sent us a selfie.
    1
  210. Ideally closed captioning; YT has a CC icon with which you can turn it on or off.
    1
  211. Former BC Premier WAC Bennett (1952-1972) always loved Salt Spring Island. His biggest legacies to BC include BC Ferries, of which he was known as "The Admiral", BC Hydro, and BC Rail. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  212. Not only the trains, but also the infrastructure on which they run: track, power system, signal and communications system, fare machines, station services like lighting, much more. The subways in Toronto and Montreal, and the LRT systems in Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton also shut down overnight for the same reason. Montreal has occasionally run its Métro around the clock, like during the March 4, 1971 blizzard that paralyzed the city, and New Year's Eve 1999-2000.
    1
  213.  @AWSVids  Huge cities like NYC, London, Paris have sufficient infrastructure to allow 24/7/365 operation. Canadian systems don't.
    1
  214. 1. Are you at liberty to say where that track is? 2. I am reminded of this scene from the 1971 movie "On the Buses": https://youtu.be/WvV8jjvI42o No matter how often I've watched it, I always get green about the gills! Later in the 1970s I saw some news footage of Toronto's TTC giving similar training to its bus drivers; many other transit systems including TransLink probably do it too. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  215. He'll have to do some walking up and down 'neath the clock by the pawnshop on the corner.
    1
  216. Awesome as ever, Mike! 1. No washroom tour? 2. Did you go riding around on the T while you were in Boston? If so, did you see Charlie, the (anti)hero of the Kingston Trio song "MTA"? https://youtu.be/BdymgQmdK_A MBTA calls its fare card the Charlie Card after him; they also have disposable Charlie Tickets. 3. Electric trains have much better acceleration and speed than their diesel counterparts. Mostly that's because they don't have to lug their own power plant around with them. They can also produce more than their continuously-rated power for short periods; somewhere in the range of 10-20% overload for one hour all the way up to double the continuous rating for 10-15 minutes is considered normal. 4. Wilmington, Delaware is where trains such as yours would be maintained. That's a former Pennsylvania Railroad facility where their legendary GG1 electric locomotives were maintained. The GG1s ran from 1934 to 1983; here's Part 1 of a 4-part 1984 movie about them: https://youtu.be/tC6W0XEqOLw 5. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  217. @Dark Dragon3366  It refers to a Monty Python skit, available on YT, about a cheese shop that in fact had no cheese at all.
    1
  218. No, it's happened in eastern Canada too; we've had train delays or cancellations caused by "sun kinks".
    1
  219. "Cool Pool" is also a military nickname for Cold Lake, Alberta.
    1
  220. Something one might expect in...a Trump hotel.
    1
  221.  @DownieLive  It's popping up like rat dung in reply to more comments that I can count. Does YT offer a way to find and get rid of all instances of it?
    1
  222.  @jettron1  Maybe because of the sad history of its namesake? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Forrestal#
    1
  223. BRAVO ZULU!!
    1
  224. VIA removed sanders from their current F40PH (GM) and P42 (GE) locomotives some time ago, supposedly to save on maintenance costs, and more than once since then have regretted that move.
    1
  225. Mike has already been on several British trains, you'll find them in his past videos. At least one of them includes a little blue 0-6-0T with a very prominent # 1 on its side.
    1
  226. No video about a tequila train would be complete without a link to the song: https://youtu.be/4hswHOEQfj8?si=LW54cve03jaWhgur
    1
  227. Only 4 more episodes.
    1
  228. Only so much he can cram into one video without our losing interest.
    1
  229. Where could one doo that over the International Date Line?
    1
  230. 1. Another endorsement for your skipper's ticket, Captain Mike. And training 2 mates who could become skippers, one of them did in fact. 2. I see you're wearing Birks from about 16:00 on. Do you have a link and/or discount code for where you got them? 3. I'm half Welsh myself; my mother's family emigrated from Wales to Montreal in 1929 but I've never been there. 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  231. Mike, if you think the WestJet 787 economy seats were comfortable, the Business Class seats in Air Canada's 787s are to die for! Each is in an individual pod, with a seat that reclines flat like a bed, a sliding table that folds in half, and a HUGE video screen. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  232. The transit system there, especially the CTrain LRT system, would be a great subject. Especially since they're now retiring the original cars that are now 40+ years old. they may not be around much longer. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  233.  @raynemichelle2996  And not from Czechoslovakian goats, I presume.
    1
  234.  @raynemichelle2996  I was referring to the Monty Python Cheese Shop skit.
    1
  235. I've come to feel that when Mike says he doesn't know where he's going next, he actually has an idea but doesn't want to give anything away.
    1
  236. Coombs also happens to be the surname of TV's "Mr. Dressup", Ernie. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  237. A few days late, but worth the wait. Great as always, Mike - but no Downie Live video is complete without a washroom tour! IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  238. None on the Flåmsbana, though.
    1
  239. The tunnel I'm most familiar with is the Mount Royal Tunnel in Montreal, built by the Canadian Northern Railway from 1912-1918. That gave CNoR access to downtown Montreal, but bankrupted the company , which became part of CN. Central Station, opened in 1943, is adjacent to the site of the former CNoR Tunnel Terminal, which was demolished in 1952 to make way for the CN HQ building, opened in 1961. Since its opening, the tunnel served mainly commuter trains for 102 years before being closed at the end of 2020. It's now being rebuilt for the new REM system, due to open in 2022; that work includes the addition of 2 whole new stations. You may have seen some of it on the Quebec part of your trip. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  240. Another loop railway like that is the Assiniboine Park Railway in Winnipeg. When I lived there, 1967-73, I rode it at least once each summer. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  241. I saw the movie once; the streetcar is shown only very briefly at the beginning.
    1
  242. If you're ever in Washington, DC, you should try to find and report on the "Covefefe Café" if it's still around.
    1
  243. He's doing one now, by rail; one video for each province will be posted here in February. I don't know where he's going next, but I know I'll be there with him.
    1
  244. 1. Mike, when did you leave Vancouver, and what was the name of your sleeping car? 2. The entry into Toronto reminds me of Gordon Lightfoot's famous line: "Oh, the skyline of Toronto is something you'll get onto, but they say you've gotta live there for a while", from the song "Alberta Bound". This is the first of your videos I've seen since Gord's passing. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  245. No parsley, sage, or thyme with the rosemary crackers? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  246. Sorry, I think the company that made them is sold out for some time.
    1
  247.  @DownieLive  Any relation, however distant, to the late Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip?
    1
  248. Though I have a hunch you have in fact at least some idea where you're going next. While I have to be content with IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  249. An Air Canada 767, then new in service, that ran out of fuel over NW Ontario and glided to a safe landing at the old RCAF base at Gimli July 23, 1983. The first officer of that flight happened to remember the base. The crowning irony: An AC service truck sent from Winnipeg ran out of gas on the way to Gimli.
    1
  250. I am: I judge Mike on the quality of his videos, not how he wears his hair. And he always looks great whatever his hairstyle. This is apparently not the first time he's worn a mullet: https://youtu.be/PYVQYeIyqp8 Mike: Is your new mullet the Kentucky Waterfall you got in that old video? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  251. 1. Old Dutch chips are my faves; their BBQ are IMO the only ones worthy of the name. I also like salt and vinegar, and sour cream and onion. 2. Have you ever had a Beaver Tail? Those were started in Killaloe, ON in 1978; their signature product is of course the Killaloe Sunrise. They used to have a stand at Lonsdale Quay Market in North Vancouver; all I ever had to do was hop the SeaBus across the harbor (BTW SeaBus would be another great video idea). 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  252. No, he sounds like...Mike Downie.
    1
  253. At 6:26, You might add vloggers who help keep people positive. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  254. Glad to see you back, Mike, and Happy Birthday to your dad. He must be one awesome dad to have raised one awesome son such as yourself. I guess for once you can't use your usual sign-off since you know where you're going next - but mine doesn't change, IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  255. Flip-flops are fine too.
    1
  256. The buffer car requirement was lifted last month.
    1
  257. He already did, under the Downie Live Travels By Train America series.
    1
  258. Kicking Horse aren't the only people who don't cut corners - neither do you in making your videos. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  259. Nicole is Mike's wife, and partner of several years prior: https://youtu.be/04b00HCM-s4?si=UK1jlz92XCPQc-wJ I don't know where they're going next, but I know I'll be there with them.
    1
  260. 1. Mike, was this your honeymoon? Even if it wasn't, well deserved and great to see Nicole. 2. The La Chine restaurant reminds me: The Montreal suburb of Lachine is also named for China; there's a story behind that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lachine,_Quebec#Etymology 3. IDKWY2RGNBIKIBTWY2.
    1
  261.  @yvr2002rtw  Even before that, many companies cut back on business class travel, and airlines wanted to fill the seats. So I managed to get more than a few J class trips in Embraers, which had 2-1 seating. I usually got a single, often 1A. The first thing I'd tell the flight attendant when boarding was that I knew the standing joke about that seat - if I were any further forward I'd be in his/ her seat.
    1
  262. Welcome home, Mike! Great to see this, and looking forward to your next one in 36 hours. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  263. On VIA Rail's Alexandria Subdivision between Coteau, Quebec and Ottawa, a small nondescript board marks the Quebec-Ontario border.
    1
  264. Mike, is this your last YT video? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  265. ¿Tu lista de deseos?
    1
  266. He has other videos on dronemanship.
    1
  267. The electric locomotives we saw so many of are SJ Class Rc, of which 366 were built from 1967 to 1988, in 5 sub-series each identified by a one-digit suffix. The Rc4 version was the basis for Amtrak's AEM-7 "toasters". More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SJ_Rc. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  268. The ship's horn near the end is the letter G in Morse code, - -. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  269. Great video Mike, as always, and well worth the wait while I resolved the audio issue with my PC. 1. No flowers in your hair in San Francisco? 2. I can remember when there was next to no security at most airports. 3. Love the museum, vintage planes and color schemes, some fallen flags. 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  270. In my younger days almost 40 years ago I had no hesitation about crossing the Capilano Suspension Bridge, but probably wouldn't do it now. Even then my palms and soles sweated more than a little, though I'm not afraid of heights.
    1
  271. Top of the page, under the video itself.
    1
  272. 1. The anthem of funiculars everywhere: https://youtu.be/XW0W7j04iRQ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funicul%C3%AC,_Funicul%C3%A0 2. Quebec City also has a funicular, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Quebec_Funicular and https://youtu.be/pwXtFm1B31o 3. NYC also has another commuter rail network Metro North. Of special interest is its New Haven Line, which runs under 2 different electrification systems; the changeover point is near Pelham Station. https://youtu.be/SoymmfbA0-s and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Haven_Line 4. A song about Pittsburgh: https://youtu.be/RYeCwknuW_g 5. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  273. About the neon signs: Angus of the Transit Museum Society, who you met in the streetcar video, also bills himself as a "neon sign historian". If you didn't get one of his business cards, you should the next time you see him. Your eyes will pop at all the titles on it, one of which forms the basis of his e-mail address.
    1
  274. About 20 years ago I flew in an open cockpit plane out of that museum. I forget what type it was, I sat in front of the pilot. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  275. If ever you went to Victoria for high tea, that's where I would have expected you to go - and maybe dressed to the nines as you were on the last leg of your train trip. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  276. 1. In preparation for this I listened to the song "Bud the Spud". Now I can imagine Stompin' Tom Connors (a New Brunswicker BTW) writing another new song: "There was this vlogger from Vancouver, his name was DownieLive, He travelled all across Canada samplin' everybody's lives..." 2. The bench in front of MJ's caboose was painted as an Acadian flag: a yellow star added to what is otherwise a French tricouleur. 3. I half-expected you to give the standard DownieLive washroom tour of the Coast Guard vessel. 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  277. Surprised not to see it on the tablet.
    1
  278. Do you have proof that the Lytton fire is arson? If so, please bring it forward, right here and now.
    1
  279.  @anthony7476  So far there is no proof either way. Anyway, since you first made the statement that it was arson, the onus is on you to back up that statement.
    1
  280.  @DownieLive  As part of the chilling, you should wear flip-flops or sandals for the entire video.
    1
  281. About ordering too much: They say everything is bigger in Texas. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  282. Not sure I'd do a trip that long by train. I use VIA Rail Business Class (used to be called VIA1) when I go to/from Ottawa to Toronto. The 4-hour trip over a meal time makes it worth the extra money, or sometimes VIA Preference points redemption. The meal is always good, plus wine and after-dinner drinks (though fewer choices post-COVID). Refurbished cars have single seats along one side, I often luck into those. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  283.  @DownieLive  VIA calls the train the Skeena.
    1
  284. Beaver Lake is also the name of the lake on Mount Royal in Montreal. Of course the Mountain is also a good topic for another video - there's a railway tunnel under it as well. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  285. For commercial barges the Rhine River is the happiest hunting ground.
    1
  286. The storm reminds me of an old Loony Tunes cartoon in which Tweety held a picture of a ship in front of Sylvester, rocking it back and forth as he said: "It was a tewwible storm, and the boat wocked and wocked...", making Sylvester increasingly sick. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  287. The only time I was ever in Squamish was in August 1983 on a 2860 trip. During the stop there, I saw the engine's cab. That was when they ran the MV Britannia in parallel with 2860 and I had the option of taking each of them one way, but I stayed with the train both ways. The Britannia wasn't high on anyone's recommended list back then; is it still in service?
    1
  288. No, these trains are for the Corridor.
    1
  289.  @DownieLive  He means no operating trains. Nor does Prince Edward Island have any. If you see any old CN rolling stock with "Serves All Canada", that's now misleading advertising. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  290. Wow, going Nordic! Monty Python's take on Finland: https://youtu.be/7rwc3VGvlRY An Ottawa cheese shop that just closed had a gift-wrap sticker on the counter that resembled the Finnish flag (and yes that cheese shop, unlike its Python counterpart in another sketch, actually had some cheese!) IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  291. Avalanches are a subject very close to Justin Trudeau's heart. His youngest brother Michel was killed in an avalanche at Red Mountain Resort in 1998, at age 23: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Trudeau IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  292.  @DownieLive  I rode the Peak Chair up there, and took a chopper tour. Are those still offered?
    1
  293. Remember the Hudson Bay Railway washout of 2017 that cut off Churchill for almost a year? Everything had to be flown in, so prices went sky-high. Two VIA locomotives and 6 cars stranded in Churchill were loaded onto a ship and taken to Montreal - VIA's main maintenance base, in October that year. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  294. 1. Your car was named George M. (for Mortimer) Pullman, the man who introduced sleeping cars to North America. 2. Your comment on the flatness of Montana is ironic in that the name of the state means mountain. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  295. Awesome as ever, Mike! Only slightly less than the next one will be...and the next...and the one after that... I was in NS only once, in Halifax almost 10 years ago for a union group meeting, but I enjoyed it. While there I went to Black Rock Beach at Point Pleasant Park, on a near-pilgrimage. I went to where a friend from Winnipeg had ended his cross-Canada rollerblade marathon called Don't Stop Believing in 2010. He raised about $50,000.00 for cancer research. That was close to my heart because at that time another friend in Ottawa was dying of cancer; he passed the next month. For the Eskasoni Cultural Journeys, I'm surprised you weren't wearing moccasins; you'd look nice in them. I was disappointed that you missed the Evangeline Trail and the Annapolis Valley; no time I guess. And at Peggy's Cove, I expected you'd show the Swissair 111 memorial. As always IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  296.  @DownieLive  That may explain the flag at Gros Morne National Park at about 17:20 being at half-mast, during the prolonged period of mourning for missing and murdered aboriginal children. Definitely not something to be proud of.
    1
  297. As did GM buses, the New Looks that dominated most cities for over 40 years starting in the late 1950s/early 60s.
    1
  298. Manitoba licence plates in the early 1970s boasted of its "100,000 Lakes" - a ripoff of Minnesota's "10,000 Lakes". The standing joke was that 90,000 of Manitoba's lakes were potholes on Winnipeg's Main Street.
    1
  299.  @loverebel6632  I'm not Winnipeg native, but I lived there from 1967-73 while my dad was posted there with the military. I've been back twice, in 2001 and 2011.
    1
  300. He's already done several for Britain.
    1
  301. Milwaukee, AKA Beer City, has a large German community. Of course its other claim to fame is being the setting of the 1970s/80s sitcom "Happy Days".
    1
  302. What a trip, Mike. Is this your all-time longest? Love it at 32:55 when you yank off your shoes. First time you've ever done that on-camera, but you earned it! IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  303. In Britain the sturgeon is a Royal Fish. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon#Other_uses
    1
  304.  @yosefg13  The last 2 including this one have been posted on Tuesday.
    1
  305. 1. Seems fitting that I should pick Oktoberfest time to watch this video. Maybe you should have worn Birkenstocks, which are German, but not Bavarian. 2. Kitchener, Ontario, used to be called Berlin, from its founding until 1917, when it was renamed because of anti-German hysteria during World War I. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  306. What happened to your usual sign-off? That was just as much a trademark for you as Walter Cronkite's or Lloyd Robertson's sign-offs - or mine: IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  307. Mrs. Downie, you must be one awesome mother to have raised one awesome son! I stumbled across Mike's videos almost a year ago, and have been following them ever since. I don't know where he's going next, but I know I'll be there with him.
    1
  308. The video was filmed in July.
    1
  309. Hot as Alberta (and Saskatchewan and Manitoba) can be, usually it's a dry heat. They seldom get the humidity that so often aggravates Eastern heat waves.
    1
  310.  @kyle604  Much of the plot of "Flight Into Danger" and its spoof "Airplane". Both pilots and a number of passengers were stricken with food poisoning. The only person who could land the plane was a former fighter pilot who hadn't flown in some time. One of Mike's previous videos showed him landing a 737-800 simulator at YVR.
    1
  311. Maybe this is it?
    1
  312. 1. Great to see the city I once lived in, though I wasn't born there. I went back to visit twice, in 2001 and 2011. As I recall the VIA station once had a higher dome that was somewhat reminiscent of that of the Legislature not too far away. 2. One of the keystone events of my time in Winnipeg concerned the transit system: I was on the last trolleybus on October 30, 1970; and wrote about that trip for a book entitled "Tires and Wires". 3. Since well before my time there, Winnipeg has been the bus-building capital of North America. the NFI Group, which includes New Flyer Industries (city buses) and Motor Coach Industries (highway coaches) are both based there. In fact Western Flyer Coach, as it was then called, shifted from highway coaches to transit buses in 1968, during my first year there. 4. I didn't see all that much of the province beyond Winnipeg: the occasional trip to Gimli, once to Teulon, and a week at William Lake, near the International Peace Garden that straddles the Canada-U.S. border near Boissevain, MB and Kelvin, North Dakota. Yes, we went to the Garden once. 5. Your room on the train leaving Winnipeg is what's called a "roomette", designed especially for solo travelers. 6. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  313. In the Canal Boat series, Nicole came close.
    1
  314. Remember the 2000 version of the toonie that shows a mother polar bear with 2 cubs, called Knowledge? If polar bears are dangerous, I don't know why anyone would want to waltz with them: https://youtu.be/eQPhMOy0xiY IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  315. CIC on an aircraft carrier is...?
    1
  316.  @DownieLive  Some of the ins and outs of getting - and doing - a haircut.
    1
  317. 1. The rotating floor of the Palm Springs aerial tram cars reminds me of that of the restaurant atop the Ottawa Marriott Hotel. The floor is a small "turntable" on which the tables and seats are mounted. 2. For the hot-air ballooning, I'm reminded of the song "Up, Up and Away", a balloonist's anthem. https://youtu.be/UKkNlwpajNk. In French they're called "montgolfiers" after the French brothers who invented them. The Wizard of Oz was also a balloonist from (don't laugh) Kansas, blown off course one day! 3. More on the history of TWA : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_World_Airlines In "better circles", i.e. among disgruntled passengers, it was known as "Try Walking Across". 4. The Roosevelt Island aerial tram reminds me that you may soon have something like it closer to home. Vancouver is looking at a Burnaby Mountain Gondola that would service Simon Fraser University among other places. https://www.translink.ca/plans-and-projects/projects/rapid-transit-projects/burnaby-mountain-gondola Looking forward to THAT video! 5. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  318. Mike, did you ever find out what year that red Chevy station wagon is? That was one of the 3 "Classic" Chevy years, 1955, 1956, and 1957. The only real way to tell is to look at the speedometer, if you can. The 1955 and 1956 have big pie-shaped speedometers with other instruments nested in it. The 1957 has the speedometer and other instruments in round pods. BTW a station wagon with no windows behind the driver's seat is usually called a "panel delivery truck/van/vehicle". IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  319. One more to come.
    1
  320. Try this, note especially D. Emergency Repairs. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Third+Planet+Operating+Instructions.-a069698716
    1
  321. Happy Birthday, Mike. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  322. Mike, does George Hamilton IV's song "Canadian Pacific" suggest itself to your trip? It certainly does to me, touching on each province as you're doing. As always IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  323. Where Bugs Bunny knew he should have took the left toin.
    1
  324. 1. I'm all too familiar with freight trains delaying VIA passenger trains in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, which includes most of the places I go. 2. Is that a TransLink mask, with the square-T logo, you're wearing? 3. Further to your mention of rainbows: When you're flying, have you ever seen an "airman's halo" on the clouds below? That's a completely circular rainbow with the airplane's shadow in the middle. 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  325. Or Four Corners, USA, at which the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah converge.
    1
  326. Congratulations on winning your wings, Captain Mike! I guess maybe you were inspired by Airplane! - which in turn must have been inspired by Arthur Hailey's radio play "Flight Into Danger" almost 70 years ago. Long story short: Both pilots on a YWG-YVR flight are incapacitated by food poisoning. The only available pilot: a passenger who had flown only single-engine fighters in World War II, 10 years earlier. With the help of a stewardess, as cabin attendants were then called, he landed roughly but safely at YVR.
    1
  327.  @Salmagundiii  Montreal's Métro trains, from their 1966 debut, have used brake shoes made in-house from cherry wood lubricated with peanut oil.
    1
  328. Was any of your coffee or tea boiled in a billy? A tin can for that purpose, used by the Jolly Swagman in "Waltzing Matilda". Did you hear much of that song? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  329. Revelstoke also gave CP a CEO: Norris Roy "Buck" Crump was born there in 1904. He's best remembered as CP's "Mr. Diesel" who put steam out to pasture on his watch as CEO, 1955-1974. He was the last real railroader to head CP, having started as a laborer in the Revelstoke shops.
    1
  330. Ana a galley tour, no less. That's a DownieLive first!
    1
  331. NOYB.
    1
  332. Other nicknames for cabooses are van and crummy.
    1
  333. If you haven't already done so, you should do something on Vancouver's answer, the Gastown Steam Clock.
    1
  334. He could do videos on the BC Legislature, and the residences of the Premier and the Lieutenant Governor. IDKWHGNBIKIBTWH.
    1
  335. On the south face of the old BC Electric building at Hastings and Carrall, facing Pender Street, is Reddy Kilowatt, the mascot of private electric companies like BCE. The symbol is lit at night.
    1
  336. 1. Remember this song? https://youtu.be/Z1Q7cP3ij5g 2. The big UV printer works more like an inkjet printer rather than a laser. Inkjets and other "dot matrix" printers pass across the page or other media once for each line, printing one line at a time. Lasers write the image onto a drum, which prints an entire page at once. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  337. There's also a risk that wiring in older apartment buildings may not be able to handle the load of air conditioners in every unit, with attendant fire risk.
    1
  338. Fort William reminds me of its namesake city in Ontario, which is half of what's now Thunder Bay (Port Arthur was the other half, they merged in 1970). FW, and now TB, is a big train-car building center; the big plant there was successively Canadian Car and Foundry, Hawker Siddeley Canada, CanCar Rail-UTDC, Bombardier, and now Alstom. The plant built buses too, including the 2 preserved Vancouver trolley buses 2040 and 2416. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  339. Maybe he will. We don't know where he's going next, but we know we'll be there with him.
    1