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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  4. Not for nothing was it called the Hercules.
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  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.
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  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.
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  7. Its name happens to be the same as that of the current CEO of Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway.
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  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.
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  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".
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  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.
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  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.
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  12. Mike did the Toronto-Windsor trip in Economy, and didn't have lounge access.
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  13. As only an awesome son can do.
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  14. She'd have to be awesome, to have raised such an awesome son as Mike!
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  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.
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  16.  @justmike10  Let the sharing begin.
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  17. He has only 23 minutes per episode. Chances are he wanted to do the RCMP but didn't have time.
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  18. And a washroom tour.
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  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.
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  20. That's even wider than the Toronto Transit Commission's subway/streetcar gauge of 4"10.875" or 1495 mm.
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  21. Awesome as usual, Mike. However, I had half-expected something on the tragic devastation in Lytton this week.
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  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.
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  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.
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  24. VIA Rail Canada's new Siemens Charger trains will be very similar to Brightliners.
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  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.
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  26. 3 more episodes.
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  27.  @corybourrier9722  I meant when we all get to see it.
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  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.
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  29. An ancestor of Burlington Northern and of present-day BNSF.
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  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.
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  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.
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  32. It's probably included in NOTAMs - Notices to Airmen.
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  33. Juneau.
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  34. Only 4° warmer and it would be equally cold C or F.
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  35. Where they really know how to do transportation in all forms, not just railways. The whole country is all about precision. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  36. VIA called it Rockies by Daylight.
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  37. Maybe on your own 75th birthday your own son will treat you to something equally spectacular. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  38.  @christophermerrick1100  But still they're always ready for the call...
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  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.
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  40. There once was a railroad named for your state, now part of NS.
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  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.
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  42. Toronto Union Station would be the best choice, Mike. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  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.
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  44.  @Dark_Dragon3366  Monty Python's specialty was poking fun at absurd situations like that.
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  45. Cabo San Lucas was a regular port of call for the Love Boat.
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  46. 🤣🤣Did you get to sample any Jarlsberg cheese? Of course that was not to be found in Ye Olde Cheese Emporium.
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  47. In Washington they were once called "freedom fries".
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  48.  @raynemichelle2996  Yes, it was certainly uncontaminated by cheese, wasn't it?
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  49.  @evecottom9966  And the Rideau Canal that runs from Kingston to Ottawa.
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  50.  @Binnacle33  And that ain't no horse hockey.
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