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

  1. 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
  2.  @DownieLive  Maybe one of these days a Downie Live Travels By Train - Oriental Edition? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  3. 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
  4. He may remind Mike of a certain Vancouver West Coast Express conductor, now 10 years retired, who was very passionate about his job.
    1
  5. 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
  6.  @DownieLive  You'll probably find one someday, somewhere. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  7. He has one awesome son there.
    1
  8. And some of the ins and outs of BC Ferries. A friend of mine in Victoria is a long-retired Chief Steward.
    1
  9. 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
  10. Ideally closed captioning; YT has a CC icon with which you can turn it on or off.
    1
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13.  @AWSVids  Huge cities like NYC, London, Paris have sufficient infrastructure to allow 24/7/365 operation. Canadian systems don't.
    1
  14. 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
  15. He'll have to do some walking up and down 'neath the clock by the pawnshop on the corner.
    1
  16. 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
  17. @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
  18. No, it's happened in eastern Canada too; we've had train delays or cancellations caused by "sun kinks".
    1
  19. "Cool Pool" is also a military nickname for Cold Lake, Alberta.
    1
  20. Something one might expect in...a Trump hotel.
    1
  21.  @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
  22.  @jettron1  Maybe because of the sad history of its namesake? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Forrestal#
    1
  23. BRAVO ZULU!!
    1
  24. 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
  25. 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
  26. No video about a tequila train would be complete without a link to the song: https://youtu.be/4hswHOEQfj8?si=LW54cve03jaWhgur
    1
  27. Only 4 more episodes.
    1
  28. Only so much he can cram into one video without our losing interest.
    1
  29. Where could one doo that over the International Date Line?
    1
  30. 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
  31. 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
  32. 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
  33.  @raynemichelle2996  And not from Czechoslovakian goats, I presume.
    1
  34.  @raynemichelle2996  I was referring to the Monty Python Cheese Shop skit.
    1
  35. 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
  36. Coombs also happens to be the surname of TV's "Mr. Dressup", Ernie. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  37. 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
  38. None on the Flåmsbana, though.
    1
  39. 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
  40. 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
  41. I saw the movie once; the streetcar is shown only very briefly at the beginning.
    1
  42. If you're ever in Washington, DC, you should try to find and report on the "Covefefe Café" if it's still around.
    1
  43. 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
  44. 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
  45. No parsley, sage, or thyme with the rosemary crackers? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
    1
  46. Sorry, I think the company that made them is sold out for some time.
    1
  47.  @DownieLive  Any relation, however distant, to the late Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip?
    1
  48. 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
  49. 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
  50. 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