8th August - All Aboard the Rocky Mountaineer

We were up bright and early and caught a taxi to Banff Railway station.  On arrival our cases were taken off us by the porters.  The cases would travel on to Kamloops by road and would be inside our hotel room when we got there.
There was quite a bit of ceremony before we even boarded the train.  One of the guests (Ian, from Newcastle) was chosen at random to don the train conductors hat and blow the whistle twice before the train came into the station.  Then flags were put up and a red carpet rolled out ready for us to board.

The gold leaf cars are double height.  Upstairs is the glass roofed carriage with luxurious seating (lumbar support adjustment, height adjustment, foot support adjustment - even an inbuilt heating system - though we didn't need that as the weather for the whole trip was hot).  Downstairs is the dining car.  There was even an elevator to get between floors!
There is also a silver leaf service in a single height car, without a glass roof.  I don't know how the accommodation in the silver leaf car compared, but I can't help feeling you'd be missing out on the best views if you didn't have the glass roof.  As the photos below illustrate.

We headed out of Banff and ended up passing Lake Louise, where Denise and I had been for a trip yesterday.  After that it was the continental divide, which was a bit of a non-event (basically it's a post with a small sign on it that says "divide"). 
Denise and I were in the first sitting for breakfast, where we were treated to berry smoothies, sweet rolls and an extensive menu.  I had blueberry pancakes and Denise had eggs Benedict. We sat with a nice couple from Michigan, Tom and Linda. 
After breakfast we went through the spiral tunnels. No photos to show you there I'm afraid - it was just dark. Ours was a short train, but I'm told that with some of the 4 mile long freight trains you can see the front of the train coming out of the lower tunnel before the end of the train has entered the top tunnel. 
Highlights of the journey were the Bow, Kicking Horse and Columbia river valleys, and the Stoney Creek bridge (too high for me to look - so I have no photos). 
Lunch was another amazing meal - I couldn't believe what the could do with a kitchen on a train. We sat with Debbie and Walter from Kamloops . Walter worked for the railway company, so they were on a busman's holiday.

During the afternoon there was a problem with some rails having buckled in the sun and the train was delayed for a while.  But at least they picked a picturesque place to stop and I went out on the caboose at the back of the lower level and admired the view:

 

Because of the delay for the engineers to repair the line and also having to wait for a few 4 mile long freight trains to pass, we were later into Kamloops than expected.
I can't say enough about how great the hosts on board were.  It must have been a long day for them having readied the train for us before we boarded and having been running up and down the carriage all day serving  us drinks from the bar, or hot tea and coffee, or snacks.  Due to the delay the catering staff managed to rustle up a light supper of 2 courses which they served upstairs rather than down in the dining car. 
We eventually rolled into Kamloops at 9pm where a coach was waiting to take us to our hotel (and yes - our cases were in our room).