Erstellt am: 21. 12. 2013 - 07:33 Uhr

Canada By Rail, Part 2: The Legend of Walter

In a country as big as Canada, rail employees working aboard passenger trains spend nearly as much time on trains as off. More than a job, it is a lifestyle. But what sort of crazy person lives on a train?! Find out today, on FM4's Reality Check.

As a result of spending well over a week on trains traveling across Canada this year, I began to wonder what it must be like to actually LIVE on one of these long-haul trains - like some of their employees essentially do.

Johnny Bliss, 2013

Here I am, trying my best to also live on a train...

Now, if you're just entering the room right now, you might have all sorts of other questions related to traveling across Canada, the world's second largest country, by train.

For example, how does one avoid going crazy, if you're stuck on a train for nearly a week? What is the food like? And the scenery? What kind of people do you meet, traveling Canada by rail? How expensive is it?

Do you see very much wildlife? Did you just say they have live bands playing aboard Canadian trains?!!

For all of these questions and more, I'll simply refer you to the sidebar --->

Meanwhile, Walter!

Truth be told, I hadn't been planning to make two entire programs about Canadian Rail. One, I thought, really ought to be sufficient.

So I'd finished the last of my interviews for the other program. Confident that it was a job well done, I was just resting back in a very cozy seat up in the train's dome car watching the Canadian Rockies go by.

Suddenly, this bearded madman with a bottle of wine and a bunch of plastic cups appeared. Apparently, he was an employee and I'd just stumbled into a scheduled afternoon Wine Tasting session.

Johnny Bliss, 2013

"So technically, I'm only allowed to serve you one glass of wine," he announced to us, literally with a mad twinkle in his eye*, "which means... don't lose your glass! Because then I can't give you refills."

"No, you see," I protested as he filled my glass, "I've already finished this feature. You're charming and all, but we don't need any more interviews!"

Johnny Bliss, 2013

All I need is this photo of me sitting on a train, and then I can go home.

"[Speaking of alcohol,] there's nothing quite like a drunk bear!" he declared, whilst filling my glass for the second time. "Occasionally, when freight trains have a grain [spillage], those are pretty entertaining for a good month, because as the grain ferments, it turns into alcohol, and..."

Hold on, I'll get my microphone.

Johnny Bliss, 2013

ALL RIGHT. I'll interview you.

Johnny Bliss, 2013

"There is also a resident train buff, who happens to be a bear. He [sits] right on the treeline, and counts the [train] cars, his head just bobbing from right to left, [and] his tongue hanging out..."

Oh ja?

"There's a lot of talk of some of these train cars being haunted," he told me later. "Where you come around the corner, and you think there's somebody there, but there's nobody there."

So after all this time spent on trains, is it sometimes difficult being back on solid ground?

"After my first shift of work, I went for a shower at the hotel, closed my eyes to wash my hair, and when I opened them, I was on the bathroom floor. I had no idea my legs were so wobbly, after five days on a train."

These are just a few quotes from what were perhaps the most entertaining forty-five minutes of interview ever. Sometimes funny, sometimes ghostly, and sometimes incredibly informative, by the time the interview with Walter finished, and I'd turned off my microphone, I'd come to terms with the fact that I no longer had one good program about Canadian rail, but rather two.

Johnny Bliss, 2013

And here he is, in all his bearded glory. Thanks, Walter.