Glorious train travel still alive and well

John Gilchrist
For The Calgary Herald

Sunday, October 27, 2002

Mikael Kjellstrom, Calgary Herald
Pierre Meloche, senior hospitality attendant, on the Mount Stephen.


By the time I had lunch on the great CPR rail car, Mount Stephen, the cigar smoke had cleared but the tobacco scent still lingered.It had been almost 60 years since Sir Winston Churchill had stubbed his stogy in a crystal ashtray but it seemed to me that the burnished mahogany walls still held a hint of the great Brit's favourite Cuban cigar. When I had lunch on the Mount Stephen, I was offered the same seat Bill Gates had sat in during a trip through the Rockies. The chair didn't make me any smarter or richer (and hopefully not any nerdier), but it gave me the same view that one of the world's most influential people had enjoyed. And when I toured the sleeping quarters of the Mount Stephen after lunch I saw a small bouquet of drooping flowers in a room that had accommodated Francis Ford Coppola just days before. Those flowers had travelled across Canada with the Hollywood director and George Lucas and their families and had been left behind when they returned to California. When I had lunch on the Mount Stephen with David Walker and Jean LeSourd of Royal Canadian Pacific, we dined on baked salmon with a creamy risotto and fresh vegetables piqued by a crisp Pouilly-Fuisse. It was the best meal I've ever had on a train. The Mount Stephen is one of Canada's most luxurious rail cars, a historic piece built in 1926 to serve Canadian Pacific's senior executives on their trips across the country and to carry dignitaries such as Churchill during the Quebec Conference. It's still rolling stock for CP Rail but it has been restored and re-launched as part of the Royal Canadian Pacific luxury train tours. Teamed with other historic cars from the CP fleet, the Mount Stephen is rented out to global high-rollers who want to recreate the glory days of rail touring. Rail buffs are constantly searching for train experiences to add to their resumes, from a few days on the Orient Express to a few hours on the Klondike's White Pass & Yukon Railroad. One of the biggest notches on a serious train fan's belt is a six-day ride through the Rockies on CP's historic train. Offered from May through October, these Golden Crowsnest packages come in at an eye-popping $7,100 (plus GST, based on double occupancy.) Eye-popping to mere mortals, but a comparative bargain in the world of luxury trains and pocket change to high-rolling train nuts. Royal Canadian Pacific is already 40 per cent booked for the 2003 season, with a sizable portion of the reservations being made by return customers. The tours have become big business for CP; its fourth year revenues are projected at $5 million. Royal Canadian Pacific presents a high-quality product for the money. In addition to the sumptuous surroundings, the hosted tours have a three-to-one client to staff ratio, an on-train chef to prepare gourmet meals, private railroad sidings for elegant evening events, and some of the prettiest scenery in the world. Our lunch was prepared by the resident staff in a tiny, efficient, and updated kitchen, where the chef can reach almost all of his equipment without moving. The tiny kitchen can churn out some impressive meals, proving again that size doesn't matter. When it's not in use, the Mount Stephen sits suspended above 1st Street S.W. in the Canadian Pacific Railway Pavilion. That's the domed warehouse that extends west from the Palliser Hotel over the railroad tracks. Between assignments, it's primed and polished and loved to death by loyal train workers. And starting this fall, it is being offered on day trips for Calgarians looking for the ultimate Christmas gift or corporate party opportunity. How about a six-hour dinner trip to Banff and back? (It's only $550 per guest, plus GST.) Eight hours will take you up the tracks to Field and back. (That's a mere $750 per person, plus GST.) Sure those are big numbers but on the bright side the maximum allowed on board is only 44 so you can keep the budget down. (Minimum is 20; call Walker or LeSourd at 508-1400.) The trips include a three-course dining experience and all beverages. Plus you can take as much time as you like to go skiing or spa-ing in Banff or Lake Louise before taking the train back to Calgary. When I had lunch on the Mount Stephen we never left the confines of the Pavilion. But it didn't matter. Even seated in dry dock, the atmosphere was rich and tranquil, the scent of Churchill's cigar bringing back an era of train travel that fortunately has not been lost. John Gilchrist reviews restaurants and broadcasts a national food business column for CBC Radio One. He has recently released a Cheap Eats guide to dining in Calgary. He can be reached at escurial@telus.net or 235-7532.