Goes Down To The Sea In The Ocean Limited, Published 30 June 1955 Some
people go down to the sea in ships but I took the Ocean Limited. Thus
you could have found me in Ottawa the other day, getting aboard the
glamorous Super Continental, Montreal-bound to catch the Canadian
National's re-vamped, re-vitalized and speeded up Ocean Limited. The Super is proving a much appreciated afternoon train. For when it pulls in from Vancouver, they add to it, two parlor cars and a day coach. The day coach was jammed, and the chair cars were well filled. On the same train was CCF leader, M. J. Coldwell, en route to Montreal to see his son. Holding down the. next chair was a man who gave his name as Frank Dubervlll and who worked he says, more than a quarter century for The Citizen. This new continental flier is truly Super. We were at Carlsbad Springs in no time at all, Vars was just a blur, and Limoges showed up very quickly. First thing we knew, here was the usual stop, Alexandria. But no stop this time, nor at Glen Robertson. Then Quebec. In fact the two hours and 15 minutes seemed to pass like so many seconds. This the more so because Frank took me forward to a fully licensed car where he treated me to the elixir of life. Then Montreal and the trip was over. This new fast mid-afternoon train to Montreal makes the journey swifter for that time of day than has been made in the afternoon from Ottawa to Montreal in the last quarter century. I got aboard the sumptuous new diesel-powered Ocean Limited. This was the train that runs you 840 nilles down to Halifax in less than 24 hours and which as you sit still in the cushioned luxury of your room, gives you a three-dimension movie travelogue outside your window. Over the Victoria Bridge first, then the flat acres around St. Hyacinthe, and finally, the little church outside your window at Drummondville. Then I awoke to see magically across the river, the lights of Quebec, I suddenly wondered if one of them was Premier Duplessis, as he sat up late over his province's problems. In my next, the Ocean rolls on east. |