Moonlighters 2025

This is a quick report on the 2025 Moonlighters ride across Canada. I've written about previous Moonlighter trips here and here.

Snow covered prairie near Nokonis, Saskatchewan (2/9/2025)

Every year, for many years (excluding the Covid years) my friend Bill Schafer (retired from Norfolk Southern) has loosely organized a group of his friends to ride the Canadian...the last-of-its-kind streamliner straight out of 1955 ... from Vancouver to Toronto and/or back again. (Its 70th anniversary is being celebrated in April.) The timing of the ride is scheduled to include the full moon during either February or March. Those of us who ride it are called Moonlighters.

The westbound Canadian heading towards Jasper (photo by Bon French)

Upon announcement of this year's trip last April I booked a one way ticket in a bedroom for two from Vancouver to Toronto leaving February 7. After a few days thought and seeing who was traveling round trip and/or from Toronto to Vancouver I decided to book the Toronto to Vancouver train leaving February 12 (the night of the full-moon) as well. Just to be clear, that is four nights on the train from Vancouver to Toronto, one night in Toronto, and four nights back to Vancouver.

I also eventually booked my flights thusly:

• February 6, Pittsburgh to Vancouver via Denver
• February 16 (plan A), Vancouver to Pittsburgh leaving at 12:44pm via Denver.
• February 17 (plan B), Vancouver to Pittsburgh leaving at 8:30am via Chicago

Plan B was in case the train was late enough into Vancouver that I would miss my flight. (It was and I did.)

Immediately prior to the trip (and much to everyone's unhappiness) we learned that Linda Schafer had fallen ill and that she and Bill would not be riding with us. They are the heart and soul of the Moonlighters and were both dearly missed. (I'm told that Linda is improving and that she and Bill will be riding the Canadian later this year.)

I arrived in Vancouver around 2pm on Thursday, February 6, checked into the Hyatt Regency Vancouver (on points) and had dinner with Roy Wullich at a local Chinese restaurant. The next day around noon I checked out of the Hyatt and went to Pacific Central Station where Roy was handing out name badges to approximately 80 happy Moonlighters prior to the 3pm departure. Soon enough I was ensconced in my bedroom in the car Drummond Manor. Manor cars have four roomettes, six bedrooms (upper/lower berths and a private bathroom), and three sections (upper/lower berths without private facilities). There is also a shower in the car.

The train itself included two locomotives, a deadheading observation car, a baggage car, a coach, two Skyline dome cars, six Manor cars, a dining car, two "Chateau" cars in Prestige service (6 bedrooms for two with private shower), and a dome observation "Park" car. In the years before Covid the Moonlighters train would often have several additional Manor cars, another Skyline dome car, and another dining car.

With 100 people in the sleeping cars they had to serve lunch and dinner in three seatings: noon, 1pm, and 2pm for lunch and 5pm, 7pm, and (hopefully as early as) 8:30pm for dinner. I covet the second seating and I was mostly able to get that. A few times I had to take the first seating. Seating was four to a table. You could make your own party of four or be randomly seated. Usually I sat with at least one friend, but it really didn't matter. Most everyone, including the few non-Moonlighters aboard, were pleasant meal companions.

Most days we had a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner. On some days an early continental breakfast and brunch were served instead of a full breakfast and lunch (for operational reasons.) Breakfast included a traditional breakfast meat and eggs, an omelette, a pancake/waffle, and a continental. Lunch usually had a soup starter, several entrees including things such as chicken pot pie, ginger beef, tuna melt, a burger, a veggie burger, shrimp skewers, and other options and a small dessert (example: apple crumble with or without ice cream.) Dinner started with a soup or salad starter, a meat dish (rack of lamb, prime rib, beef tenderloin, pork chop), a fish dish (salmon, trout, cod, sole), perhaps a chicken dish, and a vegetarian dish, and dessert (always including a triple chocolate cake and something else.) My favorite lunch was the ginger beef which I ate once each way. For dinner heading eastbound I often had the meat dish. Heading westbound I more often had the fish dish.

Many evenings I joined some friends who had a private cocktail party in their double bedroom (two bedrooms with a folding door between them) at 5pm. I supplied the peanuts.

Bill Schafer would usually organize an afternoon session where folks could show their photos on the television in the game room portion of the Skyline dome for the days we were going across the less conventionally scenic portions of the route. In his absence I tried to get something going in both directions with some minor success. We had one two hour session heading east and two of them heading west.

One of the afternoon sessions we organized

The eastbound train left right on time but often ran up to several hours late due to freight traffic. No one really cared in most cases except that we were late enough in Edmonton that friends Paul O'Neill and Barbara Silsbe who were traveling from there to Winnipeg did not get on in time for dinner, and at Winnipeg we were too late for those who wanted to spend the layover (it's a servicing stop) to explore the town and/or hang out at the bar in the nearby Fort Garry Hotel. Ultimately we were early into Toronto.

They missed dinner the night before but Barbara, Paul, and I had lunch

Once in Toronto (in the afternoon of February 11) I quickly checked in to the Royal York ... right across the street from Union Station. After a long hot shower (as opposed to the shorter hot showers on the train) I met several friends for dinner at a nearby (but not walkable for me) Ruth's Chris ... since I had not had enough beef on the train. :) 

The westbound Canadian backing in to Toronto Union Station

Wednesday morning, February 12, found me crossing the street back to Union Station and checking in for the 9:55am departure of the train back to Vancouver. This time my bedroom was in Bell Manor, one car closer to the diner, and again the train itself was great. The weather, though, was cold...I saw temperatures as low as -23F along the way. Cold weather plays havoc on freight trains and we encountered lots of issues that slowed us down. For instance shortly out of Rivers, MB (in the middle of the night) we stopped for hours because a train ahead of us had outlawed (the crew had exceeded it's legal hours of service and had to be rescued by a new crew.) Then we had to be rescued ourselves because our Via crew outlawed. We'd make up time and then lose time to more freight delays. I think we were eight hours late as we approached Edmonton, but there is a lot of padding at Edmonton so there was a chance we'd pick up a few hours. I awoke briefly at 1am thinking that we'd made good time to the Edmonton station...only to realize (annoyingly) when I awoke again an hour later that we were still near, but not in, Edmonton. The net of all of this is that we arrived in Vancouver 5.75 hours late on February 16. We had a terrific and rare daylight run down the beautiful Fraser River canyon, but it meant that I missed my Plan A flight home. Instead spent the night at the Fairmont at Vancouver Airport where I had a great room with a terrific shower. Dinner was with Roy Wullich again, at  Flying Beaver (recommended by the hotel). Monday morning I boarded my flight to Chicago and onto Pittsburgh arriving home after 10pm Pittsburgh time without incident.

Two shots of the Moonlighters Moon (one day late) over Winnipeg

It was a fun, if tiring, trip...with plenty of time with good friends. It would have been better with Bill and Linda, but it was still a great trip. I'm already thinking about next year. If Bill runs true to course he'll announce things in two short months!