The days of the five serviceable Budd RDCs (Rail Diesel Cars) remaining on VIA Rail Canada’s roster may be numbered. As Siemens Venture equipment displaces the stainless and LRC coaches (and F40s and P42 locomotives) on the Windsor-Quebec City corridor, the aging RDC fleet assigned to train Nos. 185 and 186 between Sudbury and White River, Ontario, will likely become surplus.
If you want to experience the last of VIA’s Budd cars, now is the time to act.
RDC-equipped train Nos. 185 and 186 are lifelines for people living year-round in Ontario’s Algoma District and are supply lines for remote private camps, cottages, and fishing lodges. In the summer months, Nos. 185 and 186 transport as many as 80 to 100 passengers destined for northern adventures with up to 18 canoes loaded aboard the RDC4 along with packs and provisions. The Sudbury RDC fleet is composed of RDC2s Nos. 6217 and 6219, RDC1 No. 6105, and RDC4 No. 6250.
VIA trains Nos. 185 and 186 traverse the Canadian Shield, a geological formation of rock exposed during the last ice age. Riding the train you will witness the solemn beauty of remote lakes, muskeg, rocky outcroppings, and boreal forest. Chasing the train is all but impossible due to extremely limited road access. This is truly a train ride through “God’s country.”
Riding the train is more about the journey rather than the destination. The 300-mile one-way trip traverses two and a half CPKC subdivisions, taking 8 hours. Only snacks are available on board, so it’s best to pack a cooler with food and beverages. With only two motels in White River (population 600), you should book your accommodations before purchasing train tickets.
Expect to meet any number of CPKC freights on the trip as it’s CPKC’s main line between Toronto (and points east) and Western Canada. Numerous sidings, most of which were laid down when the CPR was built, remain and you will pass through division points at Cartier and Chapleau before arriving at White River. On-time performance is attempted, but given the number of freight trains, rare. Expect to travel through deep cuts and atop long fills skirting countless ponds and lakes en route.
Three crew members are aboard. The two enginemen also act as baggage men, loading and unloading packs, canoes, and ATVs. There is no conductor, but the attentive Service Manager checks tickets (hardcopy or phone), assists with boarding, and provides snacks and beverages from a limited menu.
Operation is directed by a CPKC Rail Traffic Controller (dispatcher) from CPKC’s Control Centre in Calgary, Alberta, who controls all three Centralized Traffic Control equipped subdivisions: the Cartier, Nemegos, and White River subs.
The train operates from Sudbury (Downtown, Elgin Street) to White River on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays departing at 9 a.m. and returning from White River at 7 a.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. There is no Monday train. Tickets may be purchased through VIA at www.viarail.ca.
The following basic radio frequencies (Train Standby Channels) will keep you ‘in tune’.
- Cartier Sub: 161.535
- Nemegos Sub: 160.815
- White River Sub: 161.115
Cool stuff!!
Rode the BC Rail RDC’s from N. Van to Prince George summer of 1990 (or was it 1991?). Fantastic ride. This was when the Indigenous Tribes were protesting and blockading the tracks. North of Lillooet the trani of 3-5 RDCs came to an abrupt halt in the middle of nowhere. Turns out a local tribe had set up a blockade across the tracks. They wanted everyone to get off the train and listen to their speech, so we all complied. I climbed up a nearby hill and got a great shot of the train, the blockade and the crowd. After the speech we got back on the train and continued on our merry way. When we got to PG, we were informed that tomorrow’s SB was being annulled and we’d bus back to N Van, major bummer.
I sent the slide to Trains, they declined to publish and said they had other “similar” shots. Yet, I never saw a photo published in Trains Mag of a PASSENGER train getting stopped by “Injuns” (Who’d a thunk it in the 20th Century?)
The Budd railcar service from Sudbury to White River has been a long-standing part of life in Ontario’s Sudbury and Algoma Districts. I’ve used it many times when I was living in northern Ontario. It’s a fixture that has changed little from its former CPR days to today’s Via service. There is an excellent YouTube video, done by TV Ontario, that documents the entire run from Sudbury to White River: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tztis9fKMiI
First question: Why isn’t Amtrak buying Siemens cab cars (as in the VIA photo above), for trains like the Hiawatha that don’t turn. (Maybe some are on order but I’ve not heard.)
Second question: Much as we all love RDCs (count me as their biggest fan – I grew up in New Haven Railroad territory), how is it that the unions didn’t get them outlawed decades ago. There’s something like zero protection for the crew in event of a crash. Reminds me of the old Vee-Dub vans from the 1960’s … it was said that the driver’s legs were the front bumper.
Amazing country, if you want to have fun go, it’s an adventure and yes weed is legal. Please be responsible.
Check out TV Ontario’s Tripping Train 185, a 3 hour special riding on Train 185 from Sudbury to White River. You experience the trip from the perspective of the 3 staff and the passengers. You hear all the conversations with the Calgary control centre as well. Bonus – no ads for the whole 3 hours!
https://www.tvo.org/video/documentaries/tripping-train-185-full-documentary
JOKE WARNING!!!!!
“Officially designated VIA 6450 East, the Budd RDC train waits at the east end of Aubrey siding near the ‘pot signal’ for the passage of two CPKC freights. ”
A pot signal? Wow…that is so cool! Is it okay to light up there???
Sorry…been living in California way too long….
It is legal up here in Canada.
I DO hope that these two end up in preservation….somewhere….
“Three crew members are aboard. The two enginemen also act as baggage men, loading and unloading packs, canoes, and RVs.“
RVs on a RDC?
That has been corrected to ATVs.