Iain Leitch Photography

 The second day aboard train number 14 the Ocean, started off quite eventfully. I woke up around 5:30am to the emergency brakes going off. I didn't really think much of it and figured that we had stopped due to a broken-down freight train in front of us. Instead, it turns out part of the rail was broken in half.  This meant that we could not move forwards, or backwards because we might derail. So after a very long wait and a lot of back and forth between CN and VIA, they decide to move all the passengers to the back half of the train and try to move the front half of the train over the broken rail at 1km/h. This worked, which meant that once the first half went over the broken rail, the train stopped, all of the passengers moved to the front of the train and we moved the back half of the train over the fractured rail at 1km/h. After that eventful morning, we finally got moving again around 12:30pm. This was about a 7.5-hour delay which meant we did not get into Halifax until 3...

Recently my girlfriend and I went on a 9 day trip out to the Canadian province of Nova Scotia "Canada's Ocean Playground". Instead of flying, we decide to take the train from Ottawa to Montreal to Halifax. We did this for a couple of reasons. 1. I had Via Rail Preference points that basically covered the whole trip. 2. It's better than being trapped on a plane, and 3. You get to see more of the country.  The first picture is taken on train 26 going from Ottawa to Montreal. This is probably one of the few cars in the Windsor-Quebec City corridor that haven't been updated to the new seats.  Inside Montreals station, showing the depatrue and arrival board. Our next trail is train number 14 to Halifax. We had opted for a cabin for 2 with a shower. This put us in a Renaissance sleeper car, which I found quite comfortable. This is also my first time in a Renaissance car overall, which made this quite exciting. This photo shows the cabin in the daytime configuration, wit...

On my most recent walk around Ottawa, I was quite pleased to find a lot of bees buzzing around some wild trout lilies. This is a sure sign that spring is here to stay (hopefully I didn't just curse it). Trout Lily Trout Lily with Bee Cedar Waxwing  Red Squirrel Interesting Green Bug (will update once ID is confirmed)  

Recently I went for a walk by the Rideau River here in Ottawa and got some pictures of the first spring animals out and about this year. Groundhog Above its Borrow Song Sparrow in a Tree Red-Winged Blackbird Basking in the Sun Eastern Chipmonk  A couple of Wood Ducks Golden-Crowned Kinglet Golden-Crowned Kinglet  

During a walk at Oschmann Forest Conservation Area, I spotted some White-breasted Nuthatches and a Downy Woodpecker.  This is quite a nice forest to walk in, as it is a working maple syrup forest that the conservation authority runs for education purposes.  This is a small loop trail through the forest that is about 1.2km long which makes it a great afternoon escape from the city.