Canadian Adventure: Trinity Loop Newfoundland 2001...

I can't remember where I saw it, but I'd read somewhere that there some ex CN items at the abandoned Trinity Loop amusement park on the Bona-vista peninsular...

It was the morning of the 17/9 when Dad and I headed off down the road to find the park, not sure what we'd find. It was like a ghost town, even then vandalised, but not much graffiti. The weather had done more damage, with some of the loop washed out and the ballast certainly looking a little 'worse for wear'. If you do a Google search, things have got somewhat worse in the 20 years since my visit. 

This struck me as the perfect location for a railway museum, with a beautiful run around the lake... why it ended up as a cheesy 1970s feeling abandoned amusement park is a bit of a shame. Imagine a 4-6-2 pacific or one of the characterful diesels running passenger trains around the lake with a decent museum of non working items? I guess, not only did Newfoundland lack enough tourism in the 1980s for this to transpire, the peninsular was somewhat off the beaten track! 

A 40' box car had been turned into a tase, the other wise was cut away IIRC...

There was a GMD G8, which although a little tatty, looked like it would have fired up and run across the trestle at the flick of a switch... The bunting is somewhat incongruous - it seemed as if the park had just shut up shop and everything was left as it had been years before... 

So this is the end of my Canadian slides, I hope they've been of interest. It's been a trip down memory lane for me digging through the collection. In this closing slide I've climbed up on the G8 and you can see our lovely Toyota hire car in the background. I do miss these adventures, and I wonder in today's world whether I'll ever be able to take my children on such wonderful holidays. I was incredibly lucky to visit these areas and see such wondrous and different landscapes, experience different cultures and spend such quality time with my parents, especially my Dad. These long drives and holidays, with me pretty much 'an adult' really cememted our already close relationship. At the time you don't realise just how important proper road trip holidays can be... we had a loose plan and some hotels booked but the internet was in it's infancy - you really just turned up and found a motel. This relaxed way of travelling added something that I worry has been lost in the western world, taking ways some of that flexibility. If we'd had a hotel booked perhaps we wouldn't have visited some of these places, certainly we'd never have got the ferry to Labrador, or visited Prince Edward Island. So enough rambling, I guess what I'm saying is enjoy and savour these experiences, and reminisce and remember those you've taken. Share them and hope to inspire others... more soon...