Steve and Dave's Excellent Gaspe Adventure (part 1)

David woke up at 05:00 Atlantic and called VIA to see if the Chaleur and/or Ocean were on time. The Chaleur was on time but the Ocean was almost 2 hours late. If they were both on or nearly on time, we would have shot them both at Matapedia, but as it was we could not afford to wait for the Ocean.

After a quick stop at Tim's to load up for the long chase, we headed to Matapedia in the dim light. The Chaleur arrived shortly after we did at 04:59 Eastern (all times from in Quebec will be in local time), so we shot it on the bridge approaching the station. You can see that the light was kind of sketchy.


We took a number of shots at the station and across the river from the New Brunswick side. A few of the station shots worked out but the ones from New Brunswick didn't work for me.


We set up on the bridge at the end of Highway 11 and he rolled under at 05:36. The light was BEAUTIFUL as he accelerated away from us to start his long journey up the Peninsula. The warm sunrise glinted off the sides of the stainless steel cars... just lovely. Here's a shot of him approaching the bridge but I just shot video with the nice sun... stay tuned.


The next catch was a highway crossing at 06:01.


We shot it at the side of the road at 06:15 but the light wasn't that great there.

There was a cliffside shot we bungled. David couldn't find the location on the top of the cliff where he shot from, so I had to content myself with taping the train through a rock cut. David did find his spot but too late for me to relocate.

We left route 132 and zipped up route 299 to Cascapedia to get him crossing the two bridges there at 07:20. We took a few quick going-away shots, then drove to the crossing and shot him again as he slowly crossed the bridges. I think they turned out very well.


Next... New Richmond and beyond.