Saguenay part three

Here are the lockers inside the station:

And here is me trying to put a Loonie into it:

So clearly these lockers have been disabled. I believe there ought to have been a key in one of the two lock slots that allows for the door to be opened to then put in the Loonie to then release the key, but all of the keys were removed. I figured out the likely reason as the day progressed; here is the interior of the station on the Via Rail side of it, including even a baggage door that I could have used had there been an employee:

So with the service desk closed, and with the café on the other side closing at 15h, there is no one to assist with these lockers should there be a problem with them and they would be inaccessible after 15h. So as a result, after having breakfast at the Auberge and packed up and given the guy there my key, I walked to the station to learn that I would have to have my backpack with me the whole day until the train was to leave at 22h50.

It turns out that adjacent to the station was Parc Jean-Allard which I had not yet explored. As it was so close I didn't mind carrying my backpack with me to check it out. The park ended up being a steep hill that had steps to gain access to the top, from which a large part of the town of Jonquiere can be seen.

From there, since I had many hours to pass, I walked to the Riviere aux Sables, there is a path that runs along the river and more or less where rue Ouellet joins the path there was a bench with a tree that put the bench in shade and would have kept it in shade until the evening. So I sat there and read my book for three hours. I could just barely make out the water from where I was sitting, as can be seen in the first photo.

While sitting on the bench, there were quite a number of people walking in either direction, pretty much all of whom I would exchange 'Bonjour' with.

At around 12h30 I left this spot and went back to the station, to the café side and ordered a drink and a poutine, although they didn't have poutine sauce so there was BBQ sauce put on it instead. Then I hung out inside the station until at around 15h30 I was kicked out as they were locking it up. It was during this time that I finished the book I was reading; I've made a note that if I was to do this again I would bring books that add up to 700+ pages as this trip, the two books I had came close to only ~450 pages.

I spent the remaining time on a bench outside the station in the shade, and then on the platform where the train would arrive.

And then at around 22h30 our train pulled in:

It was only the engine at the front, a baggage car in the middle, and a single passenger car at the end. The passenger car could likely have seated 80 passengers at capacity, but we were only six getting on in Jonquiere and at maximum 18 as more passengers got on before others got off. When there were no Via employees nearby I snuck into the baggage car and took these two photos:

I haven't any idea what all of the equipment on the left side is for, but to see how enormous this is from the inside without hardly anything in it was pretty amazing. Moments later a Via employee told me that this part of the train was for employees only and so I left immediately.

We left on time at 22h50 and I managed to sleep for perhaps an hour or maybe 90 minutes but I was simply too uncomfortable. I ended up re-reading a book I had on my mobile device and eventually watched the sky brighten. At Hervey Junction the Senneterre train was to join ours, however, it was delayed by perhaps half an hour. Where it joined us we were in CN Yards and there was a freight train ready to go. So we waited to see if it would go in front of us, but it did not end up leaving, and sixty minutes later we ended up leaving ahead of the freight train. The Via worker then let us know that now our arrival would be at 11h45; but we ended up accelerating along the way and we pulled in at 11h20. I then took public transit home and after unpacking, had a nice long nap.

Outside of summer season the trains run through the day, rather than through the night, so if I was to do this trip again, I would go outside of summer season. Here is the schedule of arrivals and departures when not on the summer revised schedule:

I did quite enjoy the experience, I built over 100 Resource mines while I was there and there was plenty of room to build more.

I did not end up seeing that ePlancul woman at all and broke the news to her that we could move to WhatsApp or I would reduce to one message per day through ePlancul. As predicted, she was not happy about this at all; but I certainly wasn't happy that I expected to meet her in person while there and this didn't happen. So I suggested to her that I would certainly be willing to go back to Saguenay by train, only I couldn't afford to pay for lodging a second time this year and would ask to stay with her. In turn I also invited her to take the train to come and visit me and I would be happy to host her in my apartment.

So overall, apart from not meeting her, I thought it was a great trip, even if my credit card didn't seem to work there. I would be happy to do it again.