Ontario Northland's Station Inn is literally part of the train station in Cochrane, Ontario. For those traveling by train on the Ontario Northland Railway between Toronto and Moosonee, it is inevitable that a night must be spent in Cochrane.

I was scheduled to arrive in Cochrane around 10:00 p.m. one Thursday evening in early May. Ontario Northland's Polar Bear Express [sic] was, however, a little over four hours late leaving Moosonee and a little over six hours late arriving in Cochrane. (While local reports in Moosonee had confirmed that the train's arrivals and departures have been a little bit more predictable during the last few months, this kind of delay has apparently been pretty common in recent years.)

When I checked into the hotel at 4:30 a.m. I requested (with some reluctance) a 7:00 a.m. wake up call in order to prepare myself for the (scheduled) 8:00 a.m. train departure for Toronto. I settled into my bed a little before five to catch the elusive two... more