Newfoundland T'Railway

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NuggyBuggy

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My brother-in-law is planning to do the trip on his ATV and I've committed to going at the end of August. I plan to ride. Anybody done this on a dirt bike?

There's a few websites about doing it by ATV but next to no mention of dirt bikes. I considered buying a blue-platable bike but now am thinking to just save the money and ride my current green-plated dirt bike. I assume that's not a problem. We'll be trailering vehicles to the ferry, taking the long ferry overnight (cabin booked) and the shorter ferry on the way home.

Any advice or experiences would be gladly welcomed.
 
Any plated and insured ORV (Off-Road Vehicle) is allowed on the T'Railway, but if you're not a resident of Newfoundland, you need to purchase a Provincial Park Non-Resident Pass:

trailway.ca

Home | Newfoundland T'Railway's 883-Kilometre Trail Network

In 1988, the Newfoundland railway line ceased operations, marking the end of an era in transportation history. Our trails cover more than 883 kilometers.
trailway.ca trailway.ca

$100 + tax + $5 handling fee
 
NuggyBuggy said:
My brother-in-law is planning to do the trip on his ATV and I've committed to going at the end of August. I plan to ride. Anybody done this on a dirt bike?

There's a few websites about doing it by ATV but next to no mention of dirt bikes. I considered buying a blue-platable bike but now am thinking to just save the money and ride my current green-plated dirt bike. I assume that's not a problem. We'll be trailering vehicles to the ferry, taking the long ferry overnight (cabin booked) and the shorter ferry on the way home.

Any advice or experiences would be gladly welcomed.
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A trucker friend used to haul on the ferry. It could be nasty.

 
Lightcycle said:
Any plated and insured ORV (Off-Road Vehicle) is allowed on the T'Railway, but if you're not a resident of Newfoundland, you need to purchase a Provincial Park Non-Resident Pass:

trailway.ca

Home | Newfoundland T'Railway's 883-Kilometre Trail Network

In 1988, the Newfoundland railway line ceased operations, marking the end of an era in transportation history. Our trails cover more than 883 kilometers.
trailway.ca trailway.ca

$100 + tax + $5 handling fee
Click to expand...
Have you done this trip @Lightcycle ? Any advice? BIL wants to stay in hotels so no need to camp.

I have to say don’t like idea of leaving a light weight dirt bike overnight at hotels, even if I chain it up.
 
nobbie48 said:
A trucker friend used to haul on the ferry. It could be nasty.

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I've spent a lot of time as a younger man on the water, both on draggers and off shore rigs. the swell can be huge to the point that I've heard the bow of the ship flexing it's muscles
 
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NuggyBuggy said:
Have you done this trip @Lightcycle ? Any advice? BIL wants to stay in hotels so no need to camp.

I have to say don’t like idea of leaving a light weight dirt bike overnight at hotels, even if I chain it up.
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No, we've done cross-Newfoundland on ADV bikes, but not on the T'Railway. That looks really interesting. Looking forward to your ride report!

For our multi-day (month) trips on dirtbikes, how we secured the bikes was to run a thick cable lock through the frame of both bikes combined with disc-locks. The cable and locks should be small and light enough to stash in a tailbag somewhere without taking too much space.

It won't stop someone with an angle-grinder, but hopefully you'll hear that in the middle of the night. It should be enough to deter opportunistic dirtbags from wheeling the bikes away.
 
I've been on both legs of the ferry multiple times over the years. I can't recall a real bad crossing (other than my sea sickness, behind the ear transdermal patch FTW), plenty of times its rolling but never fearful. I've only ever done them in summer. Don't let a possible rough crossing stop you, just strap down extra on trailer.
As far as the trail, 1 rode a couple of km in/out near Badger on my KLR 15yrs ago and near town it was well kept, some deeper rutting from ATV's in a couple of spots and plenty of washboard. Enjoy the trip.

The ride the rock forum looks like its dead/forgotten.
There appears to be an active FB page you could get more local info from

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There's a pretty detailed page here about it:

Crossing NL by ATV Home including quite a few videos.

I messaged the guy and he said you can do it on dirt bikes.

I just booked my ferry passage yesterday. My BIL was nagging me to get this done because he says the ferry books fast. It was $170 round trip. Trip from North Sydney to Argentia is about 18h I think. Then return trip from Port aux Basques is about 8 hours. Both bookings are overnighters.

And he wasn't wrong about ferry booking fast - the booking agent chuckled and warned me that it will be busy - very busy. All cabins were already booked. My BIL is sort of OCD about planning so he had already booked a cabin a long time ago, so the $170 I paid was just for the cheapest passage including the bike. I will just crash in his cabin unless he snores (likely, if he's anything like his sister) in which case I'll bring an inflatable travel pillow and find a seat somewhere to nap.

We'll be parking trailer on the mainland so I won't be able to lash my bike to it in case of rough seas. Maybe they'll let me fasten it to my brother's ATV, but I assume bikes will park separately from larger vehicles. I almost wonder whether I ought to just lay the bike down myself on the ferry as a preemptive measure if they don't have ways to secure bikes. I should have asked the agent. Maybe they have tie down spots? Chocks?
EDIT: Seems the standard is to use tie down straps against points that should be available.

The nice thing about my BIL being OCD - he's doing all the planning and booking. I just need to pay my money and show up.
 
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Three buddies rode that T rail a few years ago. It's fine on an ATV but was hell on the bikes. There's two well worn tire tracks with bush encroaching on both sides. You either ride grassy crowned knoll in the center which can be tough or you ride in the wheel track with the BarkBusters wanting to get tangled up in the brush. They won't do it again.

Part 4 of the Crossing NL 2018 video at 4.18 shows what they were running through.
 
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The narrowness of the trail doesn't look so bad to me, but I appreciate the personal experience.

It's the rockiness of that section looks like it could be a pain, if it goes on for hours and hours - hard to tell if it's a a short stretch or not. But the video isn't so clear as to whether that was a side trip or the trail proper - the caption describes "stops a grant quarry".

And obviously having to go deep in water as they do in one part when the water level was higher is much easier on an ATV than on a bike. Let alone how much easier ATVs are to ride than a bike.

I'm gonna touch base with the guy who runs that site... he said it's doable but the videos are conspicuous in the complete absence of bike.

If it's as miserable as your buddies suggest - maybe I do it on an ATV. As sick as that idea makes me.

My other worry - my BIL drives his truck like an old lady . Never been on trails with him but I have to believe he's even worse there. LOL.
 
NuggyBuggy said:
It's the rockiness of that section looks like it could be a pain, if it goes on for hours and hours - hard to tell if it's a a short stretch or not. But the video isn't so clear as to whether that was a side trip or the trail proper - the caption describes "stops a grant quarry".
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If you're on proper dirt bikes, shouldn't be a problem. Kinda looks like fun.

A heavy-weight ADV bike would take some muscling though. At least with my skill (or lack thereof) level.

I glanced at the T'railway map and it looks like there are pretty regular bail-out points that meet back up with the main, paved road, where if you encounter a section that is too gnarly (or impassable because of flooding) you can backtrack, skip that section and then get back on the T'railway a ways up.

I think because you're a mixed couple (ATV + dirtbike), you may have difficulty keeping together when each vehicle encounters "features" that challenge either 4 wheels or 2. We spent a few weeks in Colorado doing high-alpine trails, together with jeeps and ATVs. On the gnarlier sections, we were flying by the 4-wheelers, picking the easiest line for single-track vehicles. Meanwhile, the jeeps had their spotters out of the cars directing. On the water crossings, they motored through and we had to walk our bikes through lakes when the levels were uncomfortably close to our airbox and the terrain beneath the water was unknown.

If you're both stopping and waiting for each other, may make for very long days.
 
Lightcycle said:
If you're on proper dirt bikes, shouldn't be a problem. Kinda looks like fun.
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Looks like fun, yes, but for me anyways- in moderation. If it's - say - four hours of that stuff straight - that would be exhausting. But I couldn't tell how much of that was the main railway and how much of that was a side stop. OTOH, I see reports about people doing the Railway on bicycles. I think we're looking at maybe a week of 4-6 hour days - I may need to consider getting into better riding shape.

I did find at least one reddit post that bears out @timtune 's buddies' reports about overgrowth causing problems if you're forced to ride in one of the side tire-tracks. I have to do some research on those bailout points... also found reddit posts about people backing out due to deep mud to the TCH, but that guy was on a dual sport.

Watching some of those videos it's clear you're right about mixed vehicles. I have no question that if it were like average single-track - say like one might see in Simcoe county - I'm going to be way ahead of my BIL, and I'm not even counting the fact that he probably drives like a turtle. One of those videos shows the ATVs riding through the shallows of a high-water-level lake. No problem for the ATVs in the video, but my thoughts were running to what it'd be like walking the bike, how long it looks like I'd have to walk it if water levels were that high, and how wet my socks were going to be. LOL.




Lightcycle said:
A heavy-weight ADV bike would take some muscling though. At least with my skill (or lack thereof) level.

I glanced at the T'railway map and it looks like there are pretty regular bail-out points that meet back up with the main, paved road, where if you encounter a section that is too gnarly (or impassable because of flooding) you can backtrack, skip that section and then get back on the T'railway a ways up.

I think because you're a mixed couple (ATV + dirtbike), you may have difficulty keeping together when each vehicle encounters "features" that challenge either 4 wheels or 2. We spent a few weeks in Colorado doing high-alpine trails, together with jeeps and ATVs. On the gnarlier sections, we were flying by the 4-wheelers, picking the easiest line for single-track vehicles. Meanwhile, the jeeps had their spotters out of the cars directing. On the water crossings, they motored through and we had to walk our bikes through lakes when the levels were uncomfortably close to our airbox and the terrain beneath the water was unknown.

If you're both stopping and waiting for each other, may make for very long days.
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I was in NFLD last year on my KTM adventure last year for about 3 weeks. There's a couple things to consider about riding a real dirt bike across the island on the railway right-of-way.

The railway was built to open up remote areas of the island to economic activity like mining and forestry. Those original destinations have been economically played out in many cases so most of the population is gone. Given that purpose, the railway travels through some pretty desolate areas because railway builders need to take the path of least resistance and looking at the map online confirms that. This means the trail itself is kind of boring (my opinion) on a motorcycle, and probably less than enjoyable on a proper dirt bike. It doesn't spend much time along the coast, but those vistas are beautiful.

When I was there I was taken back by how spread out the settlements were and how desolate it was between them. Cell service wasn't a given, even on the trans canada so it will be worse on the trail.

There's plenty of people who ride the trail on ADV bikes and dual sports and there's a website that gives detailed planning advice focused on ATV riders. Personally I'd probably go with a dual sport with a larger accessory tank as it would be a bit more comfortable.

Zac Kuyrluk at ADVRider wrote a 3 part article about riding in NFLD. The linked one includes his ferry riding experience and links to the other 2 parts.
 
xrljoel said:
This means the trail itself is kind of boring (my opinion) on a motorcycle,
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All rail trails by their very nature are devoid of sharp curves or dramatic elevation changes. That said they likely have some fun bits that squirt off adjacent to them.
 
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