tjmfishing sent me some great photos of his grandfather's retirement in Campbellton, NB. Leslie Main retired on June 9, 1982 and appears to have had a good sendoff.
They are standing in front of RS-18 CN 3624. Note the CN transfer caboose in the background on the left. Leslie is the one in the blue hat looking down at the papers in his hand.
Leslie at the controls. Note the data on the side of the locomotive.
CN 3624 was built between 1956 and 1958 by the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) as class MR-18b. The 18 indicates 1800 horsepower. The data 75-65/18 indicates that the maximum speed was 75 MPH and 65:18 indicates the gearing on the traction motors.
David Othen shot CN 3624 in Halifax several times in 1973.
Ron Leblanc indicated that 3624 was involved in an accident shortly before the 1982 photos were taken and was repainted. CN 3624 was leased to CP Rail between April and July 1987, and was retired on July 30, 1992.
I went out on Thursday (March 11) to shoot the Canadian. I decided to head west on Wilkes Avenue to get a little away from my normal shooting area. Variety is good, right?
There were some MOW crews at work on the north track around miles 8-10, including a pickup with a guy doing some grinding, ballast regulator 613-70, and another vehicle further east. They must have been wrapping things up, because the regulator and the other vehicle headed east at speed. See how fast this guy was going!
I waited in the mud for the Canadian to show. Soon enough, he passed me at mile 8-something. View train consist. Prince Albert Park brought up the markers.
"Back in the day", McGivney, NB was a happening place. It was where the CN Miramichi subdivision (McGivney - Newcastle) and the CN Nashwaak subdivision (McGivney - Fredericton) met the CN Napadogan subdivision (Moncton - Edmundston). Freight and passenger trains rolled through on the Napadogan sub, while local freights went north and south on the other two subdivisions. In time, the Miramichi and Nashwaak subdivisions were abandoned, and all that remains is the Napadogan subdivision with its occasional freight trains.
Danny McCracken noted that the book "History of Boiestown" says the last passenger train between Newcastle and Fredericton returned on January 19, 1961 with CN RDC-3 D354.
Here are a few shots of passenger trains that called on McGivney.
At one time the Napadogan subdivision hosted RDC service. On August 28, 1976 David Morris shot train 619 at McGivney. For whatever reason, this particular train had conventional power on the head end with an RDC on the tail end.
CN 3617 (RS-18)
CN 15424 (steam generator)
CN 5382 (coach)
CN 6200 (RDC-2)
I find it strange that there was a steam generator car on the train in August!
For about six months, VIA ran the Ocean over the Napadogan subdivision due to a landslide in Quebec. David caught train 14 at McGivney on February 12, 1977.
6536 (FP9A)
6632 (F9B)
6534 (FP9A)
9626 (baggage)
9483 (baggage-dormitory)
5434 (coach)
5583 (coach)
5644 (coach)
757 (cafe-lounge)
5705 (Dayniter)
1343 (diner)
SOIREE
1178 (sleeper GREENBRIER)
1166 (sleeper GREENING)
Since the cessation of passenger service on the Napadogan, the only passenger trains that can be seen at McGivney are the occasional Ocean detours. David and I shot the westbound Ocean, VIA 15, on July 10, 2005.
I shot the eastbound Ocean at the west end of McGivney siding on September 14, 2008.
This may be one of my last photos of VIA 6400, given its involvement in the recent derailment.
Who knows? Maybe groups like Transport Action can get the various levels of government to increase passenger rail service in New Brunswick, and McGivney could get regular passenger service again. Hope springs eternal!
Myrailfan.com has a great list of VIA F40 engines and their disposition. It was being kept up to date but there is a note at the top that seems to indicate it will no longer be updated. Still, it's a useful reference.
After all the blog-changing excitement of the weekend, it's back to trains again. Today I went to Waverley Street here in Winnipeg to try to shoot VIA's Hudson Bay train. I didn't see it, but I did see this CN westbound freight.
Just east of Waverley Street, a CN maintenance of way (MOW) crew were doing some welding on what appeared to be the crossover switch points. As the freight approached at 12:15, they took position on both sides to give it the proper rollby inspection. CN 2231 and old warhorse 5295 pulled a dog's breakfast of cars behind them.
Normally I stand on the south side of the tracks in this area, to have the sun behind me. However, since it was overcast, I elected to stand on the north side of the tracks to get a different viewpoint.
On March 2 a train (VIA 300) went up the Montmagny subdivision to the VIA derailment site at St-Charles, Quebec, to bring the damaged train back to Montreal. The cars they brought were to provide braking power for the train, as they can't trust the damaged train to have proper brake connections. The train had ex-GO 521 for power, with Chateau Closse, and coaches 8132 and 8112.
At the time, all the damaged cars were on the track, with VIA 6400 coupled onto the Skyline facing east and VIA 6457 a couple of cars further facing west.
Ron Pelletier reported that VIA 303 left Joffre at 21:30 on March 3 heading west to Montreal, with the entire train. They had to proceed at a maximum of 20 MPH and stop and inspect every hour.
Canadian Pacific Railway had a derailment west of Golden, BC on March 3. It was reported (Golden Star) that an eastbound (empty) grain train and a westbound potash train collided at 3:14 PM local time.
This photo shows two locomotives on the ground, including one on its side. One of the locos involved is CP 8628, and someone mentioned Olympic unit CP 8874 was also involved. If you browse through the album, you can see the extent of the accident.
Fortunately, the crew sustained only minor injuries. There was a small fire in the area, because the derailment took out the propane tank for the switch heater. The Golden fire department contained the fire. There was a small amount of diesel fuel spilled. You can see a fair amount of potash on the ground in the photos.
Another news report said "An eastbound freight hauling empty grain cars clipped a westbound train carrying potash."
What an age we live in. If you step back and look at the progress made in photography in the past 15 years, it's amazing, isn't it?
Apple and Kodak were among the first in digital photography with their first consumer digital cameras, the Apple QuickTake 100 in 1993, and the Kodak DC40. Both had less than half a megapixel resolution. My dad used to carry around a clunky digital camera that could record images on a 3.5" floppy disk.
A decade and a half later, it is embarrassing to have a CELLPHONE with that kind of resolution. A quick browse of FutureShop or other web sites shows that 10 megapixel pocket cameras sell for $99.
Storage has improved with the improvements in digital camera technology. I remember paying about $100 for a 64MB Sony Memory Stick back in 2002 for my video camera. Now you can get a 16 GB Memory Stick PRO
for half the price... 512 times the memory in 8 years. Secure Digital (SD) cards are the most common technology and you can find 4GB SD cards for $15 or less.
One thing you MUST keep in mind is that you get what you pay for, as always. These el-cheapo memory cards may have that storage, but they are not very fast. To give you an example, I purchased a pair of Kodak 4GB SD cards at the Wal-Mart photo studio a month or so ago for $25 or so. These "made in Korea" cards are fine for storage, but they are not fast cards.
SD cards are often rated as a number followed by an X. For example, "16x". This page does a great job explaining what it means. It boils down to a multiple of 150 KB/s, so a 16x card can handle 2.4 megabytes/s.
My Canon S3 is rated at about 1.5 frames per second continuous shooting. A decent SD card can keep up with that. However, these Kodak cards cannot. I typically shoot passenger trains on continuous shooting so I can record every car number. I noticed it on Tuesday when I was shooting the Hudson Bay that I kept seeing "BUSY" on the screen when I was blasting away. Basically the camera kept having to wait for the card to finish.
You can see it on this BNSF video. It looks like it is snowing, but it is not. That is digital noise, caused by the card not being able to store the video fast enough.
Let's do the math. Each full resolution JPEG coming out of my camera is about 2.7M in size, on average. Shooting at 1.5 frames per second, that is just over 4 megabytes/second. This would require about a 27x card. These el-cheapo Kodaks are clearly no more than 16x speed and cannot keep up.
Needless to say, these Kodak SD cards are going to be used in the Wii or other low speed applications, and I'll go back to my older, faster card. It's only 2 GB but it is fast enough for my camera.
is rated at about 1.5 frames per second continuous shooting. A decent SD card can keep up with that. However, these Kodak cards cannot. I typically shoot passenger trains on continuous shooting so I can record every car number. I noticed it 
Posts
