November 1, 2003

After dropping my son off at bowling, I decided to go to McAdam to see what was going on. When I arrived at 10:45, there was no activity at all. I spent some time wandering around the yard, recording car numbers and taking a few photographs to amuse myself. For example, NB Southern caboose 434919 was there, as well as some NBSR maintenance-of-way (MOW) equipment such as crane 151014, flatcars 301131, 303024, and 421009, and ballast car 455237.





Time grew short to pick my son up, so I gave up and headed back to Fredericton. As I descended the hill in Harvey Station at 11:20, I heard a horn blowing for the railway crossing. A westbound NB Southern freight blasted through, led by NBSR 9802, NBSR 3700 and HLCX 3669 and featuring 28 CN gypsum cars (total of 33 cars). I didn't have a chance to grab any good video of the train but I enjoyed the sight nevertheless. Since I was out of time, I couldn't turn around and head back to McAdam.

At least I saw something!

As a side note, NBSR 3700 ran for another year before succumbing to a major drive shaft failure. It was gutted in late summer 2006 to provide an engine for NBSR 9803. At about the same time, HLCX 3669 left Saint John, presumably returning to Helm Leasing. 3669 had been leased to NB Southern until around the fall of 2005, and it had been idle in NBSR's Dever Road yard until its departure on October 19, 2006.