
I caught them again at Bentley Street:


From the chatter on the radio it sounded like they would have to wait for another maintainer to finish putting some ballast on the tracks before they could proceed to Island Yard.
Speaking of Island Yard, CN 2573, 5559 and 5621 were parked in the yard while CN 7079 and NBSR 3701 did some shunting.

Radio chatter indicated that NB Southern would be sending a ballast train out at 3 PM.
Later in the day, I saw the CN 305 power over at the Courtenay Bay potash terminal. The smokestacks in the background are for the Courtenay Bay power plant, with the short one being the stack for the Bayside gas turbine.

I thought I would try an overhead shot from the Courtenay Bay causeway, so I parked nearby and walked over. I do not recommend this location, as it is not safe. There is no walkway and cars are zipping by at a good clip. Since I was there, I took the shot, but I will not return there again.


Over on the west side, NBSR 3703 was doing some shunting at the west end of the yard. To my surprise, they had CN caboose 79624 with them. I had seen this caboose deep in the yard before, but I never had a chance to take a photo until now. I assume the caboose was there to provide additional braking power for 3703.

It's in pretty good shape, considering.

As I left Saint John, I heard someone say they were cutting one engine out of a consist to use as the ballast train's power. They were taking 10 cars out (+1 = a caboose?) and wouldn't be on the road until at least 15:30, which was too late for me. The eastbound freight was just getting into McAdam at 16:00.
Here's a little clip of 3703 I took with my Canon.
2 comments:
I always liked NBSR 3703. If you look closely, you'll see that the front of the cab has the semi-circular windows characteristic of pre-1950 EMD switchers. It may well be an SW1200, but what is the unit's heritage? Is it an NW2 rebuild? Did it have a replacement cab from an early unit?
According to the Canadian Trackside Guide, 3703 was originally Pennsy 7928, built in April 1958. It became Penn Central 9028 in 1968, then Conrail 9347 in 1975, then sold to Andrew Merrilees in 1996 before coming to NB Southern in the same year. I have a photo of 3702 in Conrail blue working on NBSR before it was repainted.
There is one photo of Conrail 9372 (now 3702) on Railpictures.
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