All NBEC All The Time

I got up a bit early Friday morning so I could visit the Bathurst yard and see what the yard power was. I snapped the scanner on at 0700 and was surprised to hear that a train was shunting. It had to be 587, the train to the smelter at Belledune. Sure enough, NBEC 1821 and 1868 were doing the final few moves before heading out.

The train had two open hoppers filled with some kind of blue gravel, one tank car, and 15 blue NBEC ore cars.

They left at 07:10 and I was able to get ahead of them to catch them at Beresford at 07:20, although I only had time to videotape them hand-held.

Then I caught them at Madran coming around the bend at 07:40.


I gave up the chase after that. Later, I was out route 430 when I heard train 597 (the Bathurst shunter) working at UPM Bathurst on the Nepisiguit sub at 10:00.

As I left the Bathurst area at 11:55, I heard NBEC 6903 East getting clearance to leave Bathurst. As I approached Miramichi, I planned to get some lunch at DQ, grab a few shots of the yard power and then hit the road for Fredericton, as I was short on time.

With lunch in hand, I was heading back to the yard when I heard 6903 East call the Miramichi yard limits. That was a fast trip! I managed to get to the VIA station, get my video camera out of the car, and shoot them as they passed the station. CFMG 6903... CFMG 6902... 86' boxcar... WTF? That was it - NBEC 402 had one car in their train.

Oh, NBEC 6900 was in the yard and 1814 and 1818 were the new yard power. I took this well-lit shot that Railpictures liked.