It's All About The Bridge

After our long Chaleur chase on August 11, we decided to railfan the Napadogan subdivision on Sunday August 12.

First, we went to the NBEC yard in Campbellton to see the eastbound Ocean aka VIA 14. It was headed by VIA 6416 and VIA 6432.

There were a few NBEC units getting the eastbound freight train NBEC 402 ready. The power was two SD40s (CFMG 6907 and NBEC 6900), RS18-3 CFQC 3000, and RS18 NBEC 1819.


Here's the Ocean on the straightaway leaving Campellton.


After the Ocean left, we headed down highway 17 toward St. Leonard. We stopped at the stations in Kedgwick and St. Quentin before arriving at St. Leonard. There was no activity on the scanner and the signals were red at the siding by the border crossing, so we decided to head to Edmundston to see what was going on there.

At 11:30 CN 4760 and another GP38 were in the yard, and I happened to spot MMA 8553 working the Fraser mill across the river in Maine. This was the best shot I could get from across the river.


After some discussion with Bill Linley, we decided that CN 305 would be coming into Edmundston soon, so we headed out to the west end of the St. Basil siding and waited. At noon on the dot CN 305 rolled by with CN 2433 (Dash 8-40CM), CN 5250 (SD40-2W), and IC 6202 (SD40) with 108 cars.




We grabbed a quick lunch and headed for the Salmon River trestle near New Denmark to wait for the next train, CN 149. We had a long, hot wait here. Thank goodness for lawn chairs and sunscreen.

Finally, we heard CN 149 call out the New Denmark station sign (I think) and at 14:50 they rolled across the bridge. They had Dash-9s CN 2570 and CN 2526, with GP38-2 CN 4730 trailing.






We packed up and headed east after that, stopping in Bristol to check out the new station before continuing on to Fredericton. It was a fantastic railfan weekend, one to remember for a long time.