NB Southern Excursion Train

At long last, my post on Saturday's excursion trains.

I took my two youngest kids down to ride NB Southern's 2 PM excursion train. My intent was to meet up with the morning train in Welsford, chase it back to Saint John, have lunch, then ride the train at 2 PM. I arrived in Welsford shortly before 11 and there was no train. I headed down through Grand Bay-Westfield and found it around Sagwa. I chased it back and started shooting. Here it is, arriving at Welsford:


NBSR 2317 provided the power for the caboose 422990 and two of the usual three cars. I'm told one of the cars was in the shop being repaired.

They uncoupled 2317 and ran her down to the west end of the siding (video) then back up to the east end:


Once they coupled up, they were on their way back to Saint John:


I shot them shortly after Welsford at one of my favourite S-curves:


Next, coming up to Westfield Beach with the former CN bridges in the background:


I elected to shoot them at the overpass outside Grand Bay to get an overhead shot.


I left off the chase after that and went to see CN 405 and get some lunch. I went to Dever Road at 13:45 and picked up my tickets and boarded the train. I was surprised to see that there were quite a few empty seats. The three of us commandeered a table and waited for the train to roll.

Soon our conductor Gary came by to tell everyone that we were waiting for the eastbound freight to come into the yard. NBSR 2610 and two other GP38s ended up arriving at the end of the long lead, and we passed them on our way out. The freight had... wait for it... TWO cars.

The trip from Saint John to Welsford was very nice. I was on that trip a few years ago with my oldest son, so I didn't do any videotaping or photography this time around. The trip back to Saint John was done at a considerably higher speed, and we arrived back at about 16:30. The kids and I went up in the engine to blow the horn and ring the bell, then we were on our way home after one last photo.