We discovered NBSR 9803 and 2612 leaving the Dever Road yard just before noon, so we went across Reversing Falls and shot them coming through the bridge. My son Nick took these two photos:
I particularly like the going-away shot.
We followed them down past Harbour Station and they stopped just short of Island Yard, as both tracks into the yard were blocked by cars. I talked with the very friendly crew and they told me that CN 405 was coming down to get their cars.
We decided to go have lunch. After that, I went to Island Yard to find 405 but they weren't there. Scanner chatter showed they were just leaving Courtenay Bay, so after a little driving we got some poor shots of them going by Staples into Island Yard. We decided the best course of action was to go to Valley Hobbies in Rothesay and then come back, hopefully grabbing them before they left for Moncton.
We did that, and on the way back into Saint John there was no sign of 405. As I got onto Rothesay Avenue I heard them say they were leaving, and then a few minutes later they said they were stopping for 10 minutes... a "pause for the cause". That meant Tim Hortons to me, and sure enough that was where they stopped.
We set up a little ways farther down on Ashburn Lake Road, and they rolled through at 15:30. CN 2620, CN 6012, and IC 2723 led a very long train out of Saint John. Wendell Lemon reported they arrived in Moncton at 18:45, after a stop at McCullys to drop the empty potash cars off.
There was a little problem at the crossing. Some moron in a Dodge Ram truck had stopped on the rails, and as the train was blaring at him, he woke up and tried to back up off the tracks. Unfortunately some other moron had parked on the other tracks behind him, so they both had to move quickly before 405 was forced to try an emergency stop. Did I say "moron" enough? DON'T STOP ON THE TRACKS. Read the sign! Use your brain!
Moron finally backing up off the tracks
3 comments:
Yeah, that crossing is known for that. Especially around 4pm when there's alot of after work traffic. It can be lined up all the way back to the highway. Not sure how much gates would actually help.
Hi Steve... two comments:
1) I bet it won't be long before Nick has more photos than you accepted by railpictures.net ;-)
2) I am curious where CN 405 runs to/from... I don't see it in your list of CN long distance nor local trains. How is it different from CN 305?
Thanks
Al
SJRailfan, I haven't been to that crossing before but it clearly is a problem. I agree that gates would not help - they would just trap cars.
Al, I think Nick has a little work to do before he gets on Railpictures, but he's on his way!
CN 405 is the old 305, so it runs from Saint John to Moncton. 306 runs the other way. My web site was out of date but I just updated it. Thanks for pointing that out.
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