Return to the Island

View of the Confederation Bridge

I was back on Prince Edward Island earlier this month for work. I decided to combine that with a quick visit to see my mom in New Brunswick. My plan was to land in Moncton (YQM), drive to Oromocto to stay overnight with her, then drive on Sunday to Charlottetown for my work.

I messaged my friends Taylor Main and Chris Mears to let them know I was coming back to the Island, and they invited me to a model railway operations session on Sunday evening in Summerside. Great!

Saturday

Vroom, vroom!

After landing in Moncton, I obtained my rental car and hit the road. One of my other missions on the trip was to do a little model train car exchange with another friend, Caleb Wentzell (see his 10 Questions interview here). He had left some cars with a mutual friend in Salisbury so I drove down there to make the switch.

I pulled off the Trans-Canada Highway by the Irving Big Stop and drove into Salisbury. I wasn't quite sure where to go so I stopped by the tracks of the CN Sussex subdivision to plug the address into my phone. After doing that, I decided to check the RailsNB Facebook group to see if there was any news about CN movements on the line. Apparently there was a potash train into Saint John and five locos were running light out of Saint John that morning, but they were at least an hour away from me and I couldn't wait that long.

Suddenly the crossing bells started ringing.

CN 406!

I thought quickly. My camera was still in its bag, in the trunk - no time to get that. I grabbed my phone and jumped out of the car, frantically opening the Camera app and setting it to video. I started it just in time to catch the train blasting through the crossing.

A nice wave from the conductor and toot from the engineer!

After that excitement, I headed out of town to make the switch. Unfortunately our mutual friend was not home, so I left my cars in the mailbox and headed to Oromocto to see my mom.

Since I can remember, we almost always had cats and/or dogs in our house. My mom currently has two dogs and a cat, and she often fosters animals from the local SPCA until they are ready for adoption. When I visited, she was fostering a momma cat and six kittens. SO cute.

I fixed a few things around the house for my mom, and we went for supper.

Sunday

In the morning, we visited the market in Oromocto and had a delicious waffle breakfast. Then it was time for me to hit the road for Prince Edward Island. It was nice to see my mom in person again.

I drove past Moncton with only a quick glance toward the CN rail lines - no traffic - and continued on toward the Confederation Bridge to the island.

Checking the time, I saw I had some free time before I was to meet Chris and Taylor for supper before going to Summerside. I decided to stop in Cape Tormentine, former terminus of the ferry to PEI prior to the construction of the Confederation Bridge. I had never been there as a railfan and I wanted to see the station, roundhouse and water tower there.

I did this and you may already have seen my post about it. If not, here's my post on Cape Tormentine.

Cape Tormentine train station

I crossed the Confederation Bridge. They must have a problem with people stopping to take photos from the bridge, as there are large signs warning of zero tolerance and big fines for mobile device use on the bridge.

Chris and I arrived at my hotel at the same time, and Taylor was there shortly afterward. We piled into Chris' car and headed for supper at The Old Triangle and then went to Summerside to operate on Scott Jay's Bayside and Tidewater layout. I wrote about that on Confessions of a Model Train Geek. Good times!

CN 1762, Kensington

Before we went to Scott's, we stopped in Kensington to pay our respects to the train station and to CN 1762, the only locomotive on PEI. She's looking well, although the red seems to be fading to orange... which I guess is what happened to many CN locomotives.

(psst... want to hear more about diesel locomotives that once roamed Prince Edward Island? I wrote an eBook about the diesels on PEI)

I didn't realize that another former Kensington train station still exists in the town. It is currently a private residence and is not very far away from the stone train station everyone sees.

Tuesday

Another day I stopped by the former Charlottetown train station, which was close to my hotel. The station is now being used for the island's Worker's Compensation Board and is in good condition.

The former Charlottetown train station

The station opened in 1907 and served the city for many years. After the cessation of passenger service, it held the main offices for CN on the island until the end of the railway in December 1989.

Wednesday

Tank car on PEI

I visited another remnant of the railway on Wednesday. There are two former CN tank cars that are located next to the Confederation Trail and Island Construction, a local construction firm. The two cars used to store waste oil from the ferries, and they were apparently acquired by a construction company to be cut up and reused. This never happened and they remain there on the rails beside the trail.

They appear to be quite old, judging by the riveted construction and where the handbrake is. The paint is still pretty good on one of them!

Tank cars on PEI

Thursday

I flew out Thursday evening, for a quick turnaround to head to Calgary on Friday with my wife... but that's the subject for another set of blog posts.

Until then, I'll leave you with a photo of the Cape Jourimain lighthouse I visited on my way out of PEI.

Cape Jourimain lighthouse

Further reading:

• Cape Tormentine
• Steve Hunter's PEI Photos
• Railfanning on PEI

Railfanning on Prince Edward Island?

PEI is famous for its Cows brand ice cream

Back in October 2015 I went to Summerside, PEI for work for four days. I didn't have much time for non-work activities, but I did manage to see a precious few train-related items.

Most people know that there are no* railway tracks on Prince Edward Island since CN ceased operations and the last train left on December 28, 1989.

* well, none of any appreciable length. There is some track at the Elmira Railway Museum and maybe a few lengths here and there throughout the Island.

There are still a few railway items around on the Island. There are several train stations on the island, some in private hands and some in public hands. In Summerside itself, the former CN station is the town library and is handsomely decorated with murals. I walked over to it late one evening after getting my Greco donair fix.

Former train station in Summerside, PEI

Prince Edward Island had a few grain elevators, and three are still owned by the provincially-owned PEI Grain Elevators Corporation. The largest is located outside Kensington next to the former CN right-of-way.

Kensington, PEI grain elevator

An elevator like this would not be out of place on the Prairies! It was built in 1971 and is of wood construction, unlike the other two elevators at Roseneath and Elmsdale.

Speaking of Kensington, this town houses two important railway artefacts - the only locomotive on the island, CN 1762, and the beautiful Kensington railway station. I photographed them (and the above grain elevator) en route to the airport in Charlottetown. Fortunately it was a lovely day for photographs.

CN 1762 in Kensington, PEI

CN 1762 is an RSC-14 locomotive that would not have been out of place on the Island. I'm not sure how much it operated on the island, if at all, but it ended up here.

Kensington, PEI train station

The Kensington train station is fairly unique with its New Brunswick fieldstone construction. It is a National Historic Site and currently hosts the Island Stone Pub.

That was all I had time to visit on that trip. I was pleased to be able to meet up with the talented Taylor Main and Chris Mears of the great Prince Street Terminal blog.

Other railway sites of note on PEI include:

• The Elmira Railway Museum, mentioned above
• The Borden railway station (a replica?) and ex-CN 78301 caboose
• The Montague railway station
• The Charlottetown train station

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Further reading:

• My previous visit to Kensington.
• My five-part series on Diesels on Prince Edward Island
• David Othen on PEI railroading
• Recent news item on the Elmira Railway Museum

Kensington PEI

Back in 1998? I toured Prince Edward Island with my future wife. We spent a couple of days driving around and enjoying the beautiful scenery on this island jewel. One of the places we drove through was Kensington, and I was amazed to see the unique station building there.

This station was constructed in 1905, Kensington's third and final station. There is a great history of the station online. The stone on the outside of the station is from New Brunswick, embedded in stucco. They used New Brunswick stone because the PEI sandstone is not durable enough.

The station served passengers from its construction until the end of railway passenger service on the Island on October 25, 1969. The station was designated a National Historic Site in 1978. It was officially closed by CN in 1983 and became the town tourist information centre in 1984. It is currently the home of the Island Stone Pub.

When I visited, MLW RSC-14 CN 1762 and caboose CN 78431 were located a little ways from the station, and looking pretty shabby.

It seemed like kind of a dumb location for them, several hundred feet away from the station. I understand CN 1762 has since been moved up to sit beside the station. I'm not sure if the caboose is there too.


CN 1762 was built as RS-18 CN 3859 in 1960 by the Montreal Locomotive Works company. It was rebuilt as an RSC-14 in 1975 and became CN 1762. It was one of the diesel engines on PEI. It spent a little while sitting in Summerside after its retirement, before being moved to Kensington. There's a great story of the move of 1762 from Summerside to Kensington, over the remaining rails (and even bridging a gap or two).

CN 78431 was originally a Grand Trunk boxcar, 19908, built in December 1911. It Became CN 342608 and was rebuilt into a caboose by the CN Pointe St. Charles shops into CN 78431. It graced the McDonald's in West Royalty, PEI for a short time before being moved to Kensington.

Follow the link for a tremendous amount of interesting PEI railway material.

To finish, here's a photo of CN 1754 (now at the New Brunswick Railway Museum) rolling past Kensington station in 1987, two years before the end of rail operations on PEI.