Get Your Shots Now!

...because the NBEC power is disappearing fast. Very fast.

As reported yesterday, CN 5357 and 5360 were the power on NBEC 402 yesterday out of Campbellton. Here's a photo from "MLW" of that train.


CN 5288 and 5351 are heading to Miramichi today (Friday) to replace the power there. CN 5260 went to Mont Joli on Tuesday, releasing SFEX 4214 which will be retired. No word yet on the Bathurst area power.

So far it looks like just the NBEC / CFMG SD40s are being retired. 6902, 6903, 6908 and 6910 are the first to be retired, as well as SFEX 4214, the only operating C424 on the NBEC roster.

NBEC 1835 arrived in Joffre late Thursday night on CN 403, destined for the Charlevoix railway (CFC).

1835 on the CFC

NBEC 1835 went to the Chemin de fer de Charlevoix in Quebec early this month. Here's photographic proof in this (somewhat odd) railfanning video.


Here it was in Bathurst in July 2006.

NBEC 1835 to Ottawa Central

I heard that NBEC 1835 is being sold/transferred to the Ottawa Central Railway. The OCRR is another railway owned by the Quebec Railway Corporation, which owns NBEC, CFMG, OCRR, COGEMA, CFC and SCR. Is that enough alphabet soup for you? :)

Nepisiguit Subdivision Railfanning

I'm dying to write about the extra-special train 402 I saw today, but I promised to write about train 586. A promise is a promise.

As I previously wrote, I chased train 587 (Bathurst-Belledune turn) from Belledune to Bathurst, where it magically became train 586 (Belledune-Mines turn) through the wonder of railroading.

At about 18:15 I dashed down to my favourite spot on Little River Road where the bridge goes over the tracks, figuring 586 would be along shortly. I waited.. and waited. I heard 403 doing all kinds of switching but nothing from 586.

I finally saw 586's headlights at 19:10 but then THEY started doing some switching. I believe 403 was headed to Campbellton by this time. David Chiasson arrived (we met back in September 2005) and informed me that I was way too early. I got that! ;) I guess it's typical that 586 goes to Nepisiguit Junction around 19:30, just before VIA 15 comes through.

I heard 586 do its brake test at 19:25 and get its TOP (what's that stand for, anyway?) at 19:30. Soon afterward they started rolling, and they passed underneath us at 19:42.

Love that Alco smoke!


David turned into a tour guide and led me on a merry chase up the Nepisiguit Subdivision. I had never railfanned that portion of NBEC so I was quite happy to be led by someone who knew where to go.

We stopped at mile 1.17, the first crossing on the subdivision. While we waited for the train, some jackass stopped at the lights, looked at the train, then squealed his tires and took off as the train thundered closer. I only wish I had the license plate number.


Anyway, here's the train. I imagine the engineer was laughing at me standing waist-deep in long wet grass. Anything to get a picture!


Our next spot was near Sewell Street at about mile 3.5. I really like this location as the train is raised a little from the rest of the landscape.


The next shot was the next highway crossing at mile 3.89, aka "Blue Mountain". There's a racetrack, Blue Mountain Speedway, just beyond this crossing. I bet you can see the train well from the stands.

I like the urgency in this shot, especially with the motion blur on 1867.

Our final location was at about 4.5 as the train pounded up the hill at ever-increasing speed. David told me they were difficult to catch after this so we made this the final one. One more shot of Alco smoke.


We went our separate ways after this, and shortly thereafter the skies opened up and dumped a lake on Bathurst. I'm glad the rain held off until the railfanning was done!

Thanks for showing me around, David! You can see David's photos on railpictures.net.

Northern New Brunswick railfanning

Today I went to Bathurst for the first time in a long time, and of course I saw a few trains on the way. I had my Fuji 3.2 megapixel digital camera with me, and I was looking forward to taking just stills.

It was foggy near McGivney and I couldn't see anything at all as I passed.

I noticed quite a few cars at the UPM-Kymmene plant in Miramichi. The outside yard was pretty full and there were quite a few inside the fence too. This is the first time I've seen it since NBEC took over the plant switching so no doubt they are doing things a little differently.

VIA 14 was reported 32 minutes late leaving Bathurst. I went to Beaver Brook and saw them go through at 10:15 with VIA 6415 and 6420 leading the Renaissance train with Evangeline Park at the rear.



I drove back to the yard and beat them there with 30 seconds to spare, even with the driver going 40 km/h in front of me. They had a quick station stop and headed out. NBEC 1854 and 1816 were shunting around at the other end of the yard, and CFMG 6907 was resting with NBEC 1819. I noted that the two dead C-424s, 4219 and 4243, were still in the yard (I saw them March 29).



As I approached Bathurst I heard NBEC 1818 West get permission to occupy main track between mileages 106.6 and 108. That's the section of track between Nepisiguit Junction and the Bathurst yard limits. They must have been coming off the Nepisiguit Subdivision.

I heard NBEC train 587 talking as I approached Belledune near noon, and as I was parking I saw NBEC 1867 and another red RS18 running light out of the plant. There was talk on the scanner about a couple of cars left in the siding off the main line, so I thought they were getting those.

When I left Belledune at 16:30, I heard train 587 again! It turns out they were working the Irvco siding off the main line, picking up those leftover cars. They rolled by at 16:35 with 1835 leading 1867 and 4 gondolas, 2 boxcars, 1 tank car, an airslide hopper, and a string of about 17 NBEC ore cars.

I almost like the going-away shot better!


I raced to the highway and easily beat them to Beresford through intermittent rain. I had some indecision about whether to shoot straight down the track or off a bit to the "sun" side. As you can see I decided an offset shot was better. They rolled past at 16:58.



The train was parked on the siding in front of the VIA station in Bathurst when I arrived at 17:10. Shortly thereafter they started doing some switching. Gotta love that Alco smoke!!


I watched them until about 17:35 when I spoke with the engineer. He said the next crew would be taking the train to Brunswick Mines around 18:00 to 18:30 and train 403 would be arriving around the same time. I figured I had time to grab a quick supper, so I stopped at Subway on my way out to Nepisiguit Junction to catch 403. As I passed over the tracks at the Junction I saw boxcars rolling by underneath. DRAT!

I turned around and beat it down to Riverside Drive. I managed to get ahead of them without breaking speed limits and shot them at the golf course at Squire Green Drive at 18:00. They were 6903, 4214, 4210 and 6902 with about 54 cars.



When I saw the IC boxcar I thought of Roman Litarchuk. :)


NBEC 403 led by CFMG 6903 parked on the main line, and NBEC 586 led by NBEC 1835 was on the passing track.


Much more about NBEC 586 (train to Brunswick Mines) later... this is enough for one blog post!