Random New Brunswick Sightings

As I mentioned, I was in New Brunswick this past week. On Sunday June 19 I flew out of Winnipeg at 8 AM. On my way to the airport, I stopped at CN's Rivers subdivision and found an eastbound train coming. It turned out to be CN 8956 on the head end with Dash-8 CN 2421 trailing.


Anyway, on to New Brunswick. In CN's Island Yard I found CN 4132 and 4141 shunting. I have seen very few of the CN 4xxx GP9s. The 70xx GP9s were much more common in New Brunswick.




After viewing that and the Herzog ballast train with CN 2512 and CN 5694, I met my family for supper. Afterward, I headed over to the NB Southern yard on Dever Road in the evening. I went to the west end first, and found NBSR 2318, slug NBSR 008 and NBSR 9802 shunting there.



I watched them for a bit then went to the east end of the yard. Imagine my surprise to see the Herzog train's engines there. As I watched, CN 5694 and 2512 rolled up to the shop, presumably to get serviced before their trip back up CN's Sussex subdivision to Moncton and beyond to drop ballast.

That's NBSR 9803 and NBSR 2610 beside them, and I think NBSR 3701 on the other side of the shop building. Caboose NBSR 422990 is just off the right side of the photo.

Just to the left of that photo is the rest of the yard.

There's a lot going on in this photo. On the left you can see the hulk of NBSR 3700, leased caboose CN 79624, and you can just see the number board of NBSR 9802.

On the right you can see NB Southern's passenger train. In the background is a set of wood chip cars with an open top Sunbury chip truck beside them.

That was the extent of my railfanning that week. I spent the rest of the week in St. George, far away from any trains!

NB Southern in Saint John, March 19

I was heading down to the airport in Saint John this past Friday to head home. I had a few minutes extra, so I took the long way across Reversing Falls rather than use the toll bridge.

Just after I crossed the Reversing Falls I saw an NB Southern Railway engine running light toward Island Yard. I was able to get ahead of NBSR 2610 and shoot it at Fort Latour.

After that, I proceeded up to Somerset Street and waited to turn left onto the Highway 1 onramp. To the left I saw another train! What luck. When I made my left turn, I pulled onto the side of the ramp and jumped out to take this video of NBSR 3703 and 9803 pulling a short transfer freight.

NBSR 3703 and 9803 in Saint John, NB

The video:

NBSR 3703 looks nice in her fresh green paint. I had never considered this angle before, mostly because you have to drive west on highway 1 after the shot, but I like it!

Right after that, I saw CN 406 arriving in Island Yard with CN 8864 and CN 5770, but by then I was doing 100 km/hr and stopping was not an option!

I hit the road for the airport, and after enjoying their free wireless access, I was on my way to Montreal... for more railfanning.

See also

• March 16 "Old Green Friends"
• March 17

Old Green Friends

I'm in Saint John, NB this week for training. I was able to do a bit of railfanning after work yesterday (March 16). I took a look at Island Yard and saw old friend CN 7038 shunting.

I headed down toward Dever Road and caught up with the tail end of the transfer freight at Reversing Falls. I wasn't able to get to the head end until they pulled all the way through the yard and started shunting the west end of Dever Road yard.

NBSR 2610, NBSR 3703 and NBSR 9803 were working hard. I watched them do their work for a while, taking a few shots and video but mostly just listening to the engines do their work. After all, it's been over 8 months since I've seen NB Southern. Time flies!

NB Southern in Saint John Thursday

I had a quick trip to Saint John on Thursday morning. Here are my sightings.

At 07:45 the Dever Road yard was pretty quiet and empty. I saw GP9 NBSR 3701, caboose NBSR 422990, and the three passenger cars near the shops.


At 09:45 NBSR 2610 and 2612 were shunting the west end of Island Yard, getting the transfer train ready to head to Dever Road.


About half an hour after that, on my way out I saw NBSR 3702 switching the west end of the Dever Road yard by itself. By then 2612 and 2610 had reached Dever Road and were shut down by the shops.

Vertical Video

I was in Saint John on Thursday. On my way I saw CN 5746 and 2591 sitting in Island Yard at 10 AM. Later, while enjoying the lunch lasagna at Vito's, I saw CN 7010 and rare (to Saint John) CN 4138 shunting along Rothesay Avenue.

We finished our lunch and headed back to the plant. As we were about to turn, I saw NBSR 2610 and CN 7038 shunting the Irving Wallboard plant. The pair was half sticking out of the building itself! I had been wondering where the centerbeam flat empties were, and now I know - they are being loaded inside the building.

I raced to get my camera then hurried up the stairs to the roof of the building. 10 floors is a long way! When I got to the top, I saw the engines were backing onto a string of loaded cars. I noted they had a tank car right behind the engine, presumably from the nearby Irving Paper facility.


I shot some stills and then took video as they crossed Bayside Drive on their way out.




I'm glad I was able to be in the right place to get the shots. It's too bad the sun was against me but you work with what you have! :)

Videos From Yesterday

Here are two videos from yesterday. First, NBSR 2610 and 3702 bring the transfer train toward Island Yard. I was standing on the harbour side of Harbour Station.


Next, NBSR 9801 East rolls through Grand Bay at a very leisurely pace.


Enjoy!

EDIT: I had duplicated the first video... fixed.

All Green All The Time

I was in Saint John yesterday (Tuesday) and saw quite a bit of green. Engines, that is.

As I approached Saint John, I heard the yard master talking with the crew of the transfer train. They were given clearance to head to Island Yard. I went through Simm's Corner and saw them behind Moosehead. I stopped for a moment at Reversing Falls, and caught NBSR 2610 and 3702 taking their train across the Falls just after 9 AM.


They were not going very fast, so I decided to get them again at Fort La Tour. Alas, there is construction there, so I went near Harbour Station instead. 2610 and 3702 were really working hard when they went by me.


I continued on, and discovered them stopped just outside Island Yard. I set up for a shot and off they went into the yard.




The power for CN 405 was CN 2613, 5709, and 2650 and they were sitting in the yard when I went by. NBSR 9803 and CN 7060 were working the yard.

Later, CN 405 was still in the yard but active at 3 PM. I saw NBSR 9803 and CN 7060 on the refinery spur by Tim Hortons. CN 7060 was parked there, and NBSR 9803 continued on down the spur. CN 7038 was shunting and smoking in the Island Yard.

I heard that the NB Southern eastbound freight had left McAdam around 14:20, so I decided to go see the Grand Bay caboose and then catch the freight along the way. I stopped at the caboose, got out of the car, and heard a train horn blow for Inglewood Drive. I quickly set up the tripod and took some shots as the train rounded the corner at 15:30.

I guess I misheard when the train left McAdam! The train had NBSR 9801, 2318, and 2317 and 39 cars, including a empty container 5-pack.

EDIT: Added car count

New Gary Videos

Gary Lee has a couple of videos up featuring NBSR in McAdam.

I believe this one has the eastbound arriving at McAdam, with NBSR 9801, 2317 and 2612 on the head end.


This one shows the eastbound train leaving McAdam with NBSR 2610 added to the head end.

New videos

Dave Dineen posted a video of NB Southern units taking a container train through Saint John. The train had NBSR 2610, 2319, 3701 and 3702 on it with 33 cars. Check out his blog for a description of the chase.


Kevin G was busy on the weekend chasing trains. First we see CN 534 going past the VIA station in Moncton with a couple of GP38s on the head end.


Next, VIA 14 at the Painsec Junction road crossing with the Operation Lifesaver unit (6411) leading.


Here's VIA 14 arriving at the Sackville station. Nice light in this shot.


Finally, VIA 15 arrives at Amherst with 6416 and 6425.


Thanks, guys!

NB Southern and CP 4563

Despite the warnings of rainy weather, I decided to head to McAdam to see 4563. How often does an MLW visit the southern lines? With my two youngest kids in the van, we set off. My game plan was to meet the eastbound excursion train at Prince William Station, get a few quick shots of the runaround at Harvey, then get the westbound at Harvey Lake before proceeding to McAdam.

We arrived at Prince William Station at 10:00. I fully expected to see the excursion train by 10:20, but that time came and went without any train. It was a bit of a challenge to entertain two kids by the side of a track, but we found some anthills and flowers and did some jumping to pass the time. Finally I had to break the snacks out.

Around 10:50 I heard some rumbling in the distance, and at 10:56 we saw a distant headlight. Prince William Station is a very long piece of straight track, and it wasn't until 10:59 that the train passed us. It had NBSR 2610 and 2317 pulling the three passenger cars (5537, 5448 and 5471, all ex-VIA, ex-CN) and caboose NBSR 422990.


We packed up and went to Harvey. The two engines uncoupled and ran down the main line out of sight, then came back up the siding.


They were ready to roll by 11:37.


We left and went to Harvey Lake. As I was walking toward the point with a tripod in one hand and my toddler in the other, I heard the rumble of the engines. Darn it! I gently set my loads down and brought my camera out to take this one picture.

I'm glad it turned out OK.

We arrived at McAdam and saw quite a few cars parked by the McAdam station. The CP 29 model was parked in front of the station and NB Southern had parked a number of their MOW machines by the shop building. CP 4563 was still in the main yard, so I drove down there with my sleeping kids. I took a few shots and ended up in the cab talking with the gentleman who came down from the Canadian Railway Museum to look after the engine. Quite a nice fellow.




The excursion train arrived at McAdam at 12:25 and unloaded. I talked with a few people I knew (hi Art, Wendell, Danny, Gary) and met a few people I had only known online or by reputation (hi Mike, Ron).

I took the kids for lunch at the Family Restaurant, and when we returned for a quick look, 4563 had been moved over beside the station.

CP 4563 by the McAdam, NB train station

The excursion train was turned on the wye, and at 14:16 they left McAdam. The conductor on the tail end, Gary, told me they had 175 passengers for the Harvey trip.

At 14:20 the NBSR eastbound freight arrived at McAdam, with NBSR 2318, 2612 and 9802. I'm not sure, but I don't believe they made any setoffs or pickups.

Here's a shot of CP 29 by the station. The gentleman in the photo is the fellow from Delson.


We went and had some ice cream, and when we were done, the eastbound freight was ready to go. They had pulled up to near the highway crossing and were waiting to find out where the passenger train was before they could leave. They pulled out at 15:00 with 9 boxcars, 9 autoracks, 3 tank cars, 5 loaded wood chip cars, and 3 empty NBSR log cars (29 cars).

They made good time to Harvey, and passed through there at 15:34.

We headed home at the end of a long but good day. Kudos to NB Southern for being such a good host railway, and to the McAdam crew for hosting the event at their beautiful station.

Saint John on Friday

Another departure from the Gaspe posts... I was in Saint John on Friday and saw a few trains.

At 09:45 NBSR 2317 and 2610 were rolling along past Harbour Station to the west end of Island Yard. They stopped there, I guess to wait for clearance to enter. The light was nice that time in the morning.




In Island Yard, CN 2582 and 5550 were at rest, and GP9 CN 7010 was shunting.

Later, CN 305 was getting ready to head out at 13:30. Here's the tail end.


Over at Dever Road, NBSR 3703 was working her heart out pushing cars around at the west end.



I made a quick call to McAdam and discovered that the eastbound had left McAdam around noon, so it would be in Saint John soon. I hit the road, and just after the golf course in Westfield I heard a FRED chirp on the scanner. I pulled over and waited for the train to clear Westfield Beach. I shot him there, then backtracked to my favourite curve entering Grand Bay and got him at 14:15.

He had NBSR 9802, 2612 and 2318 with 34 cars (14 empty gypsum cars and about 12 wood chip cars).


After all that excitement, I was ready to head on. However, I noticed some activity at the ferry crossing by Westfield Beach. There was an NBSR pickup there working on the signals and a few people pointing at rails at the crossing. Just past that, an NBSR crane was getting ready to roll at Westfield Beach with some rails.






He got on the rails and headed toward Saint John.


That was enough for one day!

Kevin at NB Southern

My friend Kevin had a chance to take a few shots inside the NB Southern shops. Here's two of NBSR 2610.




No, Kevin does not have a large black square for a head. He had given me permission to post the photo but since Kevin is a minor, I do not feel right posting his face on the Internet. Hence the square.

Thanks for the photos, Kevin!

Dynamic brakes

Charles H asked me if the dynamic brakes on 2610 and 2612 are operational. I found out they are present but disabled. They came that way from the Crandic.

9801, 9802 and 9803 have dynamic brakes* but they are not used. 2317, 2318 and 2319 do not have dynamic brakes.

* one of the three is missing the grid on one side.

Kevin's Photos

Here's a few images that Kevin Gaudet sent me from Kevin's visit to Saint John in May. The first two show CN 7000 and NBSR 2610 at the west end of the ex-CN yard in Saint John.




CN 7010 also made an appearance that day, at the same location.


I embedded a few of Kevin's videos from that day a while ago.

Paint Shop Boys

I'm told NBSR 2317 is just about finished being repainted into NBSR green at the Island Yard shops. NBSR 2610 is being prepared in the Dever Road shops for its turn. Once both of those units are done, every NBSR unit will be green.

"It's not easy being green." ;)