The Metis In Action

You may remember that the New Brunswick Southern Railway purchased the private car Metis a while ago. David Morris chased the Metis on an NB Southern excursion train on October 12 and shared many photos with me. I don't know what the occasion for the excursion train was.

Here is the NB Southern excursion train at Harbour Station in Saint John, NB. I am so glad it has not been repainted!


David shot the excursion train crossing Chesley Drive in Saint John. The bus station is just to the right. I think David was standing at the end of Clipper Passage, a new street in the area. It's a nice viewpoint!


Here's NBSR 2612 leading the train off the world famous Reversing Falls bridge.

This was a familiar location for me... I shot NBSR 9803 there as well as a 2007 excursion train, among others. I didn't manage to get a cruise ship in the background like David did.

Here the train is passing the wye on the west end of the NBSR yard. David is standing on or near the Gault Road crossing.


The same location, facing the other way:


Next, here's the Metis crossing highway 7 in Welsford as they approach the siding for the run-around.


NBSR 2612 runs around the train in the siding at Welsford.

If you can draw your eyes away from the gorgeous fall foliage that David captured, you can see a bit of the ABS block signal lying in the grass to the right of the switch. The McAdam subdivision used absolute block signals until the end of CP's ownership, as you can see in the September 11, 1994 CP timetable.

After ABS was removed, the signal masts remained but the signal heads were turned away from the tracks until the special test tank move of May 2007. At that time the remaining masts from Saint John to Harvey were unceremoniously knocked over and left to lie in the ditches. Many are still there.

After the run-around, the train proceeded back to Saint John. David shot it coming into Grand Bay at my favourite curve.


The next few show the engine facing the wrong way on the train. I'm not sure exactly what happened to get it facing the other way. Here's the train on the Reversing Falls bridge again.


Also on the Reversing Falls, but from across the water...


One more shot, I think around mile 6 of the McAdam subdivision.



Thanks to David Morris for sharing his photos of the Metis, the lovely fall colours, and the excursion train!

NBSR By Gary

Gary Lee posted a few NB Southern videos from McAdam recently.

Here's NBSR 2612, NBSR 9802, and NBSR 2319 on what is clearly a miserable day.


Another day, he shot NB Southern's "Little Giant" crane pushing a single ballast car.


Sperry truck 872 was checking the main line by the McAdam station.


Finally, here's NBSR 2319 rocking and rolling across the Magaguadavic bridge. I've always wondered what the bridge looked like.

NB Southern Ballast Train

On Friday August 17 I was making my way across Saint John, heading to Fredericton to visit my family. I heard "NBSR 2612 East" getting an OCS clearance from mile 22 to the Saint John yard limits.

Now, mile 22 is just railway east of Welsford. How do I know that? Read the timetable and you will see that Welsford's station sign is at mile 23.4.

This told me that the train had not cleared Welsford, which gave me plenty of time to intercept them. As it happens, I was approaching the ferry landing at Westfield Beach when I saw the crossing lights come on there. I made a quick U-turn and shot them just across from a nearby school.

The train consisted of GP38 NBSR 2612, caboose CN 79624, and ten NBSR ballast cars.

As I gave chase, I considered where I would shoot it next. One thing I have always struggled with is whether to go for quantity or quality. I knew I wanted to get the overhead shot by the Grand Bay Co-Op, and I was considering whether I could squeeze another shot in between. In the end I decided not to take the risk of getting stuck behind a slow vehicle, and proceeded directly to the overpass. I think it was the right decision.

After a few minutes of waiting, the train rolled by with a few toots for my benefit.

I gave up the chase at that point, as I had an appointment to keep in Fredericton. It was nice to see an NB Southern train on the road again... just like old times.

NB Southern in Saint John

I was in Saint John for a business trip this week. On Tuesday (Sept 15) I decided to drive by the NB Southern Railway yard at Dever Road after work. I drove down the Galt Road toward the Westfield Road. As I approached the railway crossing I saw the lights were flashing. I stopped short of the crossing and jumped out, just in time to see NBSR 9801 and 9802 and caboose CN 79624 roll by, pulling ten NBSR ballast cars and six boxcars. I had enough time to get my camera and shoot them going away, just at the west end of the wye.

I raced down the Westfield Road hoping to beat them to the overpass at the west end of the yard. When I arrived, I saw NBSR 3703 and 9803 shoving back into the yard to make room for the road freight to arrive.

Soon enough NBSR 9801 East rolled in, after lining a switch. I think they stopped here to line another switch to pass into the yard.

I zipped over to the other end of the yard, thinking that the ballast train might come over and then back in. It didn't, but I found NBSR 2612 and NBSR 2319 doing some shunting there. Bonus!

It was nice to see the old green and yellow again.

First Train to Calais

On Friday October 9 the first train went (back) to Calais, Maine to service the Domtar plant in Woodland. NBSR 2612 was left there to do the switching.

I suggested that NBSR 3703 would be going down to switch the plant. That rumour is true; however 3703 is not ready yet. She had her cab taken apart two and a half years ago, and then lay dormant in Island Yard in Saint John. It should be painted this weekend and be restored to service in a week or two after that.

This was the first train in Calais since the last train left on May 1, 2009. It's good to see rail service return to the town.

NB Southern Thursday

I was in Saint John yesterday. Just after getting off highway 1, I saw NBSR 2612 and 3702 parked in the siding at the east end of Island Yard.


There was a string of freight cars by the former VIA station, presumably brought over by them from Dever Road. As I took a few photos, the carman drove by in his ATV and joined the conductor waiting by the freight cars.


I saw freight cars being pushed up the hill from Island Yard. Presumably CN 405 (or 406, whatever CN is calling it now) was pushing uphill to get the rest of the freight cars. Here's a short video in the rain.


CN 7060 was parked by the shop building in Island Yard. I noted one of the blue NBSR passenger cars was parked near the shop with the NBSR "office" caboose 422990, presumably to get ready for the New Brunswick Day excursion between Harvey and McAdam.

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.

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 Youtuber

Matt the saintjohnrailfan has started posting train videos to YouTube. Welcome!

This one shows a CN GP9 (7060) and an NB Southern GP38 (2612) running light from the refinery area to Island Yard.


Next, they headed back out to the refinery with tank cars in tow.


Here they are returning from the refinery.


Thanks for posting those, Matt!

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.

Green 2319 on the road

Dave Dineen caught NBSR 2319 leading the westbound freight out of Saint John tonight. His photos are in his photo album. It looks like 2319, 9802, and 2610 were the power on that train.

NBSR 2612 was in McAdam last night but apparently had some mechanical troubles. NBSR 9801 is currently the South Job power that goes to St. Stephen three times a week.

Photo of green NBSR 2612

My friend Dave Dineen got a shot of 2612 and 2317 shunting the Dever Road yard last week and passed it along. Thanks, Dave! Visit Dave's web site for more NBSR photos.

NBSR 2612

I hear NBSR 2612, in shiny green, was at work in the NB Southern Dever Road yard today with still-yellow NBSR 2317. 2612 is not ready for the main line yet - it still needs a few more details.

I'll be in Saint John tomorrow - hopefully I'll catch a glimpse of it.

NBSR and paint

I'm told 2612 is now in the Dever Road shops getting the finishing touches put on it, and the proper numbers in the number boards.

2319 is in the Island Yard shop getting that nice yellow paint replaced with green. (sigh)

NBSR 2610 and 2612 update

NBSR 2612 was primed earlier this week and sprayed green today. No doubt the numbers, decals and so forth are next, and maybe we'll see it in its new colours next week.

2610 had a little work done in the Dever Road shop this week.

NBSR 9803 got its hood back on Tuesday and now it's time for the detail work of making all the hookups. Hopefully we'll see it on the road soon.

NBSR 9803 and 9802 rolling through rainy Westfield on April 28, 2005.

EDIT: Removed my arrogant assumption that I knew better than what someone else saw.