This Day, 18 Years Ago

Another blast from the past! This slide shows CP 5661 and CP 474x rolling through London, Ontario and was taken by David T Stowe. CP 5661 definitely looks like it could have used a new paint job.

CN and NBEC, Oh My!

I had some good luck on the 8th.

0735: I caught VIA 14 (on time) departing from Campbellton on the first stretch of mainline outside town. The consist was VIA 6417/6403 (CBC) with 17 cars including the Park car. I videoed them going by and the "going away" shot with the Park car going into the sunrise was quite nice.

I hit the highway and they crossed under the highway at Dalhousie Junction just before I did. I didn't bother trying to catch them at Eel River because they were too far ahead. I heard the hotbox detector at mile 159.9 go off. It's quite detailed - it had speed (62 mph), temperature (14 degrees), axle count, car count (19 including the engines), and total length (1414 feet?). It has a "male" voice.

1255: Train 591 got a clearance to enter the Dalhousie subdivision as work extra 1857.

1310: I was on highway 134, just crossing the tracks on the Irvco spur, when I glanced toward the water and saw headlights! I stopped and jumped out to catch NBEC 1813 and 1851 leading train 587 toward the main line. It had 4 CN covered gondolas, 3 boxcars, and 26 NBEC ore cars.

1316: NBEC 587 got an OCS clearance to head to Bathurst.

1555: NBEC 403 left Miramichi with three SD40s - NBEC 6905, CFMG 6906 and NBEC 6900. It had maybe 50 cars with a ram of Ultramar tank cars on the rear.

1730: While crossing the CN main at McGivney, I saw headlights in the siding. It turned out to be a CN work train (CN 52xx with several gondolas and a crane) facing east. I saw the west-facing signals had a green light so I waited. The crew for the work train came out of the depot to do an inspection of the oncoming train.

1740: CN 306 led by 2727 and 5661 blew through McGivney pulling 78 cars.

Pictures to follow...