NB Southern's Saturday Eastbound

I had every intention of going to McAdam to see the eastbound, but when I called there I found that the train was early and due into McAdam around 11:15. I wouldn't be able to get to McAdam much before the train left, so I decided to go to Fredericton Junction instead and chase it from there.

I arrived at Tracy at around 11:50. I figured the train wouldn't get to the Junction before 12:45 or so. I looked around a bit, and noticed two things. First, only the west leg of the wye was plowed, and second, the old train station has been repainted dark green.

I mused about where to catch the train, and I almost decided to head up to the end of paved road when I heard NBSR 9801 East on the scanner. I figured I had better get set up somewhere, so I went to the bottom of the hill at Tracy and lined my camera to shoot through the crossing. It was a nice spot!

At 12:54 NBSR 9801 East came through with 9801, 9802, 2317 and CN 7000 (!) leading a shortish train of 27 cars (1 covered hopper, 1 tanker, 10 empty gypsum cars, 8 boxcars, and 7 loaded woodchip cars). The light was great and it stayed great all through the chase.


I tossed the tripod in the van and headed down the road. I caught up to them just east of the Junction. I considered taping them at the highway 785 crossing but opted to continue on and shoot them across the farmer's field in Blissville like I did back in August 2007. That turned out OK although I didn't have time to set my tripod up.


From there I went to Clarendon and taped the train from up on the highway. Love that spot! It's easy to get there ahead of the train.

A quick stop at the lake north of Welsford followed, and then I was held up by the train at both Welsford crossings. No big deal, and even the front-end loader on the highway didn't slow me up too much.

Then on to route 177. My next shot was at my favourite S-curve near the intersection of 177 and 102.

I promised my daughter two more shots and then we'd go home. I wanted to get the overhead shot at Westfield Beach, but a slowpoke in a pickup truck took that shot away. I shot them out the window at Ferry Road and then went to the overpass by the Co-Op south of Grand Bay, and did my final recording there.

Strange Visitors to McAdam

Gary Lee posted photos of two odd visitors to McAdam yesterday (January 14).

Maine Central 314 was on its way to Woodland, Maine to serve the plant there on the isolated section of Pan Am Railways (former Guilford) track.

You can see it was snowing a bit there!

Another odd visitor was CN 7000. It is one of the three CN GP9s leased by NB Southern. These GP9s are generally used only in Saint John but on occasion they will go on the mainline to McAdam to provide additional power to the freights. They are not permitted to cross into the United States so they are left in McAdam.


The only Maine Central unit I saw in McAdam was MEC 320 back on November 25, 2006.

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.

Today in McAdam

I took my two youngest kids to McAdam today in the hope of seeing the eastbound freight. Given that my last attempt failed, I went a lot earlier this time.

As I was driving toward Harvey, my McAdam source called me and told me the freight was leaving Brownville Junction at 10:40 and would likely not be in McAdam until 14:00 or 14:30. No worries about missing it!

I decided to do a little detour and check out Watt Junction to see what was there... I'll get into that later. I ended up in McAdam by noon. There I saw a most interesting sight.


CN 7000 was sitting in the yard. It turns out that Friday's westbound used 7000 for power, but since the CN leased units can't enter the U.S., they dropped it and took the McAdam switcher.

We went to eat at the Family Cafe, then we visited the library for a few hours. My source dropped by and told me the freight just cleared Vanceboro after 15:00, so I headed for the west end of the yard to video it coming in. I set up just behind a string of empty NBSR log cars, and the freight rolled into view at 15:15.


NBSR 2317, 2318 and 9802 led a string of centerbeam flats and boxcars, with a couple of container cars and about six or seven autoracks on the end.

They did a quick stop at the station, made their drop and pickup, and tacked CN 7000 on behind 9802.




They rolled out at 15:45 with the new crew. I shot them leaving, and I'm including this photo to show the difference in paint shades between newly painted 2318 and faded 9802.

By this time it had started to rain a bit.

I drove to Harvey, respecting speed limits, and easily beat them there. They rolled through at 16:16.


I gave up the chase after that and headed home.

You can click on any of the photos to see a larger version.

Other NB Southern posts

Railfanning in Saint John and area

I was down in Saint John yesterday (April 27) and saw a few trains, my first since my son was born.

CN 305's power, 2645, 5616 and 2451?? sat in the yard all morning. They were still there at noon. CN 7000 was running light in the west end of the yard.

I noticed the transformer that has graced the yard forever has moved to behind Crosby's Molasses. Surely someone is missing that...

At 12:40 I noticed NBSR 370x (one of the SW1200s) and a CN GP9 behind the Moosehead facility with a couple of boxcars. NBSR 2319 was working the west end of the Dever Road yard and I snapped a few quick shots.



On my way home, I noticed some fresh ballast around mile 16-17 (Sagwa) that has not yet been profiled.

In Fredericton Junction, NBSR 403383 is starting to look very run-down. Compare the top photo (taken yesterday) to the bottom photo from this page.



Speaking of run-down, the Fredericton Junction station is definitely being hit hard by vandals. I saw broken windows in the station the last time I was through, and now they are boarded up.

Saint John sightings 2006/03/04

As I mentioned earlier my daughter and I went to the Saint John model railroad show. We got into Saint John just before 11:00, with not a word on the scanner. I drove by Island Yard and saw CN 5757 (SD75I) and CN 2689 (C44-9W) by the engine house. There were no GP9s in sight, so I assume they were out on locals.

The show itself was very good and I got to see a bunch of people I haven't seen in a while.

After the show, I crossed the Courtenay Bay causeway, intending to run down Bayside Drive toward the Island Yard. As I crossed the causeway, I saw a local returning from the Irving refinery area with CN 7015 and 7000 (both GP9s) leading a tank car train. They had a few bright blue boxcars on the tail end. With little traffic and a lucky green light, I got ahead of them before they got to Thorne Avenue/Loch Lomond Road. I beat it down to Staples and waited for them there.. but they didn't show!

After a few minutes, I backtracked up Bayside Drive to find them switching the Irving lubricant facility at the corner of Mt Pleasant Avenue and Bayside. The rest of the train was under Mt Pleasant/Union. As I watched, they pulled three tank cars out of the facility, then slammed them into the rest of the train. It was quite a bang! This was at about 13:58.


I figured they would be a few minutes, so I zipped down to the west end of Island Yard. There, I found CN 7010 pushing six NBSR flatcars with white trailers on them up to the piggyback ramp. The brakeman was setting the handbrakes on the cars when I shot this:

You can see that there was a bit of snow and not much light.

I also shot this beat-up gondola at the Strescon siding.


14:10: I returned to the corner of Rothesay Avenue and Russell Street to find the CN 7015/7000 local approaching the crossing by Staples. I was the second-last car through the crossing before the lights started flashing, so I pulled over and jumped out to get the video. They ended up pulling about four tank cars across the street before stopping, coupling up to a few tank cars in the yard, then pulling the rest of the way into the yard. They had 10 tank cars and 8 boxcars, including 4 bright blue Pan Am Maine Central cars.


I went across Reversing Falls to the NB Southern Dever Road yard, where I saw three switchers (NBSR 3702/3701/3703) assembling a train at 14:35. Tim Dryden was already there, so we chatted for a few minutes before the green goats took a train east to Island Yard. It had a mixed consist including about 8 single-stack container flats on the tail end.

I noticed an ancient MOW car by the former train station in Dever yard, so I drove up and took a shot. It's accessible, as the road is used for a recycling drop spot.


With that, I went home in the flurries.

Saint John Sightings 2005/12/09

It wasn't a bad day. To start off with, I saw an NB Southern high-rail truck near Westfield Beach, so that said "no trains for you" on the McAdam sub.

At 09:40 I saw CN 2629 and 5709 snoozing in the Island Yard, with CN 7015 shunting the yard throat.

At 12:20 I just managed to catch the NB Southern local heading out, caboose first, to switch Irving Paper, the Irving Refinery and so forth.



A quick shot through the windshield. After the train cleared the crossing, I got turned around and caught it at the overpass over the rails by Irving Paper. It wasn't going fast.



The consist was NBSR 79635, about 8 boxcars, NBSR 3701, CN 7000, 3 boxcars and 3 tank cars trailing.

CN 305 was alive by this time, with the two big units above moving through the yard throat to start assembling their train. CN 7015 went to bed at this time. Around 13:00, they had most of their train together and the far end was all the way out the other end of the yard. NBSR 3702 and 3703 were at that end, waiting for 305 to let them out of the siding. CN 305 had 10 gypsum cars, 13 doublestacks and 6 singlestacks near the end of the train. There was a blackened CN generator container on FEC 71642 as part of the consist.

Once 305 pulled its tail out of the way, 3702 and 3703 went on their way to Dever Road. I caught them several times on the way, first going under the road near Harbour Station:



The next location is obvious:



and finally over the Reversing Falls bridge:



With that I went home. I heard CN 305 calling the RTC around 14:00, I assume to get their clearance to go to Moncton.

Train Sightings in Saint John

Some train sightings in Saint John...

09:55 Leased CN 7000 was working the transloading facility near Harbour Station. NBSR 3702 and 3703 were pulling a string of doublestacks and CN ballast cars out of the Island Yard by Harbour Station.

CN 5693, 5717 and 2564 were in the yard.

11:10 CN 5693, 5717 and 2564 ran light through the wye in East Saint John heading toward the potash terminal.
11:45 Those three came back through the wye with about 25 empty potash cars.