Saint John and Beyond Friday

I made a (now rare) visit to Saint John on Friday. My first sighting was an NBSR GP38 and SW1200 in behind Moosehead near Reversing Falls at 11:35. I whipped my trusty Canon S3 out to take a long-distance shot when... it didn't work. Again. I cursed and swore and just about threw the camera into the swollen Saint John river. Grrrr.

I continued driving, and it occurred to me that maybe the batteries were low. I stopped at Staples and swapped my camera's batteries for the scanner's. Lo and behold, it worked! Phew.

While I was there, I saw CN 2617, 5414 and 2675 at rest in Island Yard, and CN 7010 working the yard.


At 13:25 I heard CN 405 say they were going to get 29 potash cars from Courtenay Bay.

At 14:55, I heard CN 405 get its orders to proceed to McCully's, with 2675 leading.

I heard that the eastbound NBSR freight had left McAdam just before 3 PM, so I figured they would be in Fredericton Junction at around 4 PM. That just barely fit into my time restrictions, so I decided to go for it. I reached Tracy at 3:52 and parked by the bridge by the river. I took a few shots of the river, hoping the train would show up before I had to go at 4 PM. I was walking back to my car when I heard it blow its horn for the highway 645 crossing. Quickly I went back to the bridge and shot it a few times at long distance before taking video. These shots would have been better if my camera was not set to ISO 400. Anyway, I am quite happy with the video.


The train had NBSR 2318, 9801, 2612, and 2610 for power, with a respectable 56 cars.

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.

A Rainy Day

I went to Saint John yesterday, in the driving rain, and still managed to see some trains. A dedicated railfan doesn't let weather get him down!

In Welsford on the way down I heard a little chatter on the scanner. Some kid said, "Hello?" and an adult responded, "Hello?" It went back and forth for a minute until the adult told another adult that they were probably picking up a baby monitor or something. It seemed odd to me that they were coming in really clear, yet the eastbound freight was hours away from passing through Welsford. More later.

At 11:25 there was some action at the NB Southern Dever Road yard. NBSR 3702 and 3703 were shunting the east end of the yard, while CN 7068 was shunting the west end. 7068 was shunting four NB Southern log cars, one of which was loaded with track pieces.


Looks like model railroad track.

At 11:50 there was no action at the Island Yard. CN 5695, 2569 and 5518 were by the shop.

Later, at 13:00 I heard 305 calling the NB Southern yard master to tell them they were returning to the yard. I saw them across the Courtenay Bay causeway, bringing empty potash cars away from the terminal. I caught them going through the wye on their way to Island Yard, with 34 empty potash cars.

I did mention it was raining, didn't I?

I got lunch and sat watching the Island Yard. I noticed CN 7010 and NBSR 3701 on different tracks at the shop. I couldn't get a decent shot of 3701 due to all the clutter in the way. Soon 7010 got a call to go rescue the local at the drydock spur. I imagine with the rain it wasn't able to bring the loads back to the yard. It headed out just as 305 was getting its TOP at 1345 to go to mile 22.

The local had CN 7015 on it.

I thought about going to see 7010 and 7015, until I heard someone ask where the passenger train was. Passenger train? In this weather?

Sure enough, I saw it ascending the Mill Street grade as I raced to the Reversing Falls bridge. I set up on the west end of the bridge and got it backing across.

Consist: 5471, 5448, 5537, 422990, 2318


I saw it again entering the Dever Road yard and took some roster shots.


The passenger train was empty, so it must have ran in the morning. That was what I heard in Welsford - the passenger train. I had no idea.

Saint John sightings 2006/07/08

My family went down to Saint John to do some shopping and spend some time on the beach, and of course I kept an eye out for trains at the same time.

At about 12:40 I saw a small NBSR transfer freight heading away from Island Yard by Harbour Station, led by a leased CN GP9 and a green NBSR unit - it looked like a GP38. Right afterward I heard some chatter between the RTC and someone, and it sounded like someone was getting their orders. It was hard to understand over the background noise in the van.

As I drove toward Rothesay Avenue I clearly heard, "OK RTC, we'll be away in about 5 minutes." That told me it was probably CN 305 to Moncton, and they were likely down getting their Tim's coffee if their departure was imminent. Sure enough, that's where they were.



CN 5645, 5696 and 5764 were the power as usual. They seemed to have a pretty short train today, with the usual mix of boxcars and tankers and a few container loads. The conductor boarded with the coffee and goodies and they started rolling at 12:45.

Later we headed for the beach by the Irving Nature Park. I heard a train blowing at 17:00 and I assume that was the eastbound freight arriving in the Dever Road yard. As we passed by the Island Yard around 17:45 I saw CN GP9 7010 and NBSR 3701 doing some shunting.

I did take a spin by the Dever Road yard around 20:15 and there were a number of green engines by the engine house. I was hoping to see 2318, and perhaps it was there, but it was too far to distinguish engine numbers.

Saint John sightings 2006/03/25

I returned to Saint John on Saturday with my daughter to do some shopping, and of course to do some railfanning.

When I arrived at about 12:15, I quickly found out that the yard switcher pair CN 7000/7010 had split a switch and the front truck of 7010 was off the track.

Several people examine the front truck.

I ventured down the yard to find CN 7015 bringing six trailers-on-flat-cars (TOFC) to the piggyback ramp (NBSR 687331, 687370, 687317, 687315, 687430). The very friendly brakeman was the one who told me about 7010's misadventure. The trailers were apparently empties, and soon afterward I saw a tractor pulling them off to replace them with trailers full of fish from Connors Brothers.


Lauren and I went into Tim Horton's to have lunch, and the crew of 7015 came in for coffee shortly afterward.

Soon afterward 7015 ran light to Tim Horton's. What's more Canadian than CN and Tim Horton's?


I returned to the main Island Yard to find CN 7000 and 7010 bringing a local to the Irving Refinery and Irving Paper at 13:12. I guess 7010's problem wasn't very serious!

7000 and 7010 pushed 13 tank cars and 7 boxcars.

At the east end of the yard, I found the NB Southern transfer freight waiting to get into the yard at 14:00. They had a mixed bag of NBSR 3702 (SW1200RS), NBSR 3701 (GP9), and NBSR 2317 (GP38-3) for power.



The friendly crew invited us into the cab of 3702 and we chatted for a while.


We took a break from railfanning after that and did some shopping, then went out to Rothesay to visit the model train store. On our return, we found CN 305 was getting ready to go. I chatted with the carman and we went up to the head end of 305 to give them a roll-by. They left at 16:30 with 81 cars, a mixed bag of boxcars, tank cars, and about 20 doublestacks. Apparently they were delayed by three bad-order boxcars and of course 7010's problem. CN 2430 led 2666 and 5702.


We headed home after that. It was a great day!

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.