I was in New Brunswick on business recently. After I landed at YSJ I headed into Saint John for a bit of railfanning before heading to St. George for my workplace. I found HLCX 913 and CN 7060 heading out to Irving Paper / Irving Refinery, so I gave chase. I managed to catch them in the fog just before they crossed under Bayside Drive.
You can see that Helm had tried to cover up the Union Pacific livery on this unit, with only limited success.
I drove around for a while and had some supper. When I returned, they were back in Island Yard. CN 7060 had been taken off and was doing some work, and HLCX 913 was sitting in the fog. I used my circular polarizer to try to cut through the fog a bit.
It was nice to finally see one of the NB Southern leased units with my own eyes! In the next two weeks I was able to see a couple more.
On a rare trip into Saint John Tuesday afternoon, I lucked out and saw several trains.
I noticed the end of CN 405 near Harbour Station, moving, so I figured 405 was pulling up to Tim's to get coffee and orders. As I passed Island Yard, I saw GP9 CN 7038 on the track leading to the refinery, probably waiting for 405 to get out of the way.
Sure enough, CN 2432, CN 5510 and BCOL 4603 were parked short of the road by Tim Hortons at 15:19. The light was awful as usual for that location. I took a few shots then ducked into Tim's for a moment. When I came out, I heard the thrum of engines and knew they were on their way, so I stood by the drive-thru line and shot a short video.
On my way back down Rothesay Avenue, I saw the NBSR local waiting to cross Rothesay Avenue from the refinery area. CN 7060 and NBSR 3701 provided the power. The light was not bad here. Once CN 7038 cleared the track, the local rolled on through.
Of course, I realize now that someone was messing with the camera settings and all my photos were taken at 640 x 480 pixels instead of 2816 x 2112 like my camera SHOULD. Darn it. Oh well, I'm pretty sure I have a few dozen OTHER photos of 7060 and 3701.
Kevin G shared some photos he took in Saint John on November 12.
Here is NBSR 3701 and CN 7060 in the midst of the NBSR local train going out to the Irving Refinery / Irving Paper area.
Another shot of NBSR 3701 working her heart out.
CN 7060 doing the same:
This video of Kevin's shows the same scenes:
This is a shot of the new crossing on Bayside Drive by the old shipyard, to serve the new wallboard plant. The crossing is not yet in service but should be commissioned any day now.
Here is CN 5610 at the head of CN 405, at the south end of the Courtenay Bay causeway getting empty potash cars. You can see the same scene in this video:
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