GMTX in Saint John

Byron Thomas graciously allowed me to post these photos of NB Southern's newest engines, GMTX 2639 and 2645. Here they are hard at work pulling a transfer freight from the Island Yard in Saint John across the Reversing Falls bridge.


Here they are just coming off the bridge.


Byron also shot GMTX 2639 working by itself.


No word on GMTX 2666 yet.

Two railfans caught GMTX 2639 working the main line. First Gary Lee shot it in McAdam. The train had GMTX 2639 followed by MEC 354, HLCX 6200 and HLCX 6315. Odd to see an NB Southern train with no NB Southern engines on it.


Dave Dineen then shot the train in the dark as it approached Saint John.


Here's another one from Gary Lee, maybe from May 1, featuring HLCX 8144, NBSR 2612, NBSR 9802 and GMTX 2645.

In other leased engine news, Wendell Lemon noted that GMTX 204 was on Tuesday's CN 406 behind the two CN engines. 204 is another MP15DC like GMTX 203.

Thanks to Byron for the photos,Wendell for the heads-up, and Gary and Dave for the videos.

Photos and Video of New NBSR Engines

The engines have arrived in Saint John!

Matt aka Saintjohnrailfan caught them coming through Rothesay on CN 406 in this great video.   

New NB Southern Units Arriving

HLCX 6315 and HLCX 8144 arrived in Moncton late Thursday night. They are two more SD40-2 engines leased from Helm for NBSR.

HLCX 6315 is ex-CP 5522, built in 1966. It was recently repainted to dark red. It has a rebuilt engine.

HLCX 8144 is ex-BN 8144, built in July 1980. It looks like it is wearing solid dark blue paint.

What is driving this need for more power? Crude oil shipments from the west, increased lumber traffic, the theories abound. A recent NBSR freight from Saint John had 8000 feet of cars on it, a good sized train for any railway.

PS - sorry for not posting much, I just haven't had time to blog. Hopefully by the end of next week I will have some more free time.