Jon Archibald has posted a great deal of cool old Maritime train photographs to his Flickr stream. There are VIA Rail photos from the 1990s that Jon took himself, as well as a bunch of old slides from John McIntosh and others.
Here are a few of my favourites. First, disused VIA Rail RDCs sitting at the Halifax station. This photo is great not only for the RDCs but also for the view of the old train shed.
Here's a rail removal train in Newfoundland, parked for the weekend. Jon caught the very end of the Newfoundland Railway.
Here's CN train #6 ready to leave Sydney, Nova Scotia, in 1958, a slide by John McIntosh.
Finally, here's a 1953 shot of a Newfoundland Railway steam engine. There are a lot of Newfoundland Railway photos and slides in this stream.
The third Helm leasing unit I saw in Saint John was HLCX 917. I first saw 917 on Friday August 26 on my way through to Fredericton. It was shunting the Moosehead Breweries area with NBSR 3703.
I watched him for a while from the Green Head Road overpass, then I headed down to the end of Gifford Road to try to shoot him at ground level. Soon another car pulled in, and a nice gentleman named Bill C. introduced himself. He saw me on the overpass and thought it was me, and wanted to say hi. He saw my library presentation in 2009. We had a good chat for a while, then HLCX 917 and NBSR 3703 rolled by into the yard with their train. I shot them through the chain link fence, as you will see in the video.
Soon I headed up to Fredericton and then to Summerside for the air show, as I mentioned earlier. On my return on Sunday, I passed through Saint John and spied HLCX 917 shunting containers on the west end of the Dever Road yard with NBSR 3703 again.
They pushed their consist into the yard and I went to Green Head Road to see the other end. Soon they came through and it was apparent they were going to carry on out of the yard and down to the Port. I gave chase and handily beat them to the infamous Simms Corner. I waited there and shot video of them coming through. This was the first time I've shot a train coming through there.
I took off past the Martello Tower toward where the Digby Ferry docks. I ended up deciding on Germain Street (here) since it has a decent curve there. The train had to pass through the old Bayshore Yard so I knew I had plenty of time. Eventually it showed up with the conductor riding the head end.
That concludes the three Helm leasing units that I saw. I assume HLCX 911 was in Maine or McAdam.
My friend Jody Robinson sent me these photos of three of NB Southern's four leased units working the yard in McAdam, New Brunswick. HLCX 906, 911 and 917 were on the eastbound freight with NBSR 2610 on Tuesday and stopped in McAdam to do some switching.
Here they are by the "shop" / building by the wye.
The second pair of NB Southern leased units arrived in Saint John yesterday. HLCX 917 and HLCX 913 were nose to nose behind CN 5723 and CN 2280 on train 406 out of Moncton on Wednesday. CN #406 did some work in Sussex, and arrived in Saint John at 16:18.
HLCX 911 has been out on the main line a few times, and I believe it went to St. Stephen at least once, on July 21.
HLCX 906 has been working in Saint John but no one has spotted it on the main line yet, to my knowledge.
Hat tip to Wendell Lemon, DC, and Danny McCracken for the information.
Gary Lee has posted some videos of HLCX 911 in McAdam. Thanks for those, Gary!
The second pair of Helm leased units, HLCX 913 and 917, were seen at Bayview Junction in Ontario.. yesterday?
Meanwhile, HLCX 911 was spotted in McAdam and Harvey. Danny McCracken shot HLCX 911 as part of the eastbound freight that featured NBSR 9802, 911, 008, 2318, and recently arrived 2612 from the St. Stephen subdivision. They left at 16:20.
Brian Barchard caught the same train rolling through Harvey Station. I see the depot has been repainted since I last saw it!
The NB Southern Railway will be leasing four GP38-3 engines from Helm Financial. Since NBSR will be operating the Northern Maine lines, it will need more power. The units are HLCX 906, 909, 913 and 917. They are all ex Union Pacific units. Apparently one of those was a GP40 but was rebuilt into a GP38-3.
The rumour mill says they will arrive in New Brunswick before mid June. They are currently in UP yellow but will be repainted to NBSR green after they arrive.
I look forward to seeing pictures from out East soon!
