Random New Brunswick Sightings

As I mentioned, I was in New Brunswick this past week. On Sunday June 19 I flew out of Winnipeg at 8 AM. On my way to the airport, I stopped at CN's Rivers subdivision and found an eastbound train coming. It turned out to be CN 8956 on the head end with Dash-8 CN 2421 trailing.


Anyway, on to New Brunswick. In CN's Island Yard I found CN 4132 and 4141 shunting. I have seen very few of the CN 4xxx GP9s. The 70xx GP9s were much more common in New Brunswick.




After viewing that and the Herzog ballast train with CN 2512 and CN 5694, I met my family for supper. Afterward, I headed over to the NB Southern yard on Dever Road in the evening. I went to the west end first, and found NBSR 2318, slug NBSR 008 and NBSR 9802 shunting there.



I watched them for a bit then went to the east end of the yard. Imagine my surprise to see the Herzog train's engines there. As I watched, CN 5694 and 2512 rolled up to the shop, presumably to get serviced before their trip back up CN's Sussex subdivision to Moncton and beyond to drop ballast.

That's NBSR 9803 and NBSR 2610 beside them, and I think NBSR 3701 on the other side of the shop building. Caboose NBSR 422990 is just off the right side of the photo.

Just to the left of that photo is the rest of the yard.

There's a lot going on in this photo. On the left you can see the hulk of NBSR 3700, leased caboose CN 79624, and you can just see the number board of NBSR 9802.

On the right you can see NB Southern's passenger train. In the background is a set of wood chip cars with an open top Sunbury chip truck beside them.

That was the extent of my railfanning that week. I spent the rest of the week in St. George, far away from any trains!

NB Southern in Saint John

I was in Saint John for a business trip this week. On Tuesday (Sept 15) I decided to drive by the NB Southern Railway yard at Dever Road after work. I drove down the Galt Road toward the Westfield Road. As I approached the railway crossing I saw the lights were flashing. I stopped short of the crossing and jumped out, just in time to see NBSR 9801 and 9802 and caboose CN 79624 roll by, pulling ten NBSR ballast cars and six boxcars. I had enough time to get my camera and shoot them going away, just at the west end of the wye.

I raced down the Westfield Road hoping to beat them to the overpass at the west end of the yard. When I arrived, I saw NBSR 3703 and 9803 shoving back into the yard to make room for the road freight to arrive.

Soon enough NBSR 9801 East rolled in, after lining a switch. I think they stopped here to line another switch to pass into the yard.

I zipped over to the other end of the yard, thinking that the ballast train might come over and then back in. It didn't, but I found NBSR 2612 and NBSR 2319 doing some shunting there. Bonus!

It was nice to see the old green and yellow again.

NB Southern in Saint John, March 19

I was heading down to the airport in Saint John this past Friday to head home. I had a few minutes extra, so I took the long way across Reversing Falls rather than use the toll bridge.

Just after I crossed the Reversing Falls I saw an NB Southern Railway engine running light toward Island Yard. I was able to get ahead of NBSR 2610 and shoot it at Fort Latour.

After that, I proceeded up to Somerset Street and waited to turn left onto the Highway 1 onramp. To the left I saw another train! What luck. When I made my left turn, I pulled onto the side of the ramp and jumped out to take this video of NBSR 3703 and 9803 pulling a short transfer freight.

NBSR 3703 and 9803 in Saint John, NB

The video:

NBSR 3703 looks nice in her fresh green paint. I had never considered this angle before, mostly because you have to drive west on highway 1 after the shot, but I like it!

Right after that, I saw CN 406 arriving in Island Yard with CN 8864 and CN 5770, but by then I was doing 100 km/hr and stopping was not an option!

I hit the road for the airport, and after enjoying their free wireless access, I was on my way to Montreal... for more railfanning.

See also

• March 16 "Old Green Friends"
• March 17

Old Green Friends

I'm in Saint John, NB this week for training. I was able to do a bit of railfanning after work yesterday (March 16). I took a look at Island Yard and saw old friend CN 7038 shunting.

I headed down toward Dever Road and caught up with the tail end of the transfer freight at Reversing Falls. I wasn't able to get to the head end until they pulled all the way through the yard and started shunting the west end of Dever Road yard.

NBSR 2610, NBSR 3703 and NBSR 9803 were working hard. I watched them do their work for a while, taking a few shots and video but mostly just listening to the engines do their work. After all, it's been over 8 months since I've seen NB Southern. Time flies!

Manic Monday in Saint John

I was in Saint John on Monday for most of the day and saw a few trains here and there.

At 10 AM the power for CN 405 was still in Island Yard. CN 5634 and 5738 were resting at their usual spot by the shops. It's nice to see SD75s back in Saint John. SW1200 NBSR 3703 is still parked on the other side of the shop building. I wonder why that is not in use any more? CN 7060 was shunting the yard.

I saw a large maintenance of way (MOW) crew at work by the Staples off Russell Street. I shot this little video of the tie crane rolling by with my Canon S3. Sorry for the jerky zooms - I'm not used to zooming with this camera. My video camera is much smoother.
There were a lot of ties beside the track so clearly they were changing them out.

Maintenance equipment near Russell Street in Saint John, NB

At noon the MOW crew was still at work. I talked very briefly with saintjohnrailfan nbsrfan before heading back to work.

On my way out, I saw CN 7038 and NBSR 9803 parked by Irving Paper off Bayside Drive. I parked at the top of River Avenue and ran over to the overpass to take a few shots.

CN 7038 and NBSR 9803 near Irving Paper

When I returned, a woman came out of the house and was curious what I was doing. She said that I was the second person to park there that day and she was getting concerned. I assured her I was taking photos of trains, not of her kids or anything weird like that. OK, maybe taking photos of trains IS weird, but it's a GOOD weird.

On my way out, I noticed some MOW equipment in the siding at Westfield Beach.

NB Southern's Harsco 6700 production/switch tamper

Eastern Maine Railway ballast tamper

See also:

• Video of the ballast tamper in action
• CN maintenance of way in Winnipeg

NB Southern at Night

Matt posted a night video of the NB Southern westbound leaving Saint John. It had NBSR 9803 and 3 other units, with 33 cars. The engineer was really laying on the horn!

Video from Saturday

Here's my video of NBSR 9803 and 2612 coming off the Reversing Falls bridge.

Any better locations at that end of the bridge?

Saint John Saturday

My kids and I went to Saint John to visit Valley Hobbies, and of course to see some trains.

We discovered NBSR 9803 and 2612 leaving the Dever Road yard just before noon, so we went across Reversing Falls and shot them coming through the bridge. My son Nick took these two photos:



I particularly like the going-away shot.

We followed them down past Harbour Station and they stopped just short of Island Yard, as both tracks into the yard were blocked by cars. I talked with the very friendly crew and they told me that CN 405 was coming down to get their cars.


We decided to go have lunch. After that, I went to Island Yard to find 405 but they weren't there. Scanner chatter showed they were just leaving Courtenay Bay, so after a little driving we got some poor shots of them going by Staples into Island Yard. We decided the best course of action was to go to Valley Hobbies in Rothesay and then come back, hopefully grabbing them before they left for Moncton.

We did that, and on the way back into Saint John there was no sign of 405. As I got onto Rothesay Avenue I heard them say they were leaving, and then a few minutes later they said they were stopping for 10 minutes... a "pause for the cause". That meant Tim Hortons to me, and sure enough that was where they stopped.

We set up a little ways farther down on Ashburn Lake Road, and they rolled through at 15:30. CN 2620, CN 6012, and IC 2723 led a very long train out of Saint John. Wendell Lemon reported they arrived in Moncton at 18:45, after a stop at McCullys to drop the empty potash cars off.


There was a little problem at the crossing. Some moron in a Dodge Ram truck had stopped on the rails, and as the train was blaring at him, he woke up and tried to back up off the tracks. Unfortunately some other moron had parked on the other tracks behind him, so they both had to move quickly before 405 was forced to try an emergency stop. Did I say "moron" enough? DON'T STOP ON THE TRACKS. Read the sign! Use your brain!

Moron finally backing up off the tracks

A Rare Find

I was in Saint John today and met a fellow railfan, and also made a rare find.

First, I found NBSR 9803 and CN 7060 resting by the Tim Hortons off Thorne Avenue around 09:15.


Shortly after I took the photo, they started up and headed out toward the refinery.


CN 405 was resting in the Island Yard with 5799, 2650 and 2613. I think the consist was the same as Tuesday's but I must have had 5799's number wrong then.

At lunch at 13:00, I noticed that the power for 405 was over at the potash terminal. I went over to see if there was a shot there, and I saw someone parked there with a tripod all set up. Obviously a railfan! It turned out to be Kevin Gaudet. I was glad to meet him, and we spoke for a few minutes before I had to head back to work. I did stop on the other side of the causeway to get a few shots of 405 from afar.




Later, I noticed 405 was pulling a string of potash cars to Island Yard just after 15:00. I saw the Courtenay Bay potash switcher was visible, so I decided to head across the causeway to see if I could finally get a picture of this rare locomotive. As it happened, it was on the move to the dumper by the time I got there, so I snapped one shot out the car window and then pulled up to take a short video. I am quite pleased with how the photo turned out. The video, not so much, but I like the horn.




That was it for today. I am very happy to finally get a decent photo of the Courtenay Bay Potash switcher.

Saint John today

I was down in Saint John today and saw a few trains...

NBSR 9803 and 2610 were working the east end of Island Yard around 10:00.


CN 8831, 8845, and 8018 were parked by the shops, as was NBSR 3703 with capped stacks. Caboose NBSR 79635 and SW1200 3702 were parked nearby. NB Southern's spreader was also parked in the yard.

On the other end of Island Yard, CN 7060 and NBSR 2612 were assembling a train.

Around 12:30, CN 7060 and NBSR 2612 were at Irving Paper. CN 7010 was working the west end of Island Yard.

I found CN 8018, 8845, and 8831 (as CN 405) at the Courtenay Bay potash terminal with a string of 39 empty potash cars. They called the NBSR yardmaster, and after some banter they rolled out at 12:58 to return to Island Yard.


A little later, NBSR 2610 and 9803 were at the east end of NB Southern's Dever Road yard while NBSR 2318 was working the west end. That was it for my day in Saint John.

By process of elimination, NBSR 9801, 9802, and 2317 are probably still the road power. I assume 2319 is in the shop.

Please forgive the cruddy photos. My Canon S3 is on the fritz (another post) so I had to use the 1 megapixel still camera in the Sony video camera.

NB Southern transfer train video

Dave Dineen has posted a video of NBSR 9803 and 2318 taking a short transfer train from Island Yard to the Dever Road yard on YouTube.

The video features two segments, one at the mouth of Island Yard and one at Mill Street.

Another NB Southern Excursion Train Chase

I decided to take the kids to go see the afternoon NB Southern excursion train on Saturday. I had hoped that they would meet the eastbound freight at Welsford, but a quick call told me that they left Brownville Junction at around 11 AM and would not be meeting the passenger train. Too bad.

The train was scheduled to leave at 2 PM, and I was well past Grand Bay on the South Bay Road by then. At 14:15 I decided to set up at mile 6 to wait for them, figuring they should be along any time. After about 10 minutes, Dave Dineen came along and we waited together. I heard on the scanner that they were passing NBSR 3703 in the yard at about 14:25 so it was obvious they were late. They showed up at 14:39.


We chased them from there, but we were stuck behind a very slow yellow car and did not catch up to them for quite a while. They passed under us at the overpass by the Co-Op in Grand Bay, and we finally started (slowly) catching up to them through Grand Bay. Another slow vehicle kept us from getting ahead of them until we had left Grand Bay. I chose to get them at Westfield Beach, at 14:57.


Right after they passed the siding, they slowed right down. It became clear that there was a slow order between mile 14 (Westfield Beach) and mile 17. Too bad for the passengers, good for us! I think it was a 10 MPH slow order so it was no problem at all to keep leapfrogging the train.

Here they are at 15:03 just past the Westfield Beach overpass.


And again at 15:08 at Sagwa?



A little farther down the line at 15:12. Notice the railfan on the side of the road filming the train. I didn't recognize this person.

I always wanted to shoot a train on the bridge at mile 17. This was my chance!


They opened it right up after that and I barely beat them to the LaFarge road crossing. I slapped the tripod up, turned the camera on, and just managed to catch this at 15:19.


I taped them at the highway 7 crossing at 15:23, then went to the west end of the siding to see 9803 run around the train. They had to stop to line the switches, go through derails, etc. so it is a bit time-consuming to do the runaround.

They went back across highway 7 at 15:50. Here they are at 16:04.

I shot them at 16:06, taped them at 16:08 and shot them again at 16:10. Thank you, slow order!

For my final shot, I decided to try shooting them at Westfield Beach from across the Nerepis River. I crossed the river beside the old CN line and set up at the little trail shack on the other side. They showed up at 16:20. The shot was a little hazy and they were behind the MOW equipment in the siding, but hey, it was worth a try.

After all that excitement, I thought I might have a chance to get the eastbound freight too. We proceeded up the back way through Wirral, Hoyt and so forth. As I approached the lumber yard outside Fredericton Junction, I saw boxcars going the other way at 17:00. I turned around but they got to the highway crossing before I did. I caught up to them by the Hoyt Station Road and I decided to try to get them at Enniskillen.

That was a bad choice, as it took too long to get down to the tracks from the highway. I should have kept on to Wirral - it's closer to the road. As it happened, I saw the crossing lights on as I approached the crossing and NBSR 9802 East burst through as I was slowing to stop. The train had NBSR 9802, 2319, 2318 and 9801 leading a 57-car consist:
2 MEC hoppers
13 extra-height boxcars
4 MEC hoppers
6 extra-height boxcars
2 cryo boxcars
5 extra-height boxcars
2 cryo boxcars
1 long boxcar
3 extra-height boxcars
2 cryo boxcars
1 extra-height boxcar
2 DTTX container flats (one single, one doublestack)
3 autoracks
1 empty centerbeam flat
10 woodchip cars (BAR, NBSR, MMA)

244 axles, according to the Hoyt hotbox detector.

We gave up after that, and headed for home through Fredericton Junction.

Other excursion train posts:

• NB Southern - May 2010
• Napa Valley Wine Train - March 2014
• Maine Eastern - October 2010
• Prairie Dog Central - July 2011

NBSR 9803 update

I hear 9803 now has 3700's old engine onboard, and the engine was fired up on the 12th. There's lots of work to be done yet, but it's on the way to getting back on the road.

Here's a shot of 9803 at Harbour Station, Saint John on May 10, 2003, by Steve O'Brien.

NBSR 2610 and 2612 update

NBSR 2612 was primed earlier this week and sprayed green today. No doubt the numbers, decals and so forth are next, and maybe we'll see it in its new colours next week.

2610 had a little work done in the Dever Road shop this week.

NBSR 9803 got its hood back on Tuesday and now it's time for the detail work of making all the hookups. Hopefully we'll see it on the road soon.

NBSR 9803 and 9802 rolling through rainy Westfield on April 28, 2005.

EDIT: Removed my arrogant assumption that I knew better than what someone else saw.

NB Southern units in pieces

As reported earlier, GP38-3 NBSR 9803 will be receiving the prime mover from GP9 NBSR 3700. Dwayne Porter very kindly passed along a few excellent photos of the two units in the NB Southern Dever Road yard from a day or two ago.


9803 with not much left up top


Gutted 3700. Both engines are on flatcar NBSR 421009 behind 3700.


3700 with 9803's hood next to it

Thanks for the photos!

Saint John sightings 2006/05/25

I was down in Saint John yesterday and saw a few trains.

At 09:45 NBSR 3703 was shunting the Dever Road yard while some MOW equipment was working behind Moosehead Breweries and some people were doing work on the Reversing Falls bridge. In the CN yard, CN 2645 and 2662 were sitting in the usual location while CN 5775 was by itself on the other side of the engine house. CN 7000 was shunting the yard.

I went to lunch with a local railfan (who was very good company), and on our way out we noted that NBSR 3703 and CN 7010 were at the east end of the Island Yard with a transfer freight of a few boxcars, about 15 empty CN gypsum cars, and some doublestack containers.

On my way out of town I noted that 2645 and 2662 had started shunting around 1345. I heard on the scanner that 3703 had stopped at a red flag before the Reversing Falls bridge, so I set out to find them. They were stopped around the corner from the Douglas Avenue crossing. Apparently they had seen the red flag at the west end of the bridge, then backed up to clear the crossing circuit.


The red flag was soon removed and he was on his way.

I had a quick look at the Dever Road yard and saw one yellow NBSR unit by the engine house:


I saw a spot of green in the distance and it turned out to be NBSR 9803 working the west end of the yard.


That was it for one day!

Saturday's NB Southern passenger train and a bonus

Saturday turned out to be a bright, sunny day - perfect for chasing NB Southern's passenger train. I set out from Fredericton at 12:20 with my son and daughter to spend a few hours following the Rally of Hope charter from Dever Road in Saint John to Welsford. My plan was to chase them all the way to Welsford, then chase them part of the way back and get back to Fredericton by 17:00. Of course, plans change...

We arrived at Dever Road by about 13:40. The first thing I noticed was that the consist was different than previous years. They had two engines (9803 - I was wrong about the number but not the colour) and 2318), the usual three passenger cars, but no caboose.


I spoke with the engineer, Bob, and he said they had 9803 on to try to find a ground fault that has been troubling it. I asked him when the eastbound freight would be coming in, and he figured it would follow the passenger train in to Saint John. He promised to ask the RTC as they approached Welsford if he remembered. Bob's a good fellow - I met him at McAdam a while ago.

Here's Gary the conductor helping the last few passengers on.


I decided to get my first video at the wye just west of the yard. I'd never shot there before so I figured, "why not?" I waited for the 2 PM departure and.. no train. Shortly thereafter I heard quite a conversation between the engineer and Don the RTC about some late passenger. The RTC called and found the passenger, who finally boarded. Long story short, the train passed me at 14:29.


I gave chase. There was a fair bit of traffic and I wasn't able to get ahead of him until the overpass over the tracks just south of Grand Bay at 14:38.


I then grabbed a quick shot at Grand Bay on the straightaway by the rink at 14:42:


Next was the Westfield Beach overpass at 14:50:


I encountered Wendell Lemon along the way and I almost got into one of his shots (sorry Wendell). We exchanged a few words before I took off again. I got two more shots along the highway (14:53 and 14:56) before getting him at the LaFarge quarry crossing at 15:03:


As we approached Welsford the engineer of the passenger train asked the RTC where the freight was. I heard another engineer speak and say he was stopped at mile 25. That's just about a mile north of Welsford so he was stopped to wait for the passenger extra. There was quite a bit of discussion about what to do. The passenger was "work 9803" and therefore they had two options: cancel the work permit and get a new order once the freight went through, or retain the work permit and allow the freight to pass through. They elected to retain the work permit. The passenger train took the siding.

As I passed Wendell at the highway 7 crossing I gave him the news, then I went up to Welsford Station Road to wait for the freight to come through. NBSR 2317 East came rolling through at 15:16. Note the superelevation on the curve here.


The freight was NBSR 2317, 2319 and 9802 with 29 cars (3 tank cars, 21 boxcars, 3 empty centerbeam flats, and two TOFC (1 Sunbury, 1 white)).

I gave chase to the freight, figuring I would pick up the passenger train once it was done its runaround. Surprisingly, I beat it to the highway 7 crossing at 15:22 - it had to run slowly by the passenger train.

NBSR 2317 and 2319 leaving Welsford, NB

I stopped at the LaFarge quarry crossing (still in Welsford) to catch him again at 15:28.


Then he really started motoring. I could tell he was running at track speed (40 MPH) because I was barely catching up to him. Once he got to Westfield Beach he had to slow to 30 MPH so I managed to get ahead of him and catch him just before Grand Bay:


I gave up the chase here and went back to Welsford. I decided to stop at the intersection with highway 102 to wait for him. I heard the chirp of the SBU and tried a few still shots that didn't work out well. I gave chase and shot him along the highway near Westfield Beach at 16:04.

I saw Wendell had decided to shoot him from the overpass, which was a smart move as the train would fit in the shot there.

The kids and I decided to get one more shot, at Hardings Point at 16:08.


As I panned, someone unexpected got in the shot.


She said, "I was totally in your shot, wasn't I?" I agreed but said it was OK. I had lots of shots already, and besides, she was cute.

So ended a fabulous afternoon of chasing trains.