40 Mile Rail Starts Up

The new 40 Mile Rail locomotive, JLCX 4004

Congratulations to new Alberta shortline railway 40 Mile Rail on receiving their locomotive and 20 grain cars on Wednesday!

About 40 Mile Rail

Forty Mile Rail (FMR) label on crossing post.
Near Wrentham, AB - Jason Sailer photo

I wrote about 40 Mile Rail in my description of the grain elevators of the CP Stirling subdivision back in April. Back then 40 Mile was planning for a June 1 startup.

That slipped, obviously.

Forty Mile Rail was originally called Red Coat Rail and was discussed by local farmers, including Paul Laqua, about a decade ago.

The last train ran on the CP Stirling subdivision sometime in 2002. CP used Brandt rail trucks for a period after that but it appears that nothing has run on the line since perhaps 2006.

There was some work being done on the line in early to mid September. Between 50 and 60 crossings were fixed up and a transfer track was built near the Pioneer grain elevator for CP and 40 Mile to interchange cars.

The Locomotive

Bright blue JLCX 4004 has been leased by 40 Mile to work their line. This locomotive is a GP9 originally built as Southern Pacific 3877. It was acquired by RaiLink as RLK 4004 and worked on the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway in Nova Scotia. It was leased to the nearby Windsor and Hantsport Railway for a period of time.

The loco became JLCX 4004 sometime in 2013. It looks like it spent the last few years in Montreal. The J&L Consulting Facebook page shows it being prepared for service in July 2016.

JLCX 4004 was on the move in September and went via CP through Sudbury, Ontario through Winnipeg. It arrived in Moose Jaw, SK on September 17 and was photographed by Ken McCutcheon there.

JLCX 4004 in Moose Jaw, SK - photo by Ken McCutcheon

It continued on to Swift Current on the 19th then arrived in Lethbridge, AB early on the 20th. Jason Paul Sailer shot it there from the highway.

JLCX 4004 in Kidd outside Lethbridge - photo by Jason Paul Sailer

Arrival

Early on the 21st, a CP "toaster" locomotive took it and the 20 hopper cars to Stirling, AB, then and crawled along the Stirling subdivision to the new interchange track, where the CP unit cut off and left.

Frontier Signworks shared this Facebook live video of the arrival of 4004 in Foremost, AB around 7:30 PM. The locomotive and the grain cars are pulling past the Buffalo elevator in the town.

Dalton Photography shared a large collection of photos taken of 4004's arrival in Foremost.

The Future

Hopefully this new shortline, only Alberta's second (after the Battle River Railway), has a bright future ahead of it. The Foremost elevator has a new employee and will be loading pulse crops for rail loading.

I'm assuming the railway acquired their own cars to help with car availability, so they aren't kept waiting for CP to supply cars from their pool.

I'm looking forward to photos of the train on the line and maybe I'll get some photos myself the next time I am in the Lethbridge area!

Highball!

See also

• Grain elevators in and near Foremost
• Bow Island Commentator article on the startup
• Trains in Alberta
• Shortline Railways

This Day, 23 Years Ago

Here's a nice slide of CN 1757 in Halifax, NS by Glenn Courtney. This was shot on December 27, 1988, 23 years ago. It looks like it is in the Rockingham yard. Notice the Newfoundland container visible on the left side of the slide, which is interesting since the railway was officially shut down in Newfoundland on September 1, 1988.

CN 1757 was originally built as RS-18 CN 3852 in 1960. It was rebuilt in 1975 as part of the RSC-14 conversion project by replacing the 4-wheel trucks with 6-wheel trucks (center truck unpowered) and reducing the horsepower from 1800 to 1400 HP. She was retired a few years after this slide, on September 30, 1993.

It was converted back to an RS-18 using the trucks from CN 3615 and renumbered back to 3852. It was first leased, then sold, to the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway in 1994. It was named Sir J.S.D. Thompson while on the CBCNS. She was scrapped in March 1998.

Vandalism on the CB&CNS

Apparently some morons were out trying to sabotage the Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway's operations on Monday evening. The New Glasgow News reported that someone left a propane tank on the tracks, apparently hoping the train would detonate it. The train did hit it but it did not explode. Propane tanks are a lot tougher than you think.

More seriously, someone sabotaged a switch near Maritime Steel and the train derailed. It seems it was a low speed derailment and not much damage was done, fortunately. I couldn't help thinking of the Stewiacke derailment of April 12, 2001 where a youth tampered with a switch and VIA's eastbound Ocean derailed. 22 of the 132 passengers were injured (9 seriously) but fortunately noone was killed. You can read the TSB report for full details. VIA's diner "Wascana" was destroyed. Fortunately dinner was not being served at the time.

The Stewiacke derailment led directly to the replacement of main-line switch locks with higher security locks, and also led to the removal of some sidings and spurs from the main lines of the class 1 railways to remove some possibility of sabotage.

Hopefully the police can find the perpetrator of these dangerous acts of vandalism and prevent him/her from any further crimes.

Subsidize Railways!

The CBC is reporting that the subsidies for the CB&CNS are due to end next March. The company is urging that the province renew their agreement to supply up to $2 million per year to cover operations and maintenance costs on the line between Port Hawkesbury and Sydney (the former CN Sydney subdivision).

Obviously as a railfan I am in favour of this subsidy. But hear me out. All across Canada, communities are kicking themselves for allowing rail lines to be removed. With high fuel costs, congested roads, and the advent of the green movement, we need every inch of rail we have now. Allowing the CB&CNS to fail will lead to the removal of the rail line and any future potential for Sydney.

You can argue that government should not subsidize private industry. It's nothing new. Look at, oh, the Irving tax deal the City of Saint John negotiated with Irving Oil. They gave a 25 year tax break to the new LNG terminal. If that isn't a subsidy, I don't know what is.

Bottom line, the government of Nova Scotia must continue the subsidy to the Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway to preserve the future of Cape Breton's industries.

My Dad's CB&CNS Photos

My mom and dad went on a Cape Breton vacation several years ago, and my dad the train nut took a few photos of a Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia coal train. He didn't have a great camera so they aren't great photos, but since my dad is gone these will have to do. I'm just happy to have these few.


LLPX 1504 on the end.


LLPX 1508.


Caboose CBNS 2000 leads the way.

New Units For CB&CNS

The Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway has four "new" SD40-2 engines, HLCX 7172, 7232, 7689 and 8151. The first three are dark blue and the last one is BN green and black.

April 7 - Arrived at Gordon Yard in Moncton (Wendell Lemon)
April 10 - Left on CN 308 in the evening (Phil Ross)
April 11 - Arrived in Stellarton on train 306 (Charles Jeffrey)

New YouTube blogger

New YouTuber JamminJoel has put a few videos up.

This one from January 13 2007 shows the NB Southern eastbound train at the highway 630 crossing, just on the New Brunswick side of the Maine border. NBSR 9802, yellow 2317, green 2319 and 9801 supplied the power for a decent-sized train.


The train continued on with NBSR 2318 added. Joel shot it at Harvey Station by the highway crossing.


He also has a few CB&CNS videos up... check them all out. Here's one from November 3, 2006.

NBEC 1819

NBEC 1819 is on the way home. It went to the former Sydney Coal Railway shops in Cape Breton for a main generator changeout back in April.

2007/03/07 Left Ottawa for NBEC
2007/04/26 Arrived in Moncton behind NBEC 6901 on NBEC train 402.
2007/04/28 Arrived in Stellarton behind LLPX 2269 and HATX 910 on CB&CNS train 305.
2007/05/17 Passed through North Sydney.

Expect to see it in Truro, then Moncton and eventually back to home ground on the New Brunswick East Coast Railway.

October 11

2005: I was in Winnipeg, Manitoba shooting trains on the CN mainline. I saw nine trains in four hours, 8 CN and 1 CP. Here's my blog entry for October 11 2005.


2004: I saw NBEC train 578 shunting the UPM yard in Miramichi. NBEC 1867 and 1856 were drilling the yard, frequently going on the bridge over the Miramichi River.


2003: I wasn't railfanning, but other railfans around the region noted a few sightings.

• The CBCNS was borrowing a couple of CN units, CN 5367 (SD40-2) and CN 9581 (GP40), spotted in Stellarton, NS (Geoff Doane)
• A few oddball units were seen in Moncton, including CN GP40 9416 and two CN GP9 units in the Gordon Yard, 7038 and 7248 (Wendell Lemon)

2002: No reports

2001: I was travelling north through New Brunswick and saw quite a few NBEC units.C-424 4210 was paired up with RS-18 1856 in Miramichi. I spent quite a bit of time in Campbellton looking at the dead lines and watching CFMG train 402 arrive in the dark. Units spotted during the day included RS-18s 1809, 1818, 1830, 1856, 1857, 1859, 1867, 1868; C-424s 4210, 4219, 4230; SD40s 6902, 6904, 6908, 6910; and some MOW equipment. I really should make a blog entry for that day - it was a good one!