BNSF Unit Oil Train!

The Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick has been receiving oil trains from North Dakota and the surrounding area. These have generally been coming over NB Southern's tracks as 80-car unit trains, although some oil cars have trickled in on CN via CN 406. Railfans were excited to hear that a unit oil train was coming with three BNSF engines on it. The train arrived at Hermon, Maine on December 29 with the BNSF engines, and ended up parked on MM&A rails for a few days, apparently waiting for a crew.

The train finally made it to McAdam this past Saturday (January 5) at 10:30. Jody Robinson reported that it dropped its train in track 28 and made up another train with the oil cars already in McAdam, then hit the road around 16:15. It was reported through Harvey at 17:00.

Jody Robinson and Gary Bowser did great work documenting the train in McAdam.

The train had BNSF 4649 (Dash 9-44CW), BNSF 9723 (SD70AC), BNSF 7589 (Dash 9-44CW) and HLCX 6332 (SD40-2) for power. Here are a couple of Jody's photos.

I think I can safely say that these are the first BNSF engines to ever visit McAdam... given that BNSF did not exist prior to NB Southern's existence.

Here are a few of Gary's photos, as well as a video he took.

Matt (aka Saintjohnrailfan) caught the train rolling through Grand Bay on its way into Saint John.

The power did not stay long in Saint John. It went west on Sunday the 6th with empty oil cars and some miscellaneous freight. This time both Matt and Dave Dineen (aka nbsrfan) caught the train. Here's Matt's video first.

Now Dave's:

Great work, Jody, Gary, Matt and Dave! Special thanks to Jody for keeping the Facebook RailsNB group updated on the train's progress.

HLCX 6319 Repainted

Kevin Smith sent me this beautiful photo of repainted HLCX 6319 and sisters in Mattawamkeag, Maine.


Note the Canadian flag on the side of the short hood and the American flag a little higher up on the short hood.

You can see it was repainted on November 3 in this McAdam video by Gary Lee.

HLCX 6319 was in those atrocious red and blue Helm colours.

Dave Dineen caught it returning from Island Yard in fresh paint last month. Note the decals had not even been applied yet. If you're impatient, fast forward to 2:45 or so in the video.

Thanks, guys!

NBSR Oil Train With CP Power

Several New Brunswick railfans caught the NBSR unit oil train coming into New Brunswick on NB Southern Railway tracks on July 2. The great thing about this train was that it used run-through Canadian Pacific Railway power... with a great leader.

Jody Robinson was first up with these great shots of the train at McAdam.


The train had Iowa, Chicago and Eastern engine ICE 6450 on the head end. ICE 6450 is an SD40-2 built in September 1979 as Oneida and Western OWTX 9956. It became a BC Rail BCOL 749 and then ICE 6450, "City of Welcome". I don't know if the engine refers to Welcome, Minnesota or Welcome, North Carolina!

What a rare sight in New Brunswick!

Behind ICE 6450 was CP 5926 and CP 5928, two more SD40-2 engines. I've never seen CP 5926 but I did see CP 5928 once, trailing on a train through Pense, Saskatchewan back in 2008.

It sure is nice to see Canadian Pacific Railway engines in McAdam again.

The fourth engine was an MMA engine, MMA 3603, a GE C30-7 built as ATSF 8016 in 1977.


Now on to the videos. Gary Lee shot a handheld video of the train leaving McAdam.


Next up was Brian Barchard shooting the train through Harvey. His video combines three NBSR trains, two from June 30 and the July 2 oil train starting at 5:17.


Matt aka saintjohnrailfan shot it at Welsford at the first highway crossing. Nice wave from the engineer! I noticed that there were several doors open on the MM&A engine; maybe it was having mechanical issues.


Dave Dineen aka nbsrfan was also at Welsford and shot it there, at my favourite spot in Grand Bay, and entering the yard in Saint John. Here they all are in one video.


Great shots all around for a great train. Thanks to Jody, Gary, Brian, Matt and Dave for the photos and video. Well done.

Recent NB Southern Videos

Here are a few recent NB Southern videos featuring the "new" leased power.

Dave Dineen aka NBSRfan shot HLCX 6318 and HLCX 8144 leading a fairly short train out of Saint John. The big cars on the head end are trash cars for the steel recycling facility now located in the Port of Saint John.


Gary Lee was in the cab of GMTX 204 in McAdam. I'd really like to get back to McAdam at some point as it is really hopping now!


Jason aka NB Green Machine shot a transfer freight within Saint John. The MP15DC GMTX 203 was ahead of "huff and puff", NBSR 3702 and 3703, and Geep NBSR 2610 was there for extra muscle. Apparently they almost stalled trying to get up Mill Street from Island Yard. Great video!


Doubleiron shot an eastbound NB Southern freight through Harvey. It had a quite colourful consist.


Gary also shot this sizable westbound freight in McAdam, headed by NBSR 2319, HLCX 6200 and MEC 354 in Pan Am colours.

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.

NB Southern Update

There are some good photos and video available of the new NB Southern leased power now, plus a few run-through engines!

Jody Robinson sent me these two snaps from McAdam, NB from Sunday February 12. First up are two run-through engines, MEC 380 and 381. Both of these engines are GP40s but MEC 380 is unusual as it is a high-hood GP40. You can't see that from this photo, alas.


Also on the freight were the two leased SD40-2 engines, HLCX 6200 and HLCX 6318. You can see that they now have the bay windows fitted. I think they give a bit more visibility and are warmer than the standard windows. 6318 has her nose chevron stripes now.


Jody says that traffic on the St. Stephen subdivision has picked up quite a bit, with a daily train every weekday with good size trains to St. Stephen and the Woodland mill in Maine. Good news. Thanks Jody for the news and the photos.

Matt aka Saintjohnrailfan got out to Enniskillen today to catch the westbound freight. As it happens, it had HLCX 6318 on the point with the aforementioned MEC 380 second and NBSR 2319 trailing. You can catch a glimpse of the high hood on 380. Great snow action!


Dave Dineen aka NBSRfan was out on February 9 to shoot both the eastbound and westbound freights. Each train had one of the leased Helm SD40s on it. It's a typical quality video from Dave.


It kinda makes me want to be back in New Brunswick to shoot the mean green trains!

More Photos of 6200

Dave Dineen posted some great photos of freshly-painted HLCX 6200 in Saint John. Please view his album.

UPDATE: He also posted a video of his chase of HLCX 6318 / HLCX 911 / HLCX 6200 - all leased power.

Two "New" Units For NBSR

Two of the Helm leased units (HLCX 906 and 911) have arrived in Saint John. They came via CN to Moncton and were brought to Saint John on CN 406 yesterday, July 7. Matt aka saintjohnrailfan shot them behind the two CN units on 406.


Dave Dineen shot them this morning at the Island Yard in Saint John. He wrote a blog post about them. Click on the image to see more photos by Dave.


Presumably these units will be repainted ASAP into NB Southern colours. I'm glad they were caught before they wear the corporate green and yellow. Who knows - maybe they won't be repainted?

Herzog Ballast Trains in Saint John

I was in southern New Brunswick earlier this week on business. I arrived on the afternoon of Sunday June 19, so my thoughts turned to railfanning in one of my old haunts. Who am I kidding... when do my thoughts turn AWAY from railfanning?

I found a CN ballast train parked near Crosby's. CN 2512 and CN 5694 were the power on the head end of a string of Herzog ballast cars.


The Herzog cars were in New Brunswick back in July 2009 on the northern line.

What's special about the Herzog cars? The "PLUS" train basically automatically dumps ballast at up to 20 MPH at pre-programmed locations. It uses GPS to determine the location and drops the ballast as it goes. This eliminates the need for ground crew, making it safer and faster than traditional ballast cars.

CN has been getting ballast from NBSR in the past few weeks. Apparently it is being dumped on the CN Springhill subdivision. One load was dumped around Sackville, NB and another around Folly Lake, NS. There has been a lot of chatter about these trains on the excellent RailsNB mailing list.

CN seems to be providing the power and the Herzog cars. Dave Dineen shot a great video showing the train being loaded in NBSR's Dever Road yard, then rolling across the Reversing Falls bridge. The train was run as CN 439.

You can see that spacer (box)cars were used to separate the engines from the train, and there is a boxcar between every four loaded Herzog cars on the front part of the train. This is done to reduce loading on the bridge.

Saint John train watchers may remember that NBSR did a similar thing in 2005 when they were taking loaded gypsum cars across the Reversing Falls bridge while doing maintenance.

The empties seem to come back to Saint John on CN 406 with the two units on the head end. Here's a video from Gerald aka SD40dash2fan showing CN 406 around mile 71 coming into Saint John.


He has another one showing 406 rolling over the little CN bridge at the far end of Rothesay Avenue in Saint John.

PS - I saw the Herzog cars on CN 303 at Elie, Manitoba a while ago.

NB Southern Videos

I miss those green and yellow engines! Here's a few videos to show what I mean.

Dave Dineen posted a video of two NB Southern main line trains, one westbound at night and one eastbound in the afternoon. The video has his usual high quality shots.


Gary Lee posted a video of NB Southern power shunting cars in McAdam. All three 23xx units were there, along with 2612 and slug 008.


I found this one by NiCu00121 of NBSR 2612, presumably in St. Stephen, given the short train and the caboose at the end. The videographer claims the train broke down but I'm guessing it had some wheel slip problems.

Great NB Southern Chase

Dave Dineen posted a great NB Southern Railway chase video. Read his blog post for his commentary. The video sure brings back memories of my own chases along that line.

Dave Has a New Camera

Dave Dineen has a new camera. He bought a Sony HDR-CX110 Handycam. This baby shoots full HD video (1080p), 3 megapixel stills, and has a nice 25X optical zoom. It records to Sony's proprietary Memory Stick PRO Duo, which is a bit of a bummer compared to the far more common SD cards, but that's not a huge minus. It looks like a great camera.

But... the proof is in the pudding. Check this out.

When looking for a sharp picture or video, I always look at the number boards on the locomotive. For pictures, zoom in on the number boards and see if they are still sharp when enlarged. For videos like Dave's, look at how sharp the number boards are. This is a nice camera.

NB Southern Container Train Transfer

Dave Dineen has a great blog post and video about a recent container transfer he saw. You really need to watch the video for the surprise at the end of the first clip.

CN 121

Dave and Matt went a-chasing trains recently on the Napadogan and Pelletier subdivisions in New Brunswick. Here are a few of their excellent videos.

They shot CN 121 at Ennishore first. This is Matt's video.


Next, Matt's view of CN 305 heading west over the massive Salmon River trestle near New Denmark, NB.


Here's Dave's view of CN 121 heading west on the Pelletier subdivision out of Edmundston, NB.

NB Southern Excursion Video

Dave Dineen chased the NB Southern New Brunswick Day excursion train on Monday and posted a great video of his clips. It is worth watching from start to finish.

Two Fans, Same Train

Saintjohnrailfan and NBSRFan both shot the same train at the same location. It was an NB Southern Railway westbound freight train at the Ketepec Road near Saint John on May 4. NBSR 9801, 2317 and 9802 led 49 cars. Have a look at the two videos.

NBSRFan:


Saintjohnrailfan:

Nice CN 121 Video

Matt aka saintjohnrailfan posted a nice video of CN 121 leaving Moncton with CN 2405, 5530,and 5632. The train had a fair amount of non-container traffic on the head end. Nice to see a Dash-8 leading!


Dave aka nbsrfan was there and taped the same train. Here's Dave's video of CN 305 and 121. I'm not sure I like the 30 second intro but you can skip past that. ;)

Night Video of NBSR

Dave Dineen got out to tape NBSR 2317 West in the dark and wet last night. It had 2317, 2610, 2318, and 9801 pulling 58 cars.

Dave and Matt Chase NBSR

Dave Dineen aka nbsrfan and Matt aka saintjohnrailfan chased the eastbound NBSR freight from McAdam to Saint John last Monday, July 28. The train had NBSR 2318, 2610, and 2317 pulling 69 cars.

Here's Dave's video first. It has a bit of footage of CN 7038 in McAdam as well.


Matt broke it up into several videos. First, it came into McAdam and did some switching.


Next, the chase.


Nice job, guys!

NB Southern Cab Ride

Dave Dineen, saintjohnrailfan and Kevin Gaudet were fortunate to get a cab ride in an NB Southern engine before the June 19 westbound went out. They both posted their videos, so here they are. First Dave's:


Matt aka Saintjohnrailfan posted a video of the westbound leaving in the dark.


Finally, Kevin's (as links).
first, second, train leaving Saint John.