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!
I'm told the February issue of Railfan & Railroad magazine reported that "On November 23, 2010, New Brunswick Southern and Pan Am Railways implemented a new runthrough freight service between Saint John, New Brunswick, and Waterville, Maine, using pooled motive power. NBSR crews handle train SJWA and WASJ between Saint John and Mattawamkeag, Maine, with PAR crews west of there. The preliminary schedule calls for a 5:00 a.m. westbound departure from 'Keag' on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, with eastbounds running on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays."
So far there has been no sign of foreign power in New Brunswick, with the exception of MM&A 2000. That changed today with the arrival of MEC 319 and MEC 516 in McAdam.
Rail enthusiast Gary Lee was there to take shots of these visitors.
MEC 319 is an EMD GP40, built in November 1968 for the Penn Central as #3213. MEC 516 is an EMD GP40-2LW, built in April 1976 for CN as #9657.
They left McAdam for Saint John shortly before 5 PM local time. Could this become a regular occurrence?
Here's a walk-around video taken by Gary.
Thanks for the pictures and video, Gary! Thanks also to Danny McCracken for the text from Railfan & Railroad.
EDIT: Gary informed me that they headed out for Saint John.
The last train left Calais, Maine yesterday, May 1 2009. I was fortunate to be able to see it in Saint Stephen in the afternoon.
Some Maine railfans were on the scene in the morning and saw Maine Central engine 321, snowplough MEC 73 and a few empty boxcars on the international bridge between Maine and New Brunswick. I understand the NB Southern "south job" was supposed to head down in the morning. However, I found out from McAdam that NBSR 2319 had been sent to Fredericton Junction in the morning to fetch a car, before heading down to Saint Stephen. They didn't leave McAdam until 11 AM.
My father-in-law, my two sons and I left Fredericton around 14:00 and headed down toward McAdam and Saint Stephen. I placed a quick call to one of the Maine railfans and found they were not leaving any time soon. I drove down to Saint Stephen and arrived at the Milltown border crossing at 15:30. There was a long string of cars, snowplough MEC 73, and NBSR 2319 and MEC 321.
The NB Southern crew were using MEC 321 to shunt a few boxcars.
I was told that NBSR 2319 was not working well, so it was good that MEC 321 was available to run! The conductor told me that they were going to shunt the flakeboard plant then head up the road to McAdam. They had to book off by 18:00 so it was questionable whether they would make it on time.
Here are the railfans!
They marshalled the train and the two engines pushed up to the flakeboard plant, with NBSR 434919 leading. Here's a video I took as they entered the plant.
I had to head back to Fredericton, so I grabbed one last shot of the train before heading up the road.
As I mentioned yesterday, the Springfield Terminal Railway (aka Pan Am) will be leaving the Calais Branch on Friday. There is a nice article in the Bangor Daily News about this. They have some good quotes from engineer Doug McLellan and conductor Terry Diadone.
I understand that Springfield Terminal (owned by Pan Am Railways) will be pulling their equipment out of the Domtar mill in Woodland, Maine on Friday. They have an engine, a few cars and an old snowplough that will be leaving. The NB Southern "south job" will pick them up at Milltown Junction and bring them back to McAdam for shipment back to the U.S.
Gary Lee shot a couple of videos of the Pan Am Railways (ex-Guilford) unit in St. Stephen. Pan Am has an isolated piece of track from Calais that serves the Woodland, Maine mill. They interchange with NB Southern in Milltown at the border. Occasionally you can see the Guilford unit in McAdam as it gets shipped out for servicing by Pan Am. I saw MEC 320 in McAdam on November 25, 2006.
Gary Lee posted photos of two odd visitors to McAdam yesterday (January 14).
Maine Central 314 was on its way to Woodland, Maine to serve the plant there on the isolated section of Pan Am Railways (former Guilford) track. You can see it was snowing a bit there!
Another odd visitor was CN 7000. It is one of the three CN GP9s leased by NB Southern. These GP9s are generally used only in Saint John but on occasion they will go on the mainline to McAdam to provide additional power to the freights. They are not permitted to cross into the United States so they are left in McAdam.
The only Maine Central unit I saw in McAdam was MEC 320 back on November 25, 2006.
Gary Lee has been busy! First he caught rare footage of a Guilford unit at St. Stephen. Here's Maine Central (MEC) 307 pulling a train into Maine. There's another one here but the quality is unfortunately not good.
Here's a cab ride of NBSR 9801 going under a highway overpass near St. Stephen.
Check out the freight from Saturday November 17, with 4 locos and 8 freight cars!
Last but not least, here's a short clip of a video taken out the back of the Chaleur by clam502.
I decided to take advantage of one of the last nice days of this year, and take some shots at McAdam. Peter Gough accompanied me and my two youngest kids. We left Fredericton at about 11:45 and I was hoping to catch the NB Southern eastbound before it arrived at McAdam. I called my contact and he told me they had a small pickup at Mattawamkeag, so they wouldn't be into McAdam until about 13:45. Perfect.
We did a quick check at the McAdam yard, and found a big surprise - MEC 320. This unit was returning to Woodland, ME via the St. Stephen sub. Apparently about once a month Guilford exchanges the unit there for another one.
Maine Central painted MEC 320 in McAdam, NB, Nov 2006
We also saw these odd loads.
TTGX 141016 with a pole load in McAdam, NB
These are going to Vanceboro and are likely part of the International Power Line being built between New Brunswick and Maine by NB Power and Bangor Hydro.
These loads are separated by spacer flatcars, as the poles are longer than the flatcars. I don't know about the Maine side, but on the New Brunswick side many of the transmission towers are going to be erected laying on their side, then flown by heavy-lift helicopter to the site. This will avoid the need to build roads and therefore reduce environmental damage.
We decided to set up at St. Croix and wait for the eastbound. When we arrived there, we could hear the rumble of engines but it was not getting closer. We set up and waited, and finally the NB Southern eastbound came into view at about 13:25.
NB Southern 2319, 9801, 2318, 9802 and 2317 crossing the St. Croix River
NB Southern 2319, 9801, 2318, 9802 and 2317 led 37 cars, mostly boxcars and autoracks.
We passed the train on the way back to McAdam and I shot him coming into the station, but the light was poor. They did a quick drop and started rolling by 13:55. We drove through the back of the yard to try to get ahead of them for Harvey, when I noticed the train had stopped.
It turns out they hit an ATV. The ATV had become stuck on the track adjacent to the mainline, and when the driver freed the vehicle, she drove across the main line without looking. The NBSR crew put the train into emergency and grazed the ATV, spinning it around. Fortunately, the driver was not injured and the ATV was on its way in minutes. ATVs are a major problem in McAdam.
Back on the road, we decided to shoot the train at Harvey Lake. I had never tried this shot, and in fact didn't even know how to get there. Peter drove and we set up. The train rolled through at 14:40 with 27 cars. I shot video primarly, and blindly shot my still camera - shooting only water. Here's the train going around the bend, once I finally looked at what I was shooting at.
