The Metis In Action

You may remember that the New Brunswick Southern Railway purchased the private car Metis a while ago. David Morris chased the Metis on an NB Southern excursion train on October 12 and shared many photos with me. I don't know what the occasion for the excursion train was.

Here is the NB Southern excursion train at Harbour Station in Saint John, NB. I am so glad it has not been repainted!


David shot the excursion train crossing Chesley Drive in Saint John. The bus station is just to the right. I think David was standing at the end of Clipper Passage, a new street in the area. It's a nice viewpoint!


Here's NBSR 2612 leading the train off the world famous Reversing Falls bridge.

This was a familiar location for me... I shot NBSR 9803 there as well as a 2007 excursion train, among others. I didn't manage to get a cruise ship in the background like David did.

Here the train is passing the wye on the west end of the NBSR yard. David is standing on or near the Gault Road crossing.


The same location, facing the other way:


Next, here's the Metis crossing highway 7 in Welsford as they approach the siding for the run-around.


NBSR 2612 runs around the train in the siding at Welsford.

If you can draw your eyes away from the gorgeous fall foliage that David captured, you can see a bit of the ABS block signal lying in the grass to the right of the switch. The McAdam subdivision used absolute block signals until the end of CP's ownership, as you can see in the September 11, 1994 CP timetable.

After ABS was removed, the signal masts remained but the signal heads were turned away from the tracks until the special test tank move of May 2007. At that time the remaining masts from Saint John to Harvey were unceremoniously knocked over and left to lie in the ditches. Many are still there.

After the run-around, the train proceeded back to Saint John. David shot it coming into Grand Bay at my favourite curve.


The next few show the engine facing the wrong way on the train. I'm not sure exactly what happened to get it facing the other way. Here's the train on the Reversing Falls bridge again.


Also on the Reversing Falls, but from across the water...


One more shot, I think around mile 6 of the McAdam subdivision.



Thanks to David Morris for sharing his photos of the Metis, the lovely fall colours, and the excursion train!

The Metis in Saint John

Here are some photos of the Metis car in the NB Southern yard in Saint John... offered without comment or attribution.

Metis Passenger Car in Saint John

Tuesday's CN 406 train to Saint John had a surprise at the end of it. Ex CN passenger car Metis was the second last car on the train. Matt shot it in Rothesay just before it arrived in Saint John.

There is much speculation about why it was on this train.

Metis was listed on Ozark Mountain's For Sale page but is now listed as sold. The Metis is now listed on American Rail Excursions' web site. There is lots of information on the car there, including a floor plan.

I found two videos of Amtrak trains with the Metis on the end of the train. It looks like they were both taken in January 2010.




The real gem, however, is THIS video featuring stills and video showing the outside and inside of the Metis, and another private car, the Virginia City. The video was taken in early 2009 when the Metis was owned by John Tyson, a reporter in Reno, Nevada.

There was a blog entry about Tyson and others renting private rail cars.

Thanks to Matt for the video and to Wendell Lemon for the "heads up" and information on the car.

EDIT: I understand that NB Southern Railway has purchased the Metis.