Paintball With Museum Cars?

Diner 5433, Hillsborough, July 2006

The CBC recently reported that the New Brunswick Railway Museum recently turned two railway cars (a sleeper and a diner) over to the paintball business next door to it in Hillsborough. The paintball group (Atlantica Outdoor Recreation Centre) will be using the cars as props for their paintball and other games.

Museum curator Art Clowes (disclaimer: a friend of mine) said that the museum is unable to afford the upkeep for some of its cars, so the paintball group will look after them until the museum is able to restore them. Atlantica owner Aaron Nelson said they would do some minimal maintenance on them.

A bed in the sleeper

The CBC article failed to mention that the museum already turned over the remains of a CN flanger and an old outside-braced boxcar (perhaps two?) to the group.

The cars were all on the south leg of the wye in Hillsborough by June 20th.

The cars involved are:

• Diner 5433, originally CN 5433
• Sleeper Saint John River, originally NYC 10161, Agawam River
• Flanger 56471 (burned in the 1994 fire)
• Boxcars 74857 and 74886 (burned in the 1994 fire)

Personally, I have no issue with it. I know the NB Railway Museum is desperately short of volunteers and of money, so if someone can find a use for these cars other than scrap metal, they should go for it. Commenters on the CBC talked about the use of cars for rental cabins... all well and good but it all requires money and time, both in short supply. The NBRM has had its issues with volunteers in the past (I know, I volunteered there for several years) but I'm firmly of the opinion that if you aren't willing to help, you don't get to complain about how things are done.

The dinner train in happier times. Hiram Creek Trestle, June 2002.

Keep in mind that the diner hasn't been used since the last dinner train in 2004, and the sleeper hasn't had any maintenance except for a coat of paint several years ago. The flanger and the boxcars were damaged in the tragic 1994 fire and since then have languished on the scale track. Nobody paid any attention to them as they were basically written off. It's lucky they weren't sold for scrap.

I'm interested to hear what you think of the use of these cars.

Backgrounds

I received my scans back from ScanCafe yesterday, so expect a batch of old photos to start appearing here soon.

I am starting to rename the files with meaningful names, and I noticed something interesting in the background of this otherwise normal slide of CN 2531 in Moncton (by Greg Brewer).

Notice the passenger cars in the background? Here's the relevant part of the slide:

The scan didn't quite work out for this slide. The cars really don't have a big bend in them!

I thought, "yellow cars, yellow cars, I've seen those before."

Then I remembered - a couple of the Salem & Hillsborough passenger cars were painted yellow when they were received. Here's a bad scan of an Al Howland picture:

This makes a lot of sense, because Greg's slide was shot on June 17, 1984, just prior to the start up of operations for the Salem & Hillsborough Railway.

Moral: Keep an eye on the backgrounds!

Malcolm Peacock

I was very sorry to read of the passing of Malcolm Peacock (obituary). Malcolm was a long time volunteer at the New Brunswick Railway Museum and lent his skills as an electrician and general handyman to a variety of tasks. The obituary describes Malcolm as "stubborn and steadfast, quiet and proud of country and kin" and I think that is a good description. Malcolm was quiet but friendly, held strong to his beliefs, and didn't suffer fools. He was kind enough to let me stay in his caboose at the museum a few times when I was visiting there. He kept it in great condition and was very proud of it.

I considered him a friend and I will miss him.

CN 1754 on Prince Edward Island

I saw this slide on eBay and I knew I had to have it! It's a lovely scene of CN 1754 leading a local freight past the beautiful Kensington station on Prince Edward Island.

You can see that 1754 is running long hood forward, which was normal operation for the CN RS18s.

Nowadays, CN 1754 is one of the two diesel engines at the New Brunswick Railway Museum in Hillsborough, New Brunswick. Here's my video of it leading the dinner train on October 19, 2002... long hood forward, of course.

It's a shame she hasn't pulled any trains since 2004. Maybe someday.

CN 1750 and 1754

Continuing the theme of CN engines now at the New Brunswick Railway Museum, here is a photo of CN 1754 and 1750 from July 4, 1986 in Borden, PEI. These lightweight RSC-14 units were used on branchlines all over the Maritimes. CN 1754 was sent to the Salem & Hillsborough Railroad in 1995, after their disastrous fire of September 1994.

Rock and Roll Train

I don't know if you read this in the local Moncton Times & Transcript, but an AC/DC fan video was filmed at the New Brunswick Railway Museum last month. Here it is.


Please visit the New Brunswick Railway Museum next year!

Random Photos From Hillsborough

Here are a few photos I took one weekend in July 2006 at the New Brunswick Railway Museum in Hillsborough, NB.


Ex-CN 8245 at night by the station.


The same consist by day.


Another night shot.


Their ex-CN baggage car.

New Brunswick Railway Museum Online Exhibit

Check out the Riding the Rails online exhibit at the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN). This exhibit shows the railway stations of New Brunswick, and was developed by the New Brunswick Railway Museum in cooperation with CHIN.

CP 29

As you may know, CP 29 is currently stuffed and mounted outside the Canadian Pacific headquarters in downtown Calgary, Alberta.

CP 29 was famous for being one of the last three CP steam locomotives in regular freight service, the other two being 136 and 144. They worked between Chipman and Norton on the CP line, and they continued working because of the very light bridges on the line. They were eventually replaced in 1959, I think.

CP 29 eventually came to the Salem and Hillsborough Railroad where it was returned to service and used on the passenger runs. It always ran in company with another engine (except for one time). Tragically it was damaged in the 1994 fire, and after a few years it was returned to CP, who cosmetically restored it and put it on display.

Brian Barchard sent me these two photos of CP 29 in Calgary.




More details on CP 29 are available at the New Brunswick Railway Museum website.

New Brunswick Railway Museum Open House

I'm off to the open house today at the New Brunswick Railway Museum. The site will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. This will be a casual day, and a great chance to meet and socialize with your rail enthusiast buddies and to hear all the stories about the winter's happenings. It will also be a chance for visitors to wander around the site, and refresh their memories of some of our equipment and artefacts. For others it will be a chance to note the changes since their last visit to our site.

There will be a BBQ from 11:00 to serve up free hot dogs and soft drinks. At about 1:00 PM we will unveil a plaque to honour the CRHA Members, Supporters and Volunteers, who have left this world.

I hope to see you there!