Layover at Dorval

After my recent trip to Saint John, NB (see Saint John Railway Scenes and CN 406, Times Two), I hopped on a plane back to Winnipeg. Well, actually, I took two planes... a little prop plane to Montréal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (aka "YUL") and then a jet from there to Winnipeg's James Armstrong Richardson International Airport.

I had a three-hour layover in Montréal. I decided that I wasn't going to just sit around playing with my computer or phone. I knew from a past layover that the Dorval VIA / AMT train stations were within walking distance, and since I like to walk, this could be done!

Dorval is on the CN Kingston subdivision and the CP Vaudreuil subdivision.

These Shoes Are Made For Walking

VIA 6414 at Dorval

I was fortunate that I was only a few seats back from the front of the plane, so I was able to deplane quickly and zoom out of the airport. I walked through the acres (hectares?) of parking garages and open air parking lots toward the Dorval train station.

It is a good 15-20 minute walk at a brisk pace.

I was carrying my camera bag (a Lowepro SlingShot 102 AW, if you're curious) and my laptop bag, so by the time I reached the station I was a little warm and my back was a bit sore. No worries!

The AMT and VIA stations are quite close to each other but they are separate. AMT has a pair of tracks with little one story shelters beside them, and VIA has a full train station beside their own pair of tracks. There is a tunnel that goes under all four tracks so you can go to any platform without crossing tracks.

VIA at Dorval

I looked at the AMT schedule - displayed on the station outside - and determined that nothing was coming until 13:02, so I walked over to the VIA station.

VIA 35 showed up very soon after I arrived, with VIA 6414 for power. You may remember that 6414 was the Loto Quebec unit when they were still wrapped, and was derisively labelled as "the Turd".

Spotting the consist at Dorval

In the photo above, you can see the second engineer looking back to spot the train at the right place on the platform.

There was quite a crowd on the platform but it did not take long for everyone to get on or off the train. I elected to shoot video with my iPhone as the train departed.



The consist was 6414 / 3451 / 4177 / 4118. I noted that VIA 3451 had a poppy sticker on it already.

After VIA 35 left, I went inside to check the schedule.

VIA schedule at Dorval

Nothing for an hour. Off to AMT.

Agence Métropolitaine de Transport

I knew I would have a bit of a wait for the next AMT train, but I was hoping for a freight train to come along. CP, CN and CSX all come through Dorval at different times, and on my last visit to Dorval I caught a CP freight.

I paced around by the AMT side for a while, but nothing came along until the scheduled AMT train, led by cab car 3017.

AMT 3017

They sure have a lot of horns on these cars!

I was on the wrong side of the sun but I had decided to stay here because I would have the fence in the way on the other side. Maybe wrong, maybe right, but that's the decision I made. It's important to think of these things if you have time to do so.

After a very brief stop, they continued on their way and I shot AMT 1325 pushing the consist westward.

AMT 1325 at Dorval

AMT 1325 is an F59PHI locomotive.

The End

The next VIA train was VIA 34 at 13:18 and the next AMT train was after that. My flight to Winnipeg was at 14:40 so I thought I might be pushing it a bit to wait for VIA with a long walk to the airport after that, so I set off for the airport.

In the end I was glad I didn't hang around, as the security line was pretty long and I didn't have a lot of time to wait before my flight boarded. It was the right decision.

But Wait, There's More

I neglected to mention earlier in this series that I took a few photos of NB Southern switching in Saint John that week.

GMTX 2639 in Saint John

GMTX 2639 and NBSR 911 were switching the west end of the Dever Road yard (aka "Ponderosa yard"). I took a few minutes to watch them do their thing. There is no really good angle to photograph units here without this upward look to them.

When I last saw #911 in December 2014, it was still HLCX 911. Since then, NB Southern purchased the unit and patched it to be NBSR 911. It still has the crossed out "Union Pacific" on the side, but I'm sure it will be repainted into green and yellow like the rest of the fleet eventually.

NBSR 911

For now, enjoy the patch job.

Just One More Thing

Totally not train related, but I also spotted a couple of cruise ships in the Saint John harbour.

Cruise ships in Saint John, NB

The big one was "Anthem of the Seas", a new Royal Caribbean International behemoth delivered in April 2015. This monster is just over 1/3 km long with a capacity of 4,180 - 4,905 passengers. It has a crane on board to lift a "NorthStar" observation capsule up to 300' above sea level, and an indoor skydiving simulator, as well as many other amenities.

"Anthem of the Seas" in Saint John, NB

The smaller vessel was the Disney Magic. This vessel was launched in April 1997 and can carry up to 2,700 people even though it is not much shorter than the Anthem. The Magic is definitely not as tall!

"Disney Magic" in Saint John, NB

Maybe the excursion train I saw on October 11 had been carrying cruise ship passengers?

See Also

• Canadian Railway Observations guide to railfanning Montreal (PDF)
• My last Dorval railfanning visit
• Back to the start of this post trilogy

Disclosure: This post contains one or more affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any item from Amazon via that link, I receive a small commission from Amazon at no additional cost to you. Just so you know.

Saint John Railway Scenes

NB Southern #911

I was in Saint John, New Brunswick last week for work. I didn't have any specific plans for seeing trains, as I wasn't sure how long I would be working each day. As it happened, things went pretty smoothly so I did see some trains.

My plane landed in YSJ (Saint John airport) pretty much on time at 17:35, and fetching the rental car and luggage was quick. One big bonus of small airports is doing the renting in sight of the only baggage carousel!

I decided I would head straight to the former train station in Rothesay to photograph it with the fall colours. I had a hope in the back of my head that I could catch CN 406 passing by (to reproduce this), but I wasn't counting on it.

As I approached Station Road by the Rothesay station, I saw the last couple of tank cars on CN 406 roll by on their way to Moncton. Missed it by that much. You can't catch 'em all.

There was no point in pursuing them. It would have taken a lot of time to get back to the highway and the light was failing.

Fall colours and the Rothesay train station

At least I got the shot I wanted.

I headed into Saint John. As I drove along Rothesay Avenue, I spotted a set of locomotive headlights on the track leading to Courtenay Bay / Irving Oil / Irving Paper. I headed up and found GMTX 2226 working the crude oil terminal at Courtenay Bay. The sunset light was pretty sweet.

GMTX 2226 at sunset

I thought about staying to watch them switch, but I decided against it and continued on along past Island Yard. I was going to head to the NBSR Dever Road yard and see what was going on there before turning in for the night.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this excursion train at Harbour Station!

NBSR 9801 and an excursion train at Harbour Station, Saint John

I believe they had taken some people from a visiting cruise ship out for a spin. I saw a large cruise ship leaving Saint John that night.

In the photo above, you can see the crewman walking back to the cab. I must have looked pretty comical running back and forth as I wasn't sure which direction they were going. As it happened, they headed toward the Dever Road yard / NB Southern yard.

The train had NBSR 9801 with the three ex VIA Rail coaches (5448, 5471 and 5537) along with their "new" #508 and the Metis. NBSR 2317 was on the other end.

NBSR 508 and the Metis

The light was pretty low so I was shooting with a 1/20s shutter speed, meaning the blur was inevitable.

They took off and I gave chase. I decided I would try to catch them crossing the Reversing Falls bridge. I got to the Falls well before them, so I parked and ran up the hill to get a broad view of the bridge.

This was at 7:15 PM so the sun was already down below the horizon. Tricky light!

NBSR crossing the Reversing Falls bridge

I decided to stick to my original plan and headed to the Dever Road yard. I didn't think I would beat them there, and I was right. They were rolling under the Green Head Road overpass when I arrived.

I did managed to catch them passing the night switcher, NBSR 911. I like how this turned out.

NBSR 911 and the excursion train, by night

That was it for me for the night.

In part 2 I shared my catch of CN 406, twice.

Until then, you might wish to read about my visit to New Brunswick in 2011..

NB Southern Washout Ending

Torrential rains hit New Brunswick on September 30th, courtesy of Hurricane Joaquin. Some areas received more than 160mm (6.3") of rain, and drainage systems were overwhelmed. Many roads in southern New Brunswick were washed out and one person died in a related accident. Numerous bridges were damaged or washed out.

NB Southern Railway operations were suspended due to washouts and bridge damage in Hoyt, Wirral and in Maine (CBC article). Railfans noted work trains heading out from both McAdam and Saint John with ballast and other material in the past weeks to work on the damage.

The St. Stephen subdivision had some minor damage but was not closed for more than a day or two.

An NB Southern eastbound train arrived in McAdam this morning (October 11) so the line to Saint John is finally open again.

I recall the washout of September 2008 - I was able to take a few photos of a washout in downtown Grand Bay.

St. Croix Bridge Sabotage, 100 Years Ago Today

One hundred years ago today, a German saboteur attempted to destroy the St. Croix railway bridge linking Canada and the USA at St. Croix near McAdam, NB.

German agent Werner Horn (and an Irish accomplice) planted explosives on the American end of the bridge. The explosives did go off, putting the bridge out of service for a couple of days, but did not cause lasting damage. Horn was quickly arrested and imprisoned in the US (in Atlanta, GA) for a few years before being extradited to Canada, where he was put on trial in Fredericton and imprisoned in Dorchester, NB. In 1921 he was quite sick (suffering from syphilis) and was deported to Germany.

The white X on the photo shows where the explosives were placed, and the people in the photo are apparently American customs officers. Remember that in 1915 the US was not in World War I and were officially neutral.

Woodstock, The Carleton Sentinel, Page 4 - Friday, February 5, 1915 - GERMAN USED DYNAMITE ON C.P.R. BRIDGE AT ST. CROIX - The steel bridge spanning the St. Croix River on the main line of the C.P.R. was dynamited by a German shortly after one o’clock Tuesday morning.  The damage to the structure is not extensive, but traffic was interfered with to some extent.  The perpetrator of the outrage was arrested in a hotel in Vanceboro, Maine, and is held there now.

This bridge was part of what was originally The European and North American Railway Company For Extension From St. John Westward company, formed on April 13 1864 and mercifully renamed to the Western Extension Railway. The WER was formed to build a line from Saint John to the border with Maine, where it would meet the European and North American Railway [of Maine], coming up from Bangor. The Western Extension was started on the Saint John end in 1867 and the line was built to the St. Croix River (the border) by late 1869. The ENA was started in Bangor on January 1, 1867 but ran a bit late so the two sides were not connected until 1871. American President Ulysses S. Grant drove the last spike in Vanceboro on October 19, 1871.

Both the ENA and the Western Extension were originally built to the Provincial Gauge (5'6" between rails) and were not converted to standard gauge (4' 8.5") until 1877.

The ENA in Maine became part of the Maine Central, which leased and eventually sold a portion of its track to CP. The Western Extension became part of the New Brunswick Railway, which was leased and later sold to CP and now is part of the New Brunswick Southern Railway.

This bridge was not the original bridge on the site. The original was apparently a wooden bridge but I haven't found any photos of it. Apparently there was at least one accident during construction, as evidenced by this news clipping:

Halifax, Evening Express, Page 2 – Friday, October 2, 1868 – DOMESTIC AND OTHER MATTERS – We understand that an engine used in the construction of the Railway Bridge over the St. Croix River, exploded this morning, killing the Engineer and badly injuring three men.

The iron bridge that this post was erected in 1887, according to this news clipping.

Woodstock, The Sentinel, Page 2 – April 2, 1887 – NEW BRIDGE – A new iron bridge is being erected by the New Brunswick and Maine Central Railways, on the St. Croix River between Vanceboro, Maine, and St. Croix, New Brunswick. It takes the place of the old wooden structure, and rests on granite piers. The road bed has been raised three feet above its former level.

The bridge itself was built by the Passaic Rolling Mill Company (as seen in the top photo) of Paterson, New Jersey.

NB Southern train entering Canada, November 25 2006

The iron bridge no longer exists. Between 1972 and 1973 a centre pier for the new bridge was built and the new bridge was constructed beside the old one, and slid into place to replace the old bridge. It opened for service on April 25, 1973.

The current bridge is used by the New Brunswick Southern Railway.

Other references:

• CBC news article
• International of Maine fondly remembered, Omer Lavallee
• Canadian Rail #413, article by Fred Angus about the 100th anniversary of the "Short Line" in 1989
• My 2006 visit to Vanceboro

PS - does anyone know about the other railway bridge that spanned the St. Croix River near this one?

Happy 20th Birthday, NB Southern Railway!

NBSR in Harvey, NB 2009/02/21

The New Brunswick Southern Railway ran its first train on January 6, 1995... 20 years ago yesterday. The NBSR took over from the Canadian Pacific Railway, which left the Maritimes* on December 31, 1994.

The Canadian American Railroad Company took over the former CP track between Sherbrooke, Quebec and Brownville Junction, Maine. NBSR partner Eastern Maine Railroad Company took over the section between Brownville Junction and the US-Canada border.

When the NBSR first started, they leased CP power to operate their trains until they could acquire their own locomotives. In fact two of those locomotives (1813, 1866) ended up back in New Brunswick on the New Brunswick East Coast Railway.

NBEC 1866 in Miramichi, 2007/01/30

I believe NBSR's first purchased power was the pair of high hood GP9s NBSR 3700 and 3701, followed by a series of chopped-nose ex Southern Pacific GP9s later in 1995.

NBSR 3700 in Saint John, 2003/09/15

I first saw an NBSR train on July 18, 2000 when NBSR 3744 and NBSR 3787 were bringing some containers to CN's Island Yard.

NBSR 3787 in McAdam, 2000/11/12

I've had many happy chases of NB Southern trains.

Since those early days, NB Southern has accomplished a lot:

• Took over almost all local switching in Saint John in 2002
• Ran Trailer-On-Flatcar trains for several years
• Took over operations in northern Maine after MMA

At the 20 year mark the railway is doing very well and I wish them all the best in the future.

NBSR 2318 in McAdam, 2008/07/19

* well, except for a tiny bit of track in northwest New Brunswick near Grand Falls.

A Long Journey For NBSR 2319

NBSR 2319, one of NB Southern's GP38-2 engines, has been spotted in several places in the USA. She's far away from home, destined for Michigan for engine block work.

Sam Sponseller spotted her in Willard, Ohio yesterday amongst a number of CSX engines.

Photo by Sam Sponseller, used with permission

Her journey started in November when Harry Gordon spotted her behind some Pan Am engines on the 15th of November near Northern Maine Junction (link).

On December 20th she was photographed in the CSX Selkirk Yard near Albany, NY (link).

She was recently spotted on a railfan web cam in Berea, OH (link).

Hopefully more photos will surface as she continues to Michigan!

NBSR 2319 in Saint John, November 2007

An NB Southern Chase

I was staying in Saint John NB Thursday evening. I awoke Friday morning (Dec 12) at 8 am and checked my email / Google+ / Facebook and found a post in the RailsNB Facebook group from Brian Barchard reporting an NBSR eastbound freight train through Harvey at 07:25. I did some mental calculations and figured they couldn't cover the 40+ miles to Welsford until 08:30 at the earliest. I grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and headed out. My intention was to follow the NB Southern line all the way until I stumbled across the train. On my way out of Saint John I saw these two units at Island Yard..

I passed the Ponderosa Yard at Dever Road in Saint John but nothing was going on. Onwards!

I passed through foggy Grand Bay-Westfield without any sign of trains. As I approached Welsford I heard the EOT squawk* on my scanner just as I came to Aikins Lane/Sand Hopper Road and saw white tank cars going east. Time to turn around!

I decided to get them at Brittain Road first. I got there about 2 minutes ahead of the train. Looking at the bright(er) overcast sky and the dark ground, I set the exposure compensation on my camera to -2/3 of a stop. I do that in these situations to prevent the sky from blowing out when the camera meters the ground. I also had the shutter speed at 1/250s because of the low light. Normally I'd prefer 1/400 or faster but it wasn't possible given the available light. It turned out OK.

The consist was NBSR 6315, HLCX 6304, NBSR 6318, GMTX 2226 and GMTX 2233.

Next I was determined to get the overhead shot at Westfield Beach. I parked at the mailboxes and ran like heck up the bridge to get into position. Seconds later the headlights were visible as the train came around the bend.

Detail roof shot, anyone?

I knew I would be playing catch up so I drove through Westfield-Grand Bay. I wanted the curve shot at Milligan Road and arrived just in time. Part of railfanning is choosing your opportunities!

You can see there was some fog...

I grabbed a quick side-of-road shot as the train passed through Grand Bay.

Since I had an overhead shot I felt no need to get the overhead shot by the Co-Op, and the train was there first anyway. I had no real idea of what I wanted next except that I wanted the bridge shot just before Gault Road. I stopped to take this photo at Ketepec Road. The engineer really loved that horn and 6315 has a very loud horn!

Here's the bridge shot I wanted.

As you can see it was raining by this time, but whatever... The nice thing about a heavily overcast day like this is that you can shoot from any direction and the light is pretty much the same! I had to do some serious editing to lighten the pond and engines enough to be seen, yet not blow out the bright sky.

I went to the overpass to shoot them coming into the yard. "Huff and Puff" were working the west end.

These are NB Southern's two SW1200 locomotives.

The eastbound freight stopped for a while. I am not sure why but there was some chatter about a freight car.

Eventually they got started again.. very slowly. I imagine the rails were quite slippery with the rain and it was hard to get started up the grade into the yard. The engines sounded great and the sanders were doing their thing.

It's been a very long time since I chased an NB Southern train! Thanks to Brian for the heads up and the rest of the RailsNB group for all the information they provide.

New Name For The MMA, and Tank Cars

DOT-111 car carrying crude oil

The Bangor Daily News is reporting that the new owner of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic will change the railway's name to the Central Maine and Quebec Railway once the deal closes, probably by the end of March.

The excellent Oil-Electric blog has a good history of the rail line. He raises the interesting question of what power will operate the railway, given that the MMA is selling 25 locomotives to raise money. Perhaps the CM and Q will lease locomotives to start. or perhaps they have no intention of actually operating This filing to the Surface Transportation Board asks for an exemption for a non-rail company to own the CM and Q and operate essentially the same routes and serve the same customers as the MMA.

Speculation on the cause of the Lac-Mégantic runaway has focused on an insufficient number of hand brakes being set on the locomotives and freight cars (I thought that too). It has come to light that the MMA was repeatedly warned about not setting enough brakes - in 2004, 2009, 2011 and 2012.

I have a number of comments I'd like to make about Transport Canada's effectiveness, but that will have to wait for another time.

Meanwhile, Transport Canada is calling for increased tank car safety (but not requiring it) and Irving Oil is voluntarily upgrading the DOT-111 cars in its tank car fleet for increased protection. I'm told that they had a backlog of cars in Saint John due to difficulties with unloading in the cold temperatures, but the backlog is almost clear now. As non-upgraded DOT-111 cars are emptied, they will be shipped off to be upgraded.

EDIT: Added STB link, thank you JHansen!

Photos of New NB Southern Slugs

Railway photographer Mark Perry photographed two of the CN slugs purchased by NB Southern in Winnipeg and gave me permission to post them here. Thanks, Mark!

By the way, Mark has some great photos up on Flickr and a book. Check them out!



Note the raised headlights on ex-CN 269, absent on 501. As I said before, the 2xx series slugs seem to be used for road service and industrial switching, not for humpyard work, so they need visible headlights for crossings.



You can read about the slugs that NB Southern purchased.

CN Slugs Going to NB Southern

NB Southern has purchased four CN slugs. The four are CN 251, CN 269, CN 501 and CN 508. Two are currently in Winnipeg (CN 269 and CN 501) and the other two are in Edmonton.

The four were part of a long list of units for sale on CN's web site this summer.

A little history of these units:

• CN 251 was converted from a GP9 in 1990.
• CN 269 was converted from an MLW S3 in 1991.
• CN 501 and CN 508 were purpose-built as slugs in 1978 as  CN 261 and CN 268 and were renumbered in 1990.

You may recall that NB Southern bought a CN slug, ex CN 519, and it is now NBSR 008.

I understand the four slugs needed some work before they were road-worthy. I don't know when they will be heading east but I expect it won't be too long.

Personally, I've only seen CN 501 (my picture above), both times working the hump at Symington Yard here in Winnipeg. Two 5xx slugs are paired with two GP38s to work the hump yard. The 2xx units are usually paired with a GP9 or GP38 and work industries, as far as I have seen.

More Photos of Lac-Mégantic Engines

Jody Robinson and Gary Lee both photographed the same train that Steve O'Brien saw in Fredericton Junction, with the two (ex?) MMA leased engines CITX 3053 and CEFX 3166 and the MMA caboose VB-1 (not VB-4 as previously reported). These were posted to the excellent RailsNB Facebook group.

Jody photographed the train in McAdam.

Nice photos, Jody!

Gary Lee was positioned at the St. Croix River, right on the border between Canada and the USA. He had some great light! Note the Canadian and US flags on HLCX 6319.

Great shots, Gary!

Gary also posted a video of boaters on the river with the train rolling past.

PS the MMA is saying they need to rebuild the line through/around Lac-Mégantic to make themselves more salable. Makes sense, but of course there are questions about how polluted the site is and whether it will be on its original routing or around the town. The Lac-Mégantic mayor, Colette Roy-Laroche, is quoted as saying restoring rail service is one of the town's main priorities.

PPS the Canadian Senate's Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee issued a series of recommendations for transportation of crude oil and natural gas. It's important to note they started this process months before the Lac-Mégantic disaster, although Lac-Mégantic is certainly mentioned in the report. Here's the full report.