Disposition of ex-NBEC RS-18 Locomotives

This is what I believe happened to the RS-18 locomotives owned by the New Brunswick East Coast Railway as well as its sister company, the Ottawa Central Railway. After CN purchased the Quebec Railway Corporation's assets in late 2008, the RS-18s were retired and most met the scrapper's torch.

NBEC 1809 - scrapped May 2009
NBEC 1813 - scrapped summer 2009
NBEC 1814 - scrapped summer 2009
OCRR 1815 - scrapped
NBEC 1816 - scrapped summer 2009
NBEC 1818 - scrapped summer 2009
NBEC 1819 - to Gaspé Railway Company
NBEC 1821 - to Le Massif de Charlevoix
OCRR 1828 - to Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad, then Chemin de fer Sartigan in January 2013
NBEC 1830 - scrapped June 2009
NBEC 1834 - scrapped June 2009
NBEC 1835 - to Chemin de fer Charlevoix, then to Adirondack Scenic RR
NBEC 1840 - scrapped summer 2009
NBEC 1841 - ??
OCRR 1842 - to Trillium Railway
NBEC 1845 - to Adirondack Scenic RR
OCRR 1846 - scrapped
NBEC 1849 - to l'Amiral cruise train
NBEC 1851 - scrapped summer 2009
NBEC 1853 - ??
NBEC 1854 - scrapped summer 2009
NBEC 1855 - scrapped June 2009
NBEC 1856 - to Gaspé Railway Company
NBEC 1857 - ??
NBEC 1858 - scrapped
NBEC 1859 - to Trillium Railway (out of service)
OCRR 1865 - to Gaspé Railway Company
NBEC 1866 - scrapped?
NBEC 1867 - scrapped fall 2009
NBEC 1868 - to Le Massif de Charlevoix
CFQC 3000 - to Compagnie du chemin de fer Lanaudière

Please contact me with any updates or corrections. Thanks to those who have already written me!

CP 8743

In honour of the cold day outside here in Winnipeg, here's a shot of CP 8743 on a cold day in Fredericton, NB. This slide was shot by Greg Brewer in January 1984. You can just imagine the crisp snow crunching underfoot. There are a few long icicles dangling from the former shoe factory in the background.

CP 8743 was built in May 1957 for CP by the Montreal Locomotive Works. In 1989, a few years after this slide was taken, she was rebuilt with a chop nose and renumbered to CP 1865. 1865 soldiered on for a few more years until she was sold to the Ottawa Central Railway in December 1998.

She was captured in OCR livery in May 2008 at Ottawa Central's Walkley Yard by Mark Chouinard.


Anyone know what the eventual disposition of Ottawa Central 1865 was?

The current CP 8743 is a GE ES44AC built in late 2005.

This Day, 19 Years Ago

Here are two slides, shot at McAdam, NB 19 years ago on July 3, 1981. CP 8776 and CP 8784 were apparently doing some switching.




CP 8776 was built by the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) in May 1958. It was rebuilt as part of CP's RS-18 rebuild program in 1985 and became CP 1834. It served CP for just over a decade before being sold to the New Brunswick East Coast Railway in April 1998, becoming NBEC 1834.

NBEC 1834 served for a little over five years, before going to sister railway Ottawa Central in November 2003 and becoming OCRR 1834. It does not appear to have been repainted, given this photo taken in March 2006 showing it in tattered CP colours and NBEC lettering.

After CN purchased the Quebec Railway Corporation properties, OCRR 1834 was sent to the scrappers in Chicago in June 2009.

I personally saw NBEC 1834 9 times before it went to the Ottawa Central. Here's a video of it, shunting in Miramichi with NBEC 4210.


CP 8784 had a less exciting history. It was also built by MLW in May 1958, and was rebuilt in 1989 to become CP 1852. It ran for a mere 8 years before being retired in March 1997 and presumably scrapped.

CN Purchases NBEC, CFMG, OCR, COGEMA

The CN - Quebec Railway Corporation deal finally hit the news. CN is purchasing most of the assets of the QRC, specifically the CFMG, NBEC, OCR and the COGEMA rail ferry service (CN Press Release, Canadian Press, Financial Post, CNN Money, Progressive Railroading). CN says "Post-transaction, it will be 'business as usual' under CN ownership, with no immediate changes in freight, VIA Rail passenger rail service or employment levels," but we all know there will be changes in the future.

(CFMG = Chemin de fer de Matapedia et Golf, NBEC = New Brunswick East Coast Railway, OCR = Ottawa Central Railway)

From the Canadian Press article: "CN said it plans to invest capital over the next three years to upgrade the rail lines and will replace the existing locomotive fleet with more modern motive power. The company does not plan any changes to freight, VIA Rail passenger rail service or employment levels."

At the same time, Logistec purchased the Sydney Coal Railway (SCR) from the QRC (Logistec release). Logistec owned a portion of the QRC already, and it looks like it will be financing the purchase of SCR from the money it receives from the sale of the other QRC properties.

The Canadian Press article also says that CN will operate the Gaspe line, which makes sense.

The QRC will be left with the Chemin de fer de Charlevoix (CFC) near Quebec City, and that's it.

So, what does this mean? Nothing in the short term. In the long term, the MLW units will all disappear and be replaced by the usual CN units. I expect the maintenance shop in Campbellton (Eastern Rail Services, ERS) will be shut down. The big plus for shippers and passengers is that there should be significant capital investment in the line to bring it up to snuff for the big CN units and trains, and that means faster transit times for passengers and less slow orders. I wouldn't be too surprised to see one of the two regular CN freights (305/308 or 473/474) shifted from the Napadogan subdivision to the former CFMG/NBEC line to replace the NBEC 402/403 freight.

Get your shots of the NBEC and CFMG units while you can!

NBEC 4214

NBEC 4214 has been on the Ottawa Central Railway (OCR), and is coming home to New Brunswick. She was spotted on OCR train 440 on June 6. I understand an RS18 from NBEC will be going to OCR on a permanent basis, probably NBEC 1851.

NBEC 1835 to Ottawa Central

I heard that NBEC 1835 is being sold/transferred to the Ottawa Central Railway. The OCRR is another railway owned by the Quebec Railway Corporation, which owns NBEC, CFMG, OCRR, COGEMA, CFC and SCR. Is that enough alphabet soup for you? :)

Ottawa Central 1815

I'm quite a bit late in posting this, but OCR 1815 was through the Maritimes a while ago. It spent some time in Sydney, Nova Scotia at the SCR shops, having arrived there back on January 25. 1815 left Sydney on February 21 behind RailLink GP9 4004 (report by Mike Whitty). It was spotted in Truro by Andrew Blackburn in the evening of February 23, and left Moncton on February 25 on CN 123 (thanks to Phil Ross).

There's a nice roster shot of OCR 1815 on Railpictures.net.

NBEC 4214 On Ottawa Central

What was once NBEC 4214 appears to be OCRR 4214 (Ottawa Central) in this video from Maxime Larouche.


Compare that to this video from 2004 where 4214 was labelled "NBEC".


I last saw 4214 on December 29, 2006 in NBEC train 403 at Dalhousie Junction. Obviously it has moved on since then!