The Pelletier Subdivision, Part 2

Continuing from the last post, we were at Riviere-Blue in Quebec awaiting the arrival of CN 308. We were not disappointed, as she rolled through at 12:25 Eastern with IC 2717, dirty black IC 1020, blue BCR 4652, CN 5648, and red-white-and-blue BCR 4608 leading a long long train.


After a dozen or so freight cars went by, we jumped in the car and beat it out of town. Alas, they got past CN 121 at Tarte and to the highway crossing before us. It was close but of course safety comes first so I stopped at the crossing, got out and gave them the railfan rollby inspection. Once the long train passed, we pursued and this time I got to the highway crossing well ahead of them at Long Lake. We elected to jump out just out of town to get this shot across the lake.


Once again in pursuit, we crossed the border ahead of them and got one side-of-the-road shot just short of Lac Baker. We then hurried ahead to Lac Baker to get the church shot. I was literally slapping the tripod up and turning the video camera on as the train rolled into view at 14:05 Atlantic... it was a close thing.



This time I shot the whole train, since time was running short and I didn't intend to pursue any more.

As it happens, they beat us to the next highway crossing and then we passed them as we entered Edmundston on our way home.

The Pelletier Subdivision, Part 1

Continuation of Napadogan Subdivision post. On May 31, David Morris and I passed Edmundston into Pelletier subdivision territory in hot pursuit of CN 121.

We decided we would get it at Lac Baker, NB since there was a lovely church that could be used as a background for the train. We arrived and parked at the Caisse Populaire, then I headed across the road to scout out locations. I thought I was a lot farther ahead of him than I was... because I could hear them blowing for a nearby crossing! I didn't have time to set up the video camera, so I just shot stills at 11:36.



A great combination of light and location... in my humble opinion.

David and I knew, from the lineup we had earlier that day, that 121 would have to meet CN 308 somewhere nearby. As it happened, we got another phone call at noon stating that CN 121 was stopping at Tarte to meet CN 308 there. Now, if you look at your Pelletier Subdivision timetable, you will see that Tarte is at mile 44.0 and we were around mile 20. In fact, Tarte is the only siding greater than 7500 feet on the subdivision, so if two long trains have to meet, that is the place.

Given that we knew CN 308 would be a while, we elected to pull up stakes and head west into Quebec to at least look at Tarte to see if a photo could be taken there. We did that, and decided that there was no good shot there without a great deal of hiking. We continued on to Riviere-Blue and set up there by the old station to await 308's arrival.

Read on!