10 Questions for Matt Landry

This series is modeled after the "Interesting Railfan" series in Railroad magazine from years ago. I'm asking each railfan 10 questions, some standard and some customized for the particular person. I hope you enjoy it. (See all in the series)

I put 10 questions to Matt Landry, who is a railfan in New Brunswick, Canada. I've known Matt virtually for years and we've met in person a couple of times.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, let's see, I'm Matt Landry. I was born and raised on PEI. I lived in Ottawa for five years (8-13 years old) before moving back to PEI, where I lived until 2007. From there, I moved to the Saint John, New Brunswick area, where I still live 9 years later.

I work for Baxter Dairies (milk company). I've been there since 2009, where my job consists of sales and merchandising.

2. Why do you like trains?

Honestly, I don't really know why. My great grandfather was a flagman for CN on PEI back in the day, so my mom says it's kind of in my blood, even though I don't work for the railway. I guess people need to have an interest in something, and for myself, it would be the trains.

I was only seven years old when the railway was shut down on PEI, so I only vaguely remember trains while they were running on PEI. I really only started to get into trains again when I moved over to Saint John (check out the PEI Railway Facebook group, or the new PEIRailway.ca site!)

I used to just pull over and watch the trains if I was stopped at a crossing or knew if one was coming. After a while, I realized, "hey, people are taking video and pictures of them", so that's where my love for the video/photo side of it started.

NBSR 6319 leads a passenger train to the Dragon Boat festival at Renforth, NB

3. Where’s your favorite place to railfan?

Honestly, I don't have a favorite spot to railfan. I've been getting more involved with photography over the last few years, so I'm constantly trying to find new areas to take photos. I guess I could say that the Moncton area would be my favorite spot, but the photo locations around Moncton always change.

4. If you could railfan anywhere, anytime, where and when would it be?

I've always wanted to catch the CP Holiday train. Obviously closer to Christmas would be better, but I would also be happy to catch them shortly after they depart Montreal, i.e. Smiths Falls.

Another area where I'd love to railfan would be out in western Canada, more specifically, along the Rockies. There's so many great photos that come out of those areas, and I'd also want to hike around and try to find vantage points which haven't been found yet.

CN 8945 leads westbound train CN 406 through the fall colours near Petitcodiac, NB

5. What’s your favorite railway?

Unfortunately, CN, NBSR and CBNS are the only railways in my area. As much as I see CN on a more regular basis, my favorite railway would be the NBSR.

6. What’s your workflow for processing and sharing your photos?

I always take multiple shots of one scene when I'm out. For example, a short time ago, I chased the NBSR from Saint John to McAdam. In that 3 hour chase, I took about 30 photos, but I only choose about 5-6 to actually work with.

I shoot raw, so I pull the shots off the camera into Photoshop's "Camera Raw" application, which works amazingly well.

After editing, I bring my photos over to Lightroom, where I apply the watermark to my photos. Once this is finished, if time permits right away, I'll upload them to Flickr and submit them to Railpictures.net.

CN 2821 leads a B730 potash crossing the Salmon River Trestle at New Denmark, NB

7. How do you decide where to take your photos?

It just depends. I try to find spots where the lighting and scene is great, and I try to find a location that I haven't shot anything at for a while.

Sometimes I'll go back to a scene that I might have recently shot at, but I'll go to a different vantage point to try for something different.

8. Do you use presets with Lightroom or edit each photo individually?

I edit each photo individually. I'm always using different settings and different lenses, so I just find it's better to work on each photo individually, even if it does add a little bit of time.

9. What recommendations would you give to the intermediate railfan to improve their photos?

Try and get out of Auto. Shooting in manual actually isn't that hard, and it gives you WAY more control over your photos.

For a fast moving train, you want a faster shutter speed, and having the camera decide the settings can be fatal, especially if you've been waiting all day for your first shot or whatnot.

Even if you want to start with "Tv Mode", aka "shutter priority", that's something that you at least have control of. The last thing you want is a blurry train when you don't want it that way.

Oh, try and have fun. This hobby can be frustrating sometimes.

CN 3040 leads CN 120 through the fog at Fort Lawrence, Nova Scotia

10. What projects do you have ongoing or planned?

Not sure if you'd call this a project, but over the next little while, I'd like to start getting back into shooting video on a regular basis again.

At one time, video was my main priority, but it's taken a back seat to photography. I've only uploaded about 4 videos so far in 2016, so I'm hoping to get back into the video side of it again soon.

Thanks, Matt! To see more of Matt's work, check out his Railpictures.net profile, his Flickr photos, his YouTube videos, or follow him on Facebook.

See all the 10 Questions series

BNSF Unit Oil Train!

The Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick has been receiving oil trains from North Dakota and the surrounding area. These have generally been coming over NB Southern's tracks as 80-car unit trains, although some oil cars have trickled in on CN via CN 406. Railfans were excited to hear that a unit oil train was coming with three BNSF engines on it. The train arrived at Hermon, Maine on December 29 with the BNSF engines, and ended up parked on MM&A rails for a few days, apparently waiting for a crew.

The train finally made it to McAdam this past Saturday (January 5) at 10:30. Jody Robinson reported that it dropped its train in track 28 and made up another train with the oil cars already in McAdam, then hit the road around 16:15. It was reported through Harvey at 17:00.

Jody Robinson and Gary Bowser did great work documenting the train in McAdam.

The train had BNSF 4649 (Dash 9-44CW), BNSF 9723 (SD70AC), BNSF 7589 (Dash 9-44CW) and HLCX 6332 (SD40-2) for power. Here are a couple of Jody's photos.

I think I can safely say that these are the first BNSF engines to ever visit McAdam... given that BNSF did not exist prior to NB Southern's existence.

Here are a few of Gary's photos, as well as a video he took.

Matt (aka Saintjohnrailfan) caught the train rolling through Grand Bay on its way into Saint John.

The power did not stay long in Saint John. It went west on Sunday the 6th with empty oil cars and some miscellaneous freight. This time both Matt and Dave Dineen (aka nbsrfan) caught the train. Here's Matt's video first.

Now Dave's:

Great work, Jody, Gary, Matt and Dave! Special thanks to Jody for keeping the Facebook RailsNB group updated on the train's progress.

The Dominion of Canada Has Arrived

The Dominion of Canada has arrived in Halifax, on CN 120 as mentioned earlier. The above shot by David Tindall through the fence at the Ceres terminal shows the two steam engines parked, waiting for the Atlantic Conveyor to come pick them up next Tuesday September 25 to begin their journey across the Atlantic.

Matt aka Saintjohnrailfan caught the Dominion of Canada on CN 120 en route.



They are headed over to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Mallard's world steam engine speed record. Here is a nice web site listing all of the festivities.


Thanks to David Tindall, David Othen, Bob Liming and Matt for information, photos and video.

New NB Southern Engines Have Arrived

Two of NB Southern's "new" leased engines arrived in Saint John on Saturday on CN 406. Gerald McCoy was kind enough to allow me to post these photos of HLCX 6304 and HLCX 6322.



CN 406 had CN 2657 and CN 8009 ahead of the two leased SD40-2 engines.




Matt aka saintjohnrailfan shot CN 406 in Nauwegewauk en route to Saint John.


Thanks to Gerald and Matt for sharing these.

NBSR Oil Train With CP Power

Several New Brunswick railfans caught the NBSR unit oil train coming into New Brunswick on NB Southern Railway tracks on July 2. The great thing about this train was that it used run-through Canadian Pacific Railway power... with a great leader.

Jody Robinson was first up with these great shots of the train at McAdam.


The train had Iowa, Chicago and Eastern engine ICE 6450 on the head end. ICE 6450 is an SD40-2 built in September 1979 as Oneida and Western OWTX 9956. It became a BC Rail BCOL 749 and then ICE 6450, "City of Welcome". I don't know if the engine refers to Welcome, Minnesota or Welcome, North Carolina!

What a rare sight in New Brunswick!

Behind ICE 6450 was CP 5926 and CP 5928, two more SD40-2 engines. I've never seen CP 5926 but I did see CP 5928 once, trailing on a train through Pense, Saskatchewan back in 2008.

It sure is nice to see Canadian Pacific Railway engines in McAdam again.

The fourth engine was an MMA engine, MMA 3603, a GE C30-7 built as ATSF 8016 in 1977.


Now on to the videos. Gary Lee shot a handheld video of the train leaving McAdam.


Next up was Brian Barchard shooting the train through Harvey. His video combines three NBSR trains, two from June 30 and the July 2 oil train starting at 5:17.


Matt aka saintjohnrailfan shot it at Welsford at the first highway crossing. Nice wave from the engineer! I noticed that there were several doors open on the MM&A engine; maybe it was having mechanical issues.


Dave Dineen aka nbsrfan was also at Welsford and shot it there, at my favourite spot in Grand Bay, and entering the yard in Saint John. Here they all are in one video.


Great shots all around for a great train. Thanks to Jody, Gary, Brian, Matt and Dave for the photos and video. Well done.

Photos and Video of New NBSR Engines

The engines have arrived in Saint John!

Matt aka Saintjohnrailfan caught them coming through Rothesay on CN 406 in this great video.   

NB Southern Update

There are some good photos and video available of the new NB Southern leased power now, plus a few run-through engines!

Jody Robinson sent me these two snaps from McAdam, NB from Sunday February 12. First up are two run-through engines, MEC 380 and 381. Both of these engines are GP40s but MEC 380 is unusual as it is a high-hood GP40. You can't see that from this photo, alas.


Also on the freight were the two leased SD40-2 engines, HLCX 6200 and HLCX 6318. You can see that they now have the bay windows fitted. I think they give a bit more visibility and are warmer than the standard windows. 6318 has her nose chevron stripes now.


Jody says that traffic on the St. Stephen subdivision has picked up quite a bit, with a daily train every weekday with good size trains to St. Stephen and the Woodland mill in Maine. Good news. Thanks Jody for the news and the photos.

Matt aka Saintjohnrailfan got out to Enniskillen today to catch the westbound freight. As it happens, it had HLCX 6318 on the point with the aforementioned MEC 380 second and NBSR 2319 trailing. You can catch a glimpse of the high hood on 380. Great snow action!


Dave Dineen aka NBSRfan was out on February 9 to shoot both the eastbound and westbound freights. Each train had one of the leased Helm SD40s on it. It's a typical quality video from Dave.


It kinda makes me want to be back in New Brunswick to shoot the mean green trains!

HLCX 6200 Arrives

Several people went out on January 8 to shoot HLCX 6200 as part of train CN 406 en route to Saint John.

First, Matt aka Saintjohnrailfan shot it in Rothesay near the station... using his tried-and-true Picture-in-Picture technique. Very nice.


SD40-2fan shot it a bit closer to Saint John, in three locations.


Oh, and Brockrailfan shot it on a CN train in Belleville, Ontario... probably CN 308. It's in the video at about the 3:30 mark.


Barbarysheep1 was shooting in the same location. His video is here and is pretty much the same, except for some reason he seemed to have some hair on the lens. HLCX 6200 is just after the 4:20 mark.

Hopefully HLCX 6200 will get right to work on the New Brunswick Southern Railway, and HLCX 6318 will arrive soon!

Matt and CN 406

On Wednesday night, I met up with Matt aka saintjohnrailfan near the Rothesay train station. We set up for CN 406 and shot the breeze while we waited. In good time we heard the horn blowing in Renforth and she came around the corner at about 18:16.



Before CN 406 came, a young couple with their boy arrived and sat down to watch the train. I think they might have placed a penny or two on the tracks. I remember doing that when I was a kid in Shearwater, NS.

When 406 came, they were given an enthusiastic wave from the onlookers.



Matt was taking video (see his videos) and captured this great video. I was very sad to see the deer run out in front of the train at about 1:00. One of them didn't make it. :(  I hadn't noticed them at the time as they were far away from us.



As the train passed, Matt and I said our goodbyes and I took off to try to catch CN 406 around Hampton. I got my directions a bit confused and ended up exiting the highway at Bloomfield. I backtracked a few kilometres and ended up on Odell Loop Road on an old iron bridge over the tracks. As you can see, I was shooting directly into the setting sun. Still, it was fun to chase the train.



It was great to see Matt again after so many years... I remember meeting him by the Staples near Rothesay Avenue quite a few years ago. Hopefully it won't be so long before I see him again!

Maine Northern 9801 in McAdam... and CN 4102

Brian Barchard sent along a few shots of Maine Northern Railway #9801 in McAdam. He spotted it there on the afternoon of August 20 (Saturday). They came into McAdam with a bunch of empty log cars. After dropping them in the west yard, they wyed the engine, and presumably left.



I guess it came back to McAdam a few days later, because Gary Lee shot it there on August 23. It looks like it was coming off the wye.


Brian also mentioned he saw CN 4102 heading west through Harvey toward McAdam on the evening of August 21. As it turns out, Gary was out and saw it shunting the yard in McAdam that night.


CN 4102 has been working in Saint John. Kevin Gaudet caught it and CN 4132 as part of CN 406 on June 11 heading to Saint John.


Matt aka Saintjohnrailfan shot the same train in Hampton, closer to Saint John.


Good railfan coverage all over!

Two "New" Units For NBSR

Two of the Helm leased units (HLCX 906 and 911) have arrived in Saint John. They came via CN to Moncton and were brought to Saint John on CN 406 yesterday, July 7. Matt aka saintjohnrailfan shot them behind the two CN units on 406.


Dave Dineen shot them this morning at the Island Yard in Saint John. He wrote a blog post about them. Click on the image to see more photos by Dave.


Presumably these units will be repainted ASAP into NB Southern colours. I'm glad they were caught before they wear the corporate green and yellow. Who knows - maybe they won't be repainted?

Long Trains

There's a good article in the Financial Post about today's very long trains. Observers of the railways in North America will have noticed the gradual lengthening of trains from the 1990s trains not exceeding a mile in length, to today's trains, which can exceed two miles in length.

The main drivers behind the increase in length are twofold: using more track capacity, and reducing the number of crews required. Packing more cars per train means you can run more tonnage over a given line. Perhaps more importantly, running fewer trains means you need fewer crews to man them.


The railways have invested heavily in increasing train lengths. Siding lengths have had to be increased, often more than once in the past two decades, to allow longer trains to meet and pass each other. Many locomotives are now equipped to be controlled remotely, as Distributed Power Units (DPU). Placing DPU engines in the middle or rear of trains reduces the in-train forces caused by acceleration and deceleration to be reduced, bringing down the risk of derailments. CN in particular had a number of accidents in British Columbia after they took over BC Rail due to the lack of DPU engines in the long trains they ran through the mountains.


As the article says, how long can trains go?

A hat tip to Matt aka Saintjohnrailfan for the article link!

Potash Trains

Matt uploaded this video of CN 594, an empty potash train on its way to McCullys to drop the empty cars off.


He's been busy shooting the potash trains. Here's another of his from a month ago.


The trains run from the PotashCorp mine at McCullys outside Sussex, down the CN Sussex subdivision to Saint John and over to the Courtenay Bay wharf. They used to run a mixed bag of CN hoppers but in the past few years they have been using the orange cars seen here.

Viewer Video: GEVO Central

Matt aka saintjohnrailfan posted a video of CN 406 featuring two shiny new GEVO units, and our mutual friend Luc D at the controls!

The video was shot near mile 61, which is near Moosehorn a little south of Norton.

Viewer Video: A Shave and a Haircut

Here's a nice chase of CN 406 by saintjohnrailfan. He chased the train from Sussex, NB to Hampton, NB. There's some nice pacing video in the middle, too.

In case you are wondering where the shave and a haircut in this video comes from, the engineer tooted a little tune on the horn. No doubt you've heard it before.

Miss That NB Southern

I see lots of trains here in Winnipeg, and that's great, but I do miss the little green engines of the NB Southern Railway. Here's a few recent videos that were taken of the good ol' NBSR.

Dave Dineen posted this video of NBSR 9802 East from October 30.


Here's Matt's video of an NB Southern transfer train in Saint John a few months ago, also with 9802 and 2612, and 9801 in the middle.


Here's an old one I took, from March 2004, showing NBSR 2317 running light in its old yellow "Sunbury" colours.

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.

Eight Units on 305

Matt caught CN 305 at Berry Mills just outside Moncton with eight, yes, 8 engines on the head end. Great video.

Apparently three units had come into Moncton on CN 474 and were not required, so they went right back out on 305.

For the record, the units were 5774, 2418, 2527, 2619, 2226, 5757, 4774 and 4773.

CN 305 On The Main Line

Kevin Gaudet recently posted a video of CN 305 rolling through Berry Mills in the early morning. I liked how he had the hotbox detector recording at the beginning of the video.

It was good positioning of the camera, too, to compensate for the low sun. It's hard to get good early morning shots where the track goes east-west.

That video inspired me to dig back in YouTube history for other shots of CN 305 on the CN mainline in New Brunswick. Here's saintjohnrailfan's video of CN 305 at McGivney, with a DPU no less, on August 24 2008.

The train horn echoes well in McGivney.

Here's jamminjoel's video of CN 305 at the route 625 crossing on September 6, 2008.


Finally, here's one of my own shots of CN 305, at St. Basil NB outside Edmundston on August 12, 2007.

CN 121

Dave and Matt went a-chasing trains recently on the Napadogan and Pelletier subdivisions in New Brunswick. Here are a few of their excellent videos.

They shot CN 121 at Ennishore first. This is Matt's video.


Next, Matt's view of CN 305 heading west over the massive Salmon River trestle near New Denmark, NB.


Here's Dave's view of CN 121 heading west on the Pelletier subdivision out of Edmundston, NB.