Moncton Railroad Show

Don't forget the Moncton Railroad Show tomorrow, April 11 in Riverview, New Brunswick. Directions and times are on the web site.

I plan on arriving around 11 or so. I hope to see you there!

Photos from 2008

Strange VIA Yesterday

There was a problem with VIA 14 and they had to leave most of the Renaissance cars in Charny, Quebec. VIA 6449 took the 9 cars back to Montreal early yesterday. VIA 14 proceeded with the Chaleur consist and 4 Renaissance cars. It went through Tide Head (just on the NB side of the border) at 15:30 Thursday, and left Bathurst at 18:35. Michel Boudreau caught it there with VIA 6416 and 6412 leading.


Doug Lawrence saw them leave Halifax today at 12:49 with the following consist. One has to assume these are the same cars that were on VIA 14 yesterday.
Engines 6416, 6412
Baggage 8618
Coach 8124
Skyline 8507
Chateau Brûlé, Roberval, Latour
Baggage 7011
Coaches 7228, 7230, 7231
Service car 7309

CN Test Car

CN recently retrofitted an RDC (Rail Diesel Car) as a track inspection car. It can do inspections at up to 60 mph and detect cracks in rail joint bars as small as 1 mm. It is CN 15016 (RailPictures photo by Michael Quagliano).

Wendell Lemon reported it is visiting the Maritimes as train 482. It should be on the Newcastle (ex-NBEC) subdivision today and Thursday.

EDIT: The RDC arrived in Campbellton at 8 PM Wednesday.

Flood Protection

It has been reported that a work extra was dispatched last night from Campbellton with ballast-laden cars for the railway bridge at Matapedia. This was done last year as well, but a lot later in the month of April.

A locomotive will be in place at Matapedia to move the cars off and on the bridge to allow other trains to pass.

NBEC 4214 In Illinois

Here's a shot of ex-NBEC 4214 (and ex-OCRR 1846) in storage at East Hazel Crest, Illinois. Photo by Steven McKay. Browse through his collection for photos of NBEC 1866, OCRR 1838, NBEC 6901, and NBEC 1818, as well as other CN, BC Rail, and other units.

Two More Gone

NBEC 1857 in Miramichi, February 9, 2005.

I guess Saturday was the last revenue run for CFMG 6909. It and NBEC 1857 left Campbellton this afternoon on their way to CN's shops in Woodcrest, Illinois.

CFMG 6910 is the last ex-QRC SD40 left in New Brunswick. I'm sure it will be gone in a day or two as well.

CFMG 6907 Video

CFMG 6907 was the third unit on train 584 in Eastern Ontario Thursday night.

More NBEC Power Updates

CN 5288 leads CN 564 at Bathurst on April 4, 2008. Photo by Michel Boudreau.

Michel Boudreau noted CN 564 left Bathurst today around 5 PM, with CN 5288 and CFMG 6910 and 4 cars of lumber from Chaleur Lumber in Belledune. No sign of CFMG 6909.


In other news, NBEC 1851 left the area Thursday morning on CN 562 for Woodcrest, Illinois. The next RS18 to leave should be 1857.

NBEC 1851 leaving Bathurst, May 5, 2008

CFMG 6909 and 6910 Again

Those two old warhorses are still running... Michel Boudreau shot them leaving Bathurst Friday afternoon. Very nice video. There was a string of empty container flats on the end of CN 564. I saw the same flats coming into Miramichi on Thursday. They must be going for storage somewhere... unless the long-rumoured "containers into Belledune" is coming true!


Michel was in Bathurst shooting at the same time I was, on Thursday. Here are two shots of the SD40s. Here's CFMG 6910 at the east end of the yard.


Then CFMG 6909 leading on the return trip. They are waiting for CN 567 (ore train) to clear the track.

Thursday, Continued

After my luck at finding CFMG 6909 and 6910, I still had a few trains to see on Thursday.

In Bathurst, CN 5260 and 5251 were at the head of a longish ore train in front of the VIA station at 17:20. I didn't stick around to see them leave.


I went to Miramichi with the intention of seeing VIA 15 before heading home. They are due in Miramichi at 18:53. I thought of going to the south end of one of the bridges to reprise this shot, but the access road was full of snow. I decided to shoot them on the bridge by the former UPM facility.

To my surprise, I heard chatter on the scanner between a CN freight and the VIA train. It turns out that the CN Moncton-Miramichi freight (CN 569) was running ahead of the Ocean. The RTC was giving VIA short sections of track to occupy, to keep them moving but not run into the back of CN 569.

To make a long story short, CN Work 5343 crossed the bridge at 19:03 with 5241 trailing.

They had an interesting train behind them. There were a lot of gondolas, empty gypsum cars, and a long string of empty container platforms. 49 cars in total.


Hot on the heels of CN 569 came VIA 15 at 19:12 with 6434 and 6440 leading another Renaissance train.

I elected to shoot stills because I was standing on the highway bridge, and the noise and vibration from passing cars and trucks would have ruined the video. The lighting was great there, as you can see.


That was enough for me, and I headed home, satisfied.

The Last of the SD40s

I had a quick trip up north yesterday, my first in a long time. I was very fortunate this trip and my timing was good.

I left Fredericton later than I had hoped, so I figured I would have no chance of seeing VIA 14, the Ocean, in Miramichi. As I passed the VIA station after 11 AM, I was surprised to see a lot of cars there. I stopped and asked the agent, and he said the Ocean was due in a few minutes. I went down the line a bit and they rolled past at 11:27 under an overcast sky, with 6449 and 6416 pulling a Renaissance set.


There was no talk of the southbound mainline freight on the scanner around Bathurst, so I continued on. As I approached Belledune, I heard some local switching chatter so I looked for them at Chaleur Lumber. Sure enough, there were CFMG 6910 and 6909 pulling out of the spur.


They coupled on to the rest of the train, then spent some time trying to contact the RTC. They finally got through and went on their way at 13:21. They had those two old warhorses wide open when they went past.


I saw two CN SD40s switching a train in Belledune but I was too far away to get any numbers.

Later, I managed to find the northbound CN mainline freight at Beresford at 17:00 with 6909 leading this time. I would guess from the time spread that they did not go to Miramichi.


I understand this may have been the last run of the last NBEC / CFMG SD40s on the line. I'm glad I was fortunate enough to see them.

I'll post about the rest of my sightings later.

Bathurst Videos

Michel Boudreau posted some videos of the same trains I saw today... first! So I will post his first.

Here is CN 567 (ore train) coming into Bathurst with CN SD40-2W 5260 and 5251.


Here is CN 565 (ex 403) going north from Bathurst, with doomed CFMG 6909 and 6910 for power. Be patient... the train does eventually leave.

Quite a Derailment

A Great Western Railway snowplow and engine derailed while plowing the Assiniboia subdivision in Saskatchewan. The plow ended up pointing almost 180 degrees from the original direction, and both the engine and the plow are leaning quite heavily. The photos (courtesy Ken McCutcheon) are quite good.

CFMG 6907 Gone

CFMG 6907 in Miramichi, September 4, 2007

I'm told that CFMG 6907 is in Walkley Yard in Ottawa having her fluids rained. Walkley Yard is the former Ottawa Central Railway (OCR) yard, now owned by CN.

That leaves CFMG 6909 and CFMG 6910 as the only two non-CN SD40s left on the former Quebec Railway Corporation system. Expect them to be gone very soon, together with the few MLW units still present.

1931 Dominion Atlantic Railway Employee Timetable

There is a scanned copy of the June 21, 1931 Dominion Atlantic Railway employee timetable online at the DAR DPI. I love employee timetables.

In later years the DAR's timetable was combined with CPR's timetable. It looks like it happened between 1968 and 1972, because the April 28, 1968 timetable does not have the DAR lines in it, but the April 18, 1972 employee timetable does.

The Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative (DAR DPI) is a project to make available materials on Canadian Pacific Railway's Dominion Atlantic Railway, which ran from Yarmouth to Windsor Junction in Nova Scotia. Have a look at their site!

RS18s

NBEC 1857 in Miramichi, February 9, 2005

NBEC 1857 is in the ERS shops getting ready to depart for "a better life" elsewhere.

NBEC 1849 is in Sept Isles, but is due to be retired when it returns. There are some buyers interested in the RS18s.

There are a few other RS18s around Campbellton that need work before they can leave, along with C424 NBEC 4235.

There might have been a plow extra yesterday east of Chandler to deal with the big snow drifts. The Chaleur didn`t make it to Gaspe on Friday.

Bathurst Power Today

Michel Boudreau told me the power for Saturday's ore train was CN 5343 and 5241. The same units are being used for the Bathurst switcher, as it is only shunting twice a week. The rest of the time, shunting is done by the mainline train.

He says trains 402 and 403 are no more, replaced by 568 and 569. Train 569 had CN 5373, CFMG 6909 and CFMG 6910 with no cars. They did a pickup in Bathurst and Michel heard on the scanner that they were going to work Beresford and Petit Rocher before going to Campbellton.

Here's Michel's video of 569 arriving and leaving.

Train Magazines For Sale

I have a collection of train magazines that I am selling, here. There are many Model Railroader magazines, some Trains, some Railroad Model Craftsman, and a few others. Many of the magazines were my dad's, from the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Prices? Any magazine before 1980 sells for 50 cents, anything after costs a dollar. I can do a really good deal for multiple magazines if you are interested. I just want to get rid of these. :)

Currently there are 49 Model Railroader, 56 Railroad Magazine*, 8 Trains, 5 Railroad Model Craftsman, and 5 others.

Follow the link and look at the spreadsheet. There are tabs along the bottom to switch between magazines. Send me an email (stevetraingeek@gmail.com) with what you would like, and I will get back to you.

First come, first served.

* Railroad Magazine was the precursor to Railfan & Railroad.

NBEC SD40 Spotting

Michael Da Costa (aka trainmaster_1) spotted two former CFMG units on CN 363 at Beare in Ontario. Train 363 had CN 2254 and 2613 doing the work, with the two SD40s dead-in-tow.





Check out the rest of his photos.

NBEC SD40s On The Run

NBEC 6900 in Belledune, May 26, 2008

NBEC 6900 left this morning, and I understand NBEC 6905 is next. Based on what I reported earlier, that means only 6907, 6909 and 6910 will be left.