CPR Gathering at McAdam September 15

There will be a railway event at McAdam on Saturday, September 15. I understand there are events planned for the afternoon, with registration starting at noon. The highlight for railfans will be former CPR M-630 #4563 on display. This is a public event.

NB Southern will run their passenger excursion train from McAdam to Harvey from around 10:00 to noon, for employees and their families only.

I understand there is going to be a notice in the Daily Gleaner, so keep your eyes open for that.

I have a family event in the late afternoon but I expect I will be in McAdam for the morning and early afternoon. Can't miss the rare CP unit!

EDIT: Thanks to Danny McCracken for the details.

EDIT: CP 4563 is now at Farnham, Quebec as of Sunday September 9. Photo by Frank Jolin

Here's a photo I took of CP 4563 at the Canadian Railway Museum (Exporail) on July 6, 2005.

An odd visitor to Halifax

Local railfans noted the arrival of IRSI's RDC 6202 to Halifax Friday in the middle of CN train 148. It was in Halifax for CN's Safety Days on Saturday. It took CN and VIA employees and family on a number of round trips between the Halifax Intermodal Terminal and Rockingham (not a great distance).

My love-hate relationship with Railpictures

Long-time readers know that I have a love-hate relationship with RailPictures. I love it when I get my photos into their database, and I hate it when I get rejected.

Well, now I'm a "real" photographer. I am now in their list of photographers, since I have 25 or more photos in their database.


May I say... "woo hoo!"

A few NBSR YouTube videos

From Dwayne784, three units running light:


Another one from Dwayne, with NBSR 2317, 2612, 9801 and the eastbound freight leaving McAdam:


Finally, rare footage of NBSR 3701 leading...

Video of NBEC 403

YouTuber clam502 taped the same train I saw Tuesday, except he got 403 going north/west to Campbellton.

His first video is in Charlo.


Here it is at Dalhousie Junction.

NBEC and VIA sightings, September 4

Here are a few NBEC and VIA sightings from yesterday (September 4)...

VIA 14 arrived in Miramichi a few minutes early, with VIA 6428 and Operation Lifesaver unit 6411 leading a Renaissance train. I didn't catch the name on the Park car - too busy dreaming as it rolled by, I guess.


At the other end of the (mostly empty) yard, CFQC 3000 and NBEC 1840 sat idle by the crew shack, and CFMG 6907 lurked in the background.


I headed north after the Ocean left. I heard a squawk on the RTC channel around Pointe Verte, and I figured it was the daily freight #402. I arrived at the east end of the Belledune siding just before noon, and saw nothing. I figured I would go to the west end of the siding, and if there was nothing, that was it. Imagine my surprise when I saw a couple of SD40s just west of the siding. Train 402 had just finished pulling four loaded centerbeam flats from Chaleur Lumber and was ready to continue east/south to Bathurst. After I pulled the lucky horseshoe out of my butt, I set up the tripod and taped them leaving while I took a few snaps. My old nemesis Railpictures liked this shot.

Train 402 had CFMG 6906, CFMG 6903 with 86 cars.

Later in Bathurst, I found NBEC 1821 and 1845 (train 586) working the yard while 1851 was at rest by the station. I figured the return freight NBEC 403 and I would pass each other between Bathurst and Miramichi, and I was right. When I arrived at Miramichi around 16:40, CFMG 6907 had just finished assembling its train #402 to take down to Moncton.


CFQC 3000 and NBEC 1840 were buried back in the yard, idle.

That was a good day to see trains.

NBEC news

Following on the heels of the UPM-Kymmene mill shutdown, I have two pieces of NBEC news.

1. Six people from their Transportation division have been laid off, as told to me by one of NBEC 402's crew today.

2. The Quebec Railway Corporation, owners of NBEC, CFMG, ERS etc. are selling one or more SD40 units. I saw an ad in Railway Age:

I believe that's CFMG 6909 in the image. That's all I know so far.

Exceptional NBSR video

Dave Dineen has posted a really good NB Southern Railway video to YouTube. He chased the September 3 (Monday) eastbound freight from McAdam to Saint John, and took advantage of pretty much every photo opportunity along the way. It's 8 minutes 45 seconds long but worth watching all the way through.

The train had NBSR 2317, 2612, and 9801 with 85 cars.

Saturday's NB Southern Eastbound Freight

For September 1 I decided to take my usual path up to McAdam to see the eastbound freight. The weather was OK but pretty cloudy. We arrived in McAdam at 13:00 to find the eastbound already there, and ready to head to Saint John. I guess it was running pretty early!



I left fairly quickly, to ensure I got a video of them leaving McAdam. First, one more shot from the other side.


They crossed the highway at 13:10 with NBSR 2317, 2612, 9801, and 2319 with 18 cars.


Here's the video of the freight leaving McAdam.



They made excellent time to Harvey Lake. I arrived there and was busy setting up my tripod when I heard the rumble in the distance. I barely had time to put the video camera on the tripod and turn it on before they arrived at 13:52.


It was a short trip!

Thursday in Saint John

I was in Saint John on Thursday afternoon (August 30). CN 305 had already left, so all I saw were the three leased CN GP9s. CN 7010 was doing some shunting, and I caught CN 7000 and 7060 bringing a local out to the refinery at 15:16. Video is here.



Not much else to report, really. NBSR 2610 was doing some shunting in the Dever Road yard, according to the scanner, and the NBSR eastbound freight had already arrived but I didn't see the power. I'm guessing they took freight to the Port right after they arrived.

New CN video online

I've put a video of CN 305 at St. Basil online. This shows CN 305 with three units (including an Illinois Central unit) approaching Edmundston on August 12, 2007.

Canadian Railway Observations

William H. Baird is moving his "Canadian Railway Observations" newsletter from email to his new web site, called, guess... Canadian Railway Observations. Check it out!

The Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad

I had a brief visit to the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad in Unity, Maine this past Sunday, August 26. I wasn't able to see anything moving, but I walked around the grounds and had a good chat with one of the volunteers there.


The station above has a ticket office to the left, and a little museum in the rest of the building. The volunteer told me that the items in the museum are on loan. It's a work in progress.


The steam engine is out of service, so they are using a 70-ton diesel to pull the train. Here's the steam engine by the turntable.


There are more photos in my tourist railroad photo gallery.

There is a great article on the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad here that goes into the BML's history in great detail.

VIA Rail YouTube videos

Finally, videos of VIA in the Maritime region.

clam502 posted a video of VIA 15 arriving at Campbellton.


This one by P-Y shows VIA 15 near Trois-Pistoles in Quebec at night... you can see VIA 6400's number boards very clearly.

CFMG Videos

I'm just about caught up in my YouTube watching... this time I'm featuring a few videos featuring the CFMG in Quebec.

First, a nice video from P-Y of CFMG 402 at Trois-Pistoles, Quebec on August 11 with 3 SD40s and 117 cars.


He was lucky enough to catch the two ex-Maine Eastern units on CFMG in two locations on August 16, Bic and Rimouski. The units were going to the Tshiuetin Railway (Sept-Îles).



Here's Patrick Sirois' video of CFMG 402 at Ile-Verte siding, Mont-Joli sub.

Some of Gary's recent videos

Here's a few videos from Gary of McAdam.

This is NB Southern 2318 East. I see there were several doublestack container flats on the tail end.


This is inside the cab of NBSR 9801, going down the first bit of the St. Stephen sub in McAdam.


NBSR 2318 and 2317 going by the McAdam station.

CN 305 today

Kevin G caught CN 305 today and put a few videos on YouTube.

Here's CN 305's power (2681 and 2639) running over to Courtenay Bay to get empty potash cars, and returning with them.


Finally, here it is near Sussex.

Union Pacific videos from California

I've put videos of the two Union Pacific freight trains I saw in California on YouTube.

Here's the small one, UP 361 at Castroville:


The other train had 26 beat-up freight cars with UP 5342, 5355 and 5447.


Those were both from my last day of California railfanning.

I see someone else shot a UP freight in Castroville, though at a level crossing:

NBSR 2319 in yellow

MEC252 (Travis Bragg) has posted a couple of videos of NBSR 2319 switching Hermon, Maine when it was lent to the MM&A during the spring of 2005.

Grab Bag

A CN export train (number 436) is on its way through New Brunswick soon. It left Joffre at 07:30 and should be in Edmundston by about 13:30, then Moncton around 19:30-20:00. All times approximate, of course!Train of thirteen export units by Brockville at 18:20.

The consist was CN 5251 with DRS units 66421 to 66427 as well as SNTF units 060DS01, 060DR09, and 060DR13-16 with a few spacer flat cars.


A "5 pack" of containers derailed at the Port of Saint John Monday and tore up some track. The track remained blocked Tuesday night, with three NB Southern locomotives trapped behind the damage. CN sent a rare train 594 down the Sussex sub Sunday morning, I'm told to get some late containers including the blocked ones. It had CN 9574 with 20 container cars and 14 tank cars.

FREDfm reports that a train hit a truck "just outside Bathurst" yesterday (Tuesday). Fortunately, the 51-year-old driver had minor injuries. "RCMP say the man failed to look both ways when he attempted to cross the tracks".