Sunday, May 06, 2012

The Expanding NB Southern Railway

According to my notes, the New Brunswick Southern Railway now has 23 engines*. At this time last year, NBSR had 11 engines. Incredible!

* - I'm not sure about the status of the Maine Central (Pan Am) engines that are on some of the main line trains.

The big driver has been the operation of Maine's northern lines as well as increased traffic on its own lines. SteveO and others report that the Irving Oil refinery is expanding its rail operations. They are adding crude oil unloading racks that will have a capacity to unload 192 cars in a 24 hour period (in 4 shunts). It is widely expected that unit oil trains will be arriving from Saskatchewan.

Look at trains like this one, recorded by Brian Barchard. Such a colourful consist!


It looks like a return to the colourful days of 2004-2006!
NBSR 2317 etc. in McAdam in 2004



NB Southern railfanning is getting way more exciting. I kinda wish I was back in New Brunswick to see this.

View my roster page for the complete list.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Steve,

Your last sentence in your post, about being a rail fan elsewhere is interesting, because that was the very question I was going to ask you when I was reading this post.
You have travelled all over the country and into the states if I recall from your previous posts.
If you could pick one place to be a rail fan...where would it be? I am going to stick my neck on the line and bet that you wouldn't pick Manitoba??? I could be wrong.
Thanks,
Glen

Canadian Train Geek said...

Hi Glen, well, hmmm, good question. I wax nostalgic about New Brunswick because that's where I started railfanning, but to be honest I see way more trains here in Manitoba than I ever did in New Brunswick. I'm happy to be railfanning here but I am a bit nostalgic for the old short lines in New Brunswick.