Confessions of a Train Geek

I was in Saint John yesterday. Just after getting off highway 1, I saw NBSR 2612 and 3702 parked in the siding at the east end of Island Yard.


There was a string of freight cars by the former VIA station, presumably brought over by them from Dever Road. As I took a few photos, the carman drove by in his ATV and joined the conductor waiting by the freight cars.


I saw freight cars being pushed up the hill from Island Yard. Presumably CN 405 (or 406, whatever CN is calling it now) was pushing uphill to get the rest of the freight cars. Here's a short video in the rain.


CN 7060 was parked by the shop building in Island Yard. I noted one of the blue NBSR passenger cars was parked near the shop with the NBSR "office" caboose 422990, presumably to get ready for the New Brunswick Day excursion between Harvey and McAdam.

Labels: 2612, 3702, nbsr, saint john

I hear NB Southern's slug 008 was on the road Thursday, presumably with "mother" 2318. Apparently it went to McAdam Wednesday night as part of the westbound freight. It was returning to Saint John Thursday afternoon, departing around 15:30. It was probably a slow trip, given the numerous slow orders on the main line, courtesy of the recent track evaluation (TEC) train.

Labels: nbsr, slug

I hope everyone is having a great Canada Day today.

There are CBC Global & Mail articles about the startup of the Boundary Trail Railway startup. The BTR will operate 35 kilometres of rail between Manitou and Morden in Manitoba. This is a portion of the (former) CP La Riviere subdivision. The province announced in May that they were giving a forgivable loan of $615,000 to the BTR to help purchase the line from CP. They also received one million dollars from the Federal government earlier this month. It looks like RailWest Management Ltd. was involved in preparing the business case for the BTR.

"It has contracted with Central Canadian Railway to provide car hauler, maintenance services, links with major railroads on traffic and delivery issues, snow clearing and basic administrative services." They will interchange with CP at Morden.

Labels: boundary trail, manitoba

Here's a quickie video of CP 9513 leaving Swift Current, SK.


And my personal favourite, two CP ballast trains near Morse, SK. One backs in a siding while another pulls out... blogged about here.

David Chiasson posted a great video of CN power running the ore train on the Nepisiguit Subdivision. CN 5342 and 5251 provided the power. Well worth watching!

Labels: cn, david chiasson, nepisiguit, video

As I mentioned before, I saw GMD1 CN 1412 on June 11 in Regina. Here are two videos of that little engine. First, 1412 pulls a pipe train past me on its way to the yard. My youngest son provided commentary.


Next, 1412 runs light through the yard after depositing its train. Note the former Railnet units behind the GMD1.


Love those GMD1s.

Labels: 1412, cn, gmd1, regina

On June 25, we drove back from Winnipeg to Regina. On the way, we saw a few trains (mostly CP) and I managed to record two of them.

Broadview, Saskatchewan is a division point and you can often see a train there. This time I saw CP 3100 and 3034 resting there. Unfortunately they were not in a photogenic spot.

Later, I saw an eastbound freight just east of Grenfell, Saskatchewan. It appeared to be accelerating from a stop. I pulled over to a rural crossing and set up my video camera, only then noticing that it had been left ON. The battery light was blinking but I turned it on anyway and then started shooting stills. The battery died about halfway through the train, which is good enough, I guess. You can just see the Grenfell elevator in the distance behind the train in the photo.



As we passed Grenfell, I saw a westbound freight off in the distance. Clearly there had been a meet. We carried on and soon came to Sintaluta, SK (love that name) where another eastbound freight waited in the siding. I stopped to take a few stills before heading on. I was pleased to see the second unit was CP 6078, an SD40-2 converted to a "B" unit with blanked-out windows.



I understand the B units were created by CP because they were dedicated to Locotrol (remote control) service and would never lead.

Labels: cp, es44ac, saskatchewan, sd40

Apparently the CP track evaluation train rolled into Saint John without any railfans noticing. It was spotted Friday night at the NB Southern shops with CP 8205, a modified hi-cube box car, and two coaches. Those are likely the same cars that visited in 2007 and 2008.

I doubt I can spare any time to chase it. Hopefully someone will grab a few pictures when it goes by!

Labels: cp, tec

(continued from part 1)

Once the westbound CP train left, I refueled at Esso and Tim's and headed downtown. On my way there, I heard CN 114 calling the station boards as it approached town. I shot CN 8857 and BCR 3903 near the route 240 overpass at 07:30.


After that, a few CN section men got permission to do some work on switches near the CN-CP diamond. That ruled out any CN action for a while. I wandered around a bit before hearing CP 748 call in. I decided to shoot them near the route 240 overpass. It turned out that the power was Olympic CP 8865 on the head end of an intermodal train, with CP 9833 pushing on the end.


I went down to East Tower for the next shot. CN 115 blew through at 09:00 with three units, CN 2262, 2596 and 5563 providing the power.


I heard a track foreman ask the RTC for track time. The RTC said that CN 314 was switching Bloom (just west of Portage), so I decided to go there. I saw CN 5685 and 5783 doing a bit of switching, with the rest of their long train on the main line. They put everything back together around 09:35 and headed out. I decided to shoot them coming out of Portage, so I went to the gas station just east of Portage and waited. They rolled by at 10:10, and I tried for a little artistry here.


I took one more conventional shot and headed back to Winnipeg. Not a bad morning at all!

Labels: cn, cp, portage la prairie