VIA Ocean 14 Late Arrival

August 21, 2008

I got up at 7:30, washed up quickly and walked up to the train station to meet VIA 14 the Ocean coming in. I soon found out that it wasn't arriving until 11:40. Late again! It was 1 hour late when I came in from Halifax on the 18th. NBEC must be doing some maintenance work on some of the tracks.

I came back later and grabbed a few shots as it was pulling into the station. The lead was 6421 with 6406 the Spiderman unit following. The sky was nice and blue that morning. I didn't get a car count, but I imagine it would have been about 16 or so.

After that I made a last minute decision to catch it up at Nepisiguit Junction. I was hoping that the CFMG wood cars were gone already. When I arrived I noticed that the first two CFMG wood cars that I wrote about on the 19th were gone, but alas, there were 4 new ones on the siding and blocking most of the view. I didn't bother getting the numbers or marks as I was frustrated with them. I decided to stay and grab some shots of 14 anyway, and make the best of it. Eangeline Park was on the tail end.

Cheers,

CFQC 3000 In Bathurst Yard

Over the past couple of weeks, I've noticed that there is a CFQC engine hanging around and shunting in Bathurst. The unit number is 3000 and looks to be a RS-18 painted black with the Operation Lifesaver emblem on the side of the cab. Here are a few pictures of CFQC 3000 from this morning.

Also sitting quietly on a siding, were NBEC 1851 and 1821. I saw them later at around 15:00 shunting some cars around by the St. Anne bridge sidings.

Cheers,

EDIT: Corrected CFMG 3000 to CFQC 3000. Also corrected the tag.

VIA Ocean 14 Instead of NBEC 402

I was sitting in the dining room this morning working on some CSS for my website, when I heard a short blast from a train horn. The first thing that came to mind was NBEC 402 arrived at the Bathurst station. Excellent, I didn't miss it! I quickly jumped in the truck with my camera and and headed to the station.

As I turned up Duke Street, I saw the tell tale sign of the green renaissance cars. Via's Ocean 14 was late, again. I decided to head directly to Little River and catch an overhead shoot from the one lane steel bridge crossing above the tracks. I only had to wait for about five minutes and it came rumbling by.

The lead engine was 6426 with 6412 following, 1 baggage car, 16 coach and sleeper cars, and Yoho Park on the tail end.

Cheers,

586 @ Nepisiguit Junction

August 19th, 2008

I'm staying at my parents house for my holidays, and they just happen to be not too far from the train station in Bathurst on Riverside Drive. I was at the house when I heard the sound of a very large diesel engine. I figured I'd take a quick drive to the station. There I saw NBEC 1868 & 1813 hooking up the last few cars to make train 586 and getting ready to head up to Brunswick Mines with a load of empties. I headed straight for Nepisiguit Junction.

I arrived there 20 minutes ahead of 586 and saw on the siding 2 CFMG bulk wood cars, numbers 690151 and 690117. One was about 3/4 loaded with 8' poles and the other about full. Here's a few shots of them.

I think that the siding these cars were on, at one time went up to about or a bit past the switch coming from Bathurst station as part of an old siding. But I admit that I could be wrong. You can view an older picture of Nepisiguit Junction on Steve Boyko's New Brunswick Railways web site which, I might add, I enjoy perusing a great deal.

As I waited, I snapped a few other random shots of track, ballast and ties. Alot of them didn't turn out good because I was snapping pictures as the camera was hanging around my neck.

At 19:30, I saw the lights of engine 1868 come around the bend in the distance. A quick stop to align the switch for the Brunswick Mines spur, and they were on their way again. I thought of catching them at Blue Mountain Pit, but the light at this time of years fades away early.

Cheers,

Halifax CN Train

August 15th, 2008

I started my holidays on August 14th at about 5:30. My flight left at 23:35 on the 14th straight to Halifax and landed there at about 7:45 the morning of the 15th. The flight wasn't too bad. I was heading there first to visit my god daughter.

That day we were down by the waterfront waiting for one of my friends to get off work and I just happen to notice a train across the harbor. The train consisted of only two CN SD75i engines numbered 5798 on the left and 5675 on the right. The numbers are hard to see in the jpg version, but are fully visible in the raw file.

Cheers,