On Monday Mar 24th I was enjoying my long weekend like alot of people. I had the family out for a drive while it was nice out. When I got home, I checked out some railway sites online and came across Steve Boyko's Blog mentioning the NBSR eastbound was going to be a pipe train. So I headed out on a chase. This is the first pipe train I have seen in motion. I left Saint John shortly after 1pm and my first intentions were to just go to Welsford. But when I got there I heard nothing on the scanner. I had a gutt instinct to keep going until I found the train. I went as far as Vespra. This is where I like to start some chases from.
When I arrived at the crossing in Vespra I saw a mini van parked close to the crossing. It was Steve Boyko. As I was getting parked the RTC called the 2318 Extra to see where they were. I could actually hear the train and they were at Magaguadavic. It's between McAdam and Harvey Station. So we had a bit of a wait for the train. After about a half hour of talking trains Steve called a friend to see how the train was making out. It was getting close but was behind due to a problem with one engine. And finally shortly after 3pm the train arrived. I decided I would try some stills while it was a nice sunny day. And the chase was on! Being under powered it was easy to get to the spots I picked out on my way to the chase. I first took some shots of the train in Vespra. But the pipe cars were farther back on the train so it was hard to get the pipe in the shots.
I then headed for Fredericton Junction. I wanted to get a shot of the train going across the bridge just east of the station. It was badly back lit but it was the first time I've ever gotten a pic there so I took some anyway. I actually got one close up shot of 2318 just before the bridge.
I then headed for Blissville. I wanted to try some long shots to try and get some of the pipe in the shots. Shortly after parking on the side of Rte 101 Steve arrived at the same location. A nice shot through a field. The afternoon sun makes for some nice shots here.
I then tried for some more locations on the way to Welsford. After I left Welsford I decided I would try a shot of the switch signal at Westfield Beach. This would make a great shot if you had a telephoto lens.
I then headed for a large curve in Grand Bay that makes for some great shots. That was where I ended my chase for the day. The train consisted of GP38s 2318,2317,2610,2612 and 57 cars. From what I could tell from roll-bys it was 2612 that was giving them problems. It seemed they had the loco shut down. The crew of the train called the RTC to make sure they had an engine on stand by just in case they couldn't make it through Grand Bay due to the grades.
