Saturday, August 28, 2010

An odd Saturday....

This morning I decided to take the family for a drive with no peticular destination in mind. But I ended up following the McAdam Sub from Saint John all the way to McAdam. Along the way I just barely heard something mentioned about someone being 2 hours away from McAdam. So I figured it would be the eastbound. I thought a nice chase would be a great way to spend the afternoon. So we waited around the border crossing just west of McAdam. As we were there I caught a conversation about a "work" train coming into McAdam from the McAdam Sub and that they would be about a half hour. So we went to town to get some lunch. As we waited for our order the "work" train arrived into town. So I went to the station to catch it coming in... This is where it gets weird.
As the train came into view at the station, it had quite a long string of cars on. It actually turned out to be a westbound. Usually Saturday is an eastbound day for the NBSR. So my intent was to catch this train crossing the bridge at the border. But as I waited in the park next to the bridge some kids came along and parked right in my shot of the bridge. So I just decided to catch them at the Rte 630 crossing just afew miles east of the border crossing. 2612,9801,9802 rolled through with 43 cars.
And so as I was editing this video I thought I would look this area up on a Timetable that Steve Boyko has on his website from 1994. This line is called the Mattawamkeag Subdivision. Something I did not know.. Ya learn something new everyday!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

I never would have thought...

Back when I started posting videos on YouTube I figured I would do alright for views with my videos. But my first snow plow video I ever made took right off! It has been online for two years and it has now over 600,000 views and over 200 comments. I never ever thought it would do so well. The video I am speaking about is a plow extra that NBSR ran back on Jan 2nd of 2008.
The NBSR are getting to be famous!! lol

Another container transfer..

Back on August 22nd, I managed to catch another container transfer climbing the grade. Saintjohnrailfan was along for the catch. NBSR has recently cut some brush along the tracks there so we set up just up hill from the crossing. The units were 2612,9801,9802 and they hauled 34 cars.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Mill Street Grade

Well this past Sunday I was out looking for some trains to catch and the NBSR westside crew, with 2319,9802,9801, were just arriving at the Island Yard to grab the containers. So I decided I would film this. I decided to go to the Mill Street grade to catch them working hard on the hill. I chose an elevated spot. Now as the NBSR westside crew were making their way to the hill they mentioned that 9802 was low on water and that they would only work the engine on the hill. But they also had an Island Yrd crew on stand by just incase they stalled. Now the funny part! As I was finishing my shot of the transfer climbing the hill I could hear another engine running. I turned to my right and sure enough the Island Yrd crew that was on stand by followed the transfer up the hill and into my shot with CN GP9 4141. It was an interesting catch!
For my next shot I headed to the westside. As I came into Simms Corner you could see CN caboose 75624 waiting to be added to the tail end of the containers to make a reverse movement to the Port of SJ. So I went to the crossing at Sand Cove Road and within afew minutes the train came along.


Enjoy the video!