An NBSR Westbound..

I managed to catch the April 25th westbound out of Saint John. The sun had set so I only shot from one location, the Ketepec Road crossing. I used a small hill just west of the crossing to get a different angle. I think this might be one of my first videos with 2612 leading the train. I love the sound of the horn!

NBSR Eastbound with a different ending..

Joey's first train chase! Christina and myself packed up our family for a drive today. The only twist was I had my camera and scanner.. The rain finally stopped leaving a cloudy day. So I decided that I would shoot video figuring the low light wouldn't be the best for photos. I never heard a thing on the scanner as I made my way towards Fredericton Jct. As I reached the church in Blissville I could see the crossing lights on. I pulled over and turned around to head for my first shot.

I decided on trying to shoot the train as it passes a small lake just west of the Welsford hot box detector. My next shot was one of my favorite locations in Westfield.

It's a nice S curve with a small bridge. The train then slowed through Grand Bay and I actually got ahead of it. So I headed for the overpass in Martinon. The engineer throttled up for the shot as they pass under the bridge.

Figuring I wasn't going to shoot anymore I headed for the east end of the Dever Rd Yard. I sat and waited for the train to pull into "P4". 9801 was about half way through the yard when it stopped. The engineer called for someone to check if the rear of the train. He said to the yard planner that the train slowly came to a stop, and that he figured one of the cars is on the ground. Come to find out they derailed the 7 wood chip cars at the rear of the train.

I climbed the bank near the Manchester overpass to catch this shot of the tail end of the train. It's not the best angle to see it derailed but I didn't want to get any closer where there were a few NBSR employees around. It was decent chase with a different ending, in our new Impala.. and Joey Slept through it all.. Enjoy the video!

Not much new..

Well it has been almost a month since my last post and unfortunately I have nothing to report for chases. Things have been pretty busy between work and my family. I'm hoping to get out soon. In the past week I have purchased a new car and I am eager to do my first chase with it. A 2008 Chev Impala. I needed some more room and the Cavalier just wasn't cutting it. So anyone that happens to see me chasing trains feel free to say "Hi". Now if you are ever traveling throughout NB you may notice some cameras along the highways. These are web cams that belong to the Department of Transportation.

The main reason I bring this up is there is a web cam pointed directly at the Rte 7 crossing in Welsford. I have been checking the cam quite frequently to see if it should happen to catch a train in the shot. The day after I found the website I caught a shot of the crossing lights on. But finally after 2 months of checking the website the cam caught a train crossing Rte 7.

You can check out this webcam and many others in NB by using this link:

http://www.gnb.ca/0113/cameras/welsford-cam-e.asp

Finally got to see a pipe train..

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.

NBSR 9802 East

I finally got to chase a train!! With my two weeks holidays almost over I was determined to get out for a chase. My first intentions were to go to McAdam but as time got on in the morning I wasn't ready to go in time to get there. So I just waited abit and left for Vespra. This is usually where I begin my chases. But today I decided to go through the dirt road through to Rooth and wait at the other end by the hot box detector. I really had no idea when the train would be leaving McAdam so I figured I had abit of a wait. Not 10 mins after getting parked, the scanner started dialing the RTC. I couldn't hear the eastbound train talking but the RTC in Saint John came through loud and clear. There is a radio tower for the railroad near the hot box detector. The RTC repeated that the train had left McAdam. I only had about a half hour wait from the time the call was made to Saint John to when the train reached Rooth. Then I was off! I started to take photos but I wasn't happy with the light being on the opposite side of the train so I switched to video. The train consisted of GP38s #9802,2317,2610,2318,2612 and 44 cars. Quite abit of power for such a small train. But engineer Gary Graham wasn't pushing it hard to get home to Saint John. For my first shot I decided on a bridge at mile 55. The road was at a lower grade than the tracks. Second location I decided along a straight stretch in Tracy. I tried to make it into Fredericton Jct to catch it crossing the bridge east of the station but traffic held me up and I didn't make it. So on to Blissville. I wanted to see the train kick snow on the straight stretch approaching Rte 101. I then left for Welsford. I got there with some time to spare. I looked over some of my video I recorded and got ready for my next shot. I sat up from the Rte 101 crossing in Welsford. I waited for the hot box detector to go off and the lights to come on. I drove up to the lights to be the first car. Then it was off for Westfield. While I waiting in Welsford I was thinking about how I could record chasing the train along through Westfield where the tracks are close to the road. I was by myself and no one to help. So I thought about standing my tripod up in the front seat on the passenger side. I kept the legs short and raised the plate where the camera attaches. I angled the camera to the left side and turned the screen on my Canon S3 towards myself so I could see what I was recording. And believe it or not it worked. I'm sure Image Stabilization helped out too. So I recorded about 8 mins of driving along side the eastbound. I kept my window open to get the sounds of the train. I'm really impressed with how it turned out. And I got to safely drive along with the train. Then I wanted to get my last shot of the whole train. I decided on the Acamac Backland Road in Saint John. And that ended my chase for the day. As I made my way home a new pipe train was on the main line in the Dever Rd Yard to be unloaded. I'm guessing it came in yesterday, but I could be wrong. Enjoy the video!

Looking back on 10 months of NBSR..

With the recent birth of my son Joey I have been using my Canon S3 quite abit. I was trying to think of how long I have owned this camera. So I looked at my "train photos" folder and determined I have owned it since April/07 and so far I have taken about 1200 NBSR pics. I put together a 7 minute slide show of some of my favorite NB Southern pics that I've taken over this span of 10 months. To help make it less boring I added "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" by Gordon Lightfoot to it. Oh and don't worry it's not all 1200.

Newest Railfan

I'd like to introduce my newest railfanning buddy. Joseph Allen (aka Joey) was born at 5:09pm on Feb 11th. A few hours after being born my father was trying to teach him to say "highball" for his first word.. lol