A weekend of Foaming..

 I've had some decent luck while out watching trains this long weekend. On Saturday I went to Carle Ave to see what was up in the Dever Rd Yard. I wasn't there very long when I heard someone dial the NBSR mainline channel. I couldn't hear the train speak, but it was a work train getting a clearance to come to Saint John from around mile 41.0 of the McAdam Sub. So I hit the highway for Welsford. I arrived in plenty of time so I went to the Rte 101 crossing close to the hotbox detector to wait.

I decided I was gonna do a chase of the work train. Usually the work train is just some ballast cars and a caboose, so I wanted to make sure I got more than one quick shot. So I set up my tripod on the passenger side of my car for some through the window chasing. I don't do this type of thing very often so it's fun when I do.

At approx 1:45pm the train rolled into Welsford. 9803 leading CN caboose 75624, 10 ballast cars and a log car. After they rolled through I mounted my camera on the tripod and set out. I didn't really expect to see them cross Highway 7 but I lucked out and they were going slow so I managed to catch them crossing the highway as I approached the activated crossing lights. After that I went to Westfield. This is where the line runs close to the track. I began my chase at the Britain Rd. I basically just pressed record and drove. I would check the flip out screen on my camera to make sure the shots were ok, but my driving was most important. I didn't want to get in anyone's way so I made sure I pulled off the road when any traffic was around. I followed them down into Grand Bay with my last shot being of them approaching a crossing on a nice curve.

This is where I made my U turn.. As I was recording the chase through Westfield the RTC was dialed again. This time it wasn't the work train. It was the regular eastbound looking to get clearance to proceed to Saint John. So that meant another eastbound! Back to Welsford I went. This time I started from the Gov't garage located next to the crossing. After another short wait I heard the hotbox detector go off and then along came the train. It was three units. 2319,9801,2612 and they were hauling 57 cars. So I set up the camera again for another chase. I followed the train through basically the same area as the work train. Only this time I chose a shot closer to Saint John for a final shot. Here's the final product.

On Sunday I got together with my friend Matt to catch some trains. We managed to catch two. First being a NBSR transfer climbing the Mill Street Grade. And the second being CN 406 rolling through Rothesay.

CN's Napadogan Sub Action on Sept 26th

On Sept 26th, Saintjohnrailfan and myself decided to take a trip to McGivney to catch some action. It has been a long time since I ventured up that way so I was looking forward to it.

We arrived at 4:30am to see a green over red signal facing east so we knew 121 must be on it's way. After close to an hour of waiting, we saw the bright headlights of 121 coming in the distance. It looked like the sun was rising on the horizon as we looked towards Moncton. So we set up our shots and sat ready. I used my usual spot next to the crew shack. I love this spot for two reasons. First.. The dusk to dawn light on the building helps light up the shot. And two.. The rush you get from the train rolling by so close and at that speed!

At approx 5:30am 121 rockets through McGivney.

After 121 finished we tried to figure out if a 474 was due through. Matt had a heads up about one coming from Edmundston to Moncton but the signals all shown red. So we pretty much figured we missed it.

So we headed towards Chipman. We had some time to kill before 305 would roll through so we explored around checking out different locations for shots. We ended up at the Bronson Settlement Rd. There is a hot box detector there and a nice straight stretch. After about an hour wait 305 rolled though with an SD70M-2 leading and one as a DPU.

We only caught 2 out of 3 trains but it's better than nothing. Definitely not a wasted day!

Just for fun I recorded 121 rolling by with my cell phone. The quality isnt that great, but it shows more of what I see as I record a train next to the crew shack at McGivney.

Also here are Matt's videos of that day.

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!

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.

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!

Matt & Dave's Northern NB Adventure

On Wednesday July 7th I tagged along, with my fellow railfan Matt, on a trip up north to the Grand Falls - Edmundston area to catch some CN action. We spent about 12 hours in the area in the heat!! With the humidex at 40c, I'm sure we sweat off some pounds as we waited for trains.. lol. 

Our first train of the day was 121. We chose the Violette Station Rd in New Denmark. There is a set of signals there at the west end of the Ennishore siding. Now for this trip I borrowed a camera from Matt to try some picture in picture videos. So my idea was set up one camera with a wide shot and use the other for different angles and close ups. Great idea in theory.. lol. I set up my wide shot for 121 on a small hill that is close to the crossing at the Violette Station Rd. You can actually see my camera set up in Matt's video of the train. And I stayed with my close up camera close to the crossing. Well we weren't quite sure where the train was when it came around the corner, so I had to do some running to get cameras rolling. Here's my video I put together from the two cameras.

  

Now after train rolled through we headed up to Edmundston. We wanted to catch 121 again after it leaves Edmundston. We went to a crossing we like in Saint Hiliaire, NB. We've shot here afew times before but it's a spot we enjoy. There is a signal and a hot box detector close to the crossing. I again used two cameras for different shots but this time I set up the cameras a little closer to each other. Here's the video..

Now onto 308. We heard that 308 would be meeting 305 at Saint Leonard so we headed for the siding. We walked in from the small crossing at CNR Rd. We setup near a spur track that goes to a mill. 308 took the siding and 305 stayed on the main but did not have green signal to proceed past the west siding switch. So they both came to a stop side by side. This wasn't making for very interesting video so we booted it for the car. We decided to catch 308 farther down the line because it was the second train of the day to have a DPU. I combined all my videos of the meet and the roll by of 308..

After that we called it a day with a three hour drive home. I think it went well for using two cameras. You can see a quality difference between the two cameras but I don't mind. It was my first try and there is always some tweaking to the videos that can be done to fix that but it can wait for my next try..