Confessions of a Train Geek

Dartmouth Model Train Show This Weekend

2009-11-11T19:29:00.003-06:00

I received this note about the Dartmouth Model Train Show (in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia) and I thought I would pass it along. It's always a good show and I encourage you to attend if you are in the area. I missed it by a week so I won't be there... I hope to be relaxing at home. :)

"The annual Sportsplex Model Train Show is on this weekend, Saturday Nov 14 from 9am to 4:30pm and Sunday Nov 15 from 10am to 3pm.

On display will be the Dartmouth Club and U.M.G. HO scale layouts, Mike's G scale layout, Errol's Z scale layout , A small G-Scale layout by Joz., Marc's O-27 Lionel U-drive layout and the very popular LEGO layout and a robotics display. Of course, a wide selection of vendors will offer new and used items.

Door prize this year is a nice Athearn train set courtesy Maritime Hobbies and Crafts.

Admittance: Adults $5, Kids 5-12 $2, Family $10, kids under 5 free. Hope to see you there!"

We Remember

2009-11-11T11:00:00.000-06:00

"We must remember. If we do not, the sacrifice of those one hundred thousand Canadian lives will be meaningless. They died for us, for their homes and families and friends, for a collection of
traditions they cherished and a future they believed in; they died for Canada. The meaning of their sacrifice rests with our collective national consciousness; our future is their monument."
- Heather Robertson, A Terrible Beauty, The Art of Canada at War.

My hearts and thoughts go out to those who served, and those who serve today, especially those putting their lives in peril in Afghanistan.

Local Switcher

2009-11-10T19:18:00.000-06:00

I went for a drive up the BNSF Phoenix subdivision Monday evening, for something to do. Grand Avenue parallels the tracks for quite some distance. I came to Surprise, AZ and noted the Ennis subdivision crossing Grand Avenue, as well as a large autorack facility with a local switcher!

I pulled off Grand Avenue just after that, and noted a headlight approaching from the northwest at 18:40. I slapped the video camera on the tripod and took some video in the dark. As usual it is blurry. The manifest train had BNSF 746 and two other engines on the head end, and BNSF 7212 pushing on the rear.

I went back to shoot the local switcher from across the highway. The above is the best one I took. Apparently this is a GP7.

"Aeromoe" has an excellent web page on the BNSF Phoenix subdivision with an astonishing amount of detail. I wish I had found this sooner!

This Day, 19 Years Ago

2009-11-10T04:00:00.001-06:00

This was quite a lashup. Shiny CP 5405 was on the point, with worn SOO 6616 in the middle and MLW M-636 CP 4701 trailing. Note the lack of a multimark on 5405, compared to the "Pacman" on 4701. I always liked the white SOO paint scheme. The slide was taken in London, Ontario by David T Stowe.

CP 5405 was an SD40 built as QNSL 209 for the Quebec, North Shore & Labrador railway in 1971. She was leased to CP in 1983 and purchased in 1985. This photo shows her in September 1987 with a multimark, so sometime between then and November 1990 she was repainted and lost the multimark. CP Roster.

SOO 6616 was built in March 1981 as an SD40-2. Sometime between 1986 and 1991, she was repainted into a different scheme, the red SOO scheme with white stripes (see here). As of 2003 she was still operating.

CP 4701 was built in 1969 by the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) and was an M-636.

Acadian Railway Update?

2009-11-09T07:00:00.003-06:00

Some of you may remember the proposed Acadian Railway, to run across the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick following a similar route to the old CN Caraquet subdivision. There was a flurry of news articles in 2007 but not much has happened in the past few years.

A new industry for Caraquet, announced this month, may change that. Peter Swire, promoter of the Acadian Railway, is also the president of the GreenSafe Demanufacturing plant. CBC is reporting that construction should start by the end of November 2009 and the plant should be up and running by the end of 2010. The plant will take old appliances and recover all of the components, including the refrigerant.

The tie-in to the proposed Acadian Railway is that the plant is anticipated to receive at least 40 truckloads of appliances per day. The alternative to this is to construct a railway to bring those items in, and presumably ship the recovered components out.

Peter sent me a copy of the press release last week. I should point out that CBC got the funding amount wrong by a factor of 1,000... the private investor has put $50 million into the project, not $50,000. Press release (PDF).

EDIT: Peter pointed out that the plant is to be built in Caraquet, not Tracadie as I originally posted. Thanks for the correction.

BNSF in Phoenix

2009-11-08T20:01:00.003-06:00

I'm in Phoenix, Arizona this week, and I had a little time this afternoon / evening to have a look around. Bill Linley kindly gave me the October 2009 Railroads Illustrated magazine that featured an article on BNSF in Phoenix - very timely!

I went looking for their Mobest yard in Phoenix just south of I-10. I drove around for quite a bit, following various bits of track, before I stumbled across it in the rapidly falling dark. It is not very accessible for photography but I did what I could to identify the units there. There were about 8 or 9 Geeps there plus a couple of pairs of road units.

I positively identified these units: BNSF 2843, BNSF 2648, BNSF 2829, BNSF 2945, BNSF 2958, and BNSF 7577.

I don't know how much spare time I will have this week, so I may not see any more trains here. I'm glad I got a glimpse of them!

Rainy Day Meet

2009-11-07T07:00:00.000-06:00

On my way from Moncton to Halifax airport on Friday, I decided to stop and shoot VIA 14, the eastbound Ocean, at Amherst. I had thought about Aulac, but the pouring rain dissuaded me from that. I set up at Amherst across from the station and waited.

At 13:07 VIA 6400 and 6424 rolled up to the station, towing a Renaissance train.

The complete consist was VIA 6400, 6424, 7011, 7223, 7230, 7312, 7402, 7308, 7509, 7501, 7525, and 7512.
After dealing with the passengers, the Ocean backed up out of sight around the corner. Soon enough, they crawled up the siding past the station and went up to the east end of the siding to wait for CN 407. Here they are just after they passed the station.

I relocated to get a shot of the Ocean meeting CN 407. At 13:33 CN 2519 appeared on the main line and rolled past the impatient VIA train. CN 2680 was the second unit on 407. You can see the Ocean to the right in this shot.

I saw 2519 in Winnipeg on August 16 of this year. Oddly enough, it was raining then too.

I didn't have time to look for VIA 15. No doubt they met VIA 14 somewhere like Folly Lake rather than the usual Belmont siding outside Truro.

CN 120 on Thursday

2009-11-06T05:51:00.002-06:00

CN 120 was late Thursday morning, which gave me the chance to see it. I was traveling from Halifax to Moncton early in the morning and I caught it at Aulac, NB. I didn't have much time to set up so I wasn't able to pan the video camera to follow it, for fear of a very tilted horizon. I did grab a few stills as it went by at 07:27.

The power was old friend CN 5756, 2534, 2595, 5675, and GP9 7031.

CP 1867

2009-11-05T08:00:00.003-06:00

Brian Barchard emailed me after my post about NBEC 1867 and others sent for scrap and had this to say about CP 1867:

"Nice clear shot of NBEC 1867 on your blog today.

Here is a view of CAR Extra 1867 North, on the Gibson Sub, Feb. 08, 1992, with 20 cars.......6 tank, 4 box, 1 covered hopper, 9 reefers..........at 2:30 pm, snowing at the time. RS-23 8042 was running mate to 1867.

1867 made four additional trips over the Gibson, my last recorded one being Feb.14, 1992. In fact, I sighted no more RS-18's, as RS-23's became the regular road power, to the end of service, Nov. 1993.

Thus, 1867, according to my extensive log book entries, was the last RS-18 to operate over the Gibson Sub."

Thanks for that, Brian!

CP 1867 was built as CP 8765 in April 1958 with a high hood. It was rebuilt by CP and renumbered to 1867 in 1989. It was sold to the New Brunswick East Coast Railway in April 1998.

There are only two photos of NBEC 1867 on RailPictures, one of mine and one B&W photo by Pat Schmidt. There are no photos of CP 1867 on RailPictures at all, and all the photos of CP 8765 on RailPictures are of the shiny new ES44AC.

I personally saw NBEC 1867 on 17 different days. It was an active unit in the NBEC fleet.

51 years old.. now off to be scrapped. Sigh.

The Orford Express

2009-11-04T10:00:00.000-06:00

David Morris sent along a few photos of the Orford Express, the tourist line that runs between Sherbrooke and Eastman in Quebec. They travel on the MM&A's Sherbrooke subdivision. I posted about their startup back in early 2006.

The Orford Express has one engine on its roster, #26 an MLW M-420TR built in 1972 (photo). As you can see from the photos, they also have two RDCs, specifically RDC-1 units 6121 Elyse and 6125 Thompson (ex-CN RDC-3 D100 and CP RDC-2 9199).

They have a single dome car #310, originally built in 1954 as Northern Pacific 310.

They seem to aim for the dinner train crowd, and the photos on their web site sure look tempting.

NBEC Power Update

2009-11-03T20:56:00.002-06:00

NBEC 1867 in Miramichi, NB on September 14, 2004.

Canadian Railway Observations is reporting that ex-CFMG SD40 units 6902, 6903, and 6906-6910, as well as RS-18s ex-OCRR 1838, ex-NBEC 1857 and 1867 are all going to Alabama to be parted out and scrapped.

The last time I saw 1867 was on November 7, 2006 in Miramichi, in the middle of our War Bride train chase.

By the way, if you haven't read Canadian Railway Observations yet, you should really check it out.

Halifax and the TEST Train

2009-11-02T05:00:00.000-06:00

I'm in Halifax for the week, my first trip back to the right coast since I moved to Winnipeg this summer. After my plane landed on Sunday (November 1), I drove into the city and found myself driving to the CN Rockingham yard. Imagine that. I saw a few units at the yard office, notably including CN 9639 and the two-car TEST train. I shot this in the fading light around 5 PM.

The TEST train is CN's Track Evaluation SysTem, which does exactly what it says. They run it along the line and it reports defects in the rails.

Geoff Doane reported that it came into Halifax today as CN train 482. They ran out to Autoport on the end of the Dartmouth subdivision, then backed up to Windsor Junction, then ran to the end of the Bedford subdivision at Halterm (HOT) by the VIA station and turned on the loop track there, before testing the transfer track to Millview and backing to Rockingham.

I took video as it left at 18:50 but I'm not sure how well it will turn out. Night video is tricky and I wasn't really ready.

Also in the yard were CN 4805 and 4725, power for the locals.

At about 19:00 the power for CN 121 came up from Fairview, with CN 5710, CN 5296, CN 2249 and CN 5609. It was too dark to take photos by that time.

I didn't hang around, since I had not had supper yet and I had to check in. I did chat with a couple of AtlanticRails members, Bruce and Doug, before heading out.

I don't know how much time I will have for railfanning while in Halifax... we'll see.

GWWD 200

2009-11-01T10:00:00.000-06:00

I was running errands on Thursday (Oct 29) and I heard that the Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway (GWWD) might be out and about. I found GWWD 200 switching tank cars outside their yard on Dawson Road in the rain.

Once they put their tank cars away, they ran up to a switch to get ready to head to the yard.

Then they crossed Dawson Road to enter the GWWD yard in St. Boniface.

Despite the rain, I was pleased to see a GWWD unit moving!

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T09:50:00.001-05:00

For those who participate, I hope you enjoy Halloween. Watch out for the kids tonight!

CN 305 On The Main Line

2009-10-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

Kevin Gaudet recently posted a video of CN 305 rolling through Berry Mills in the early morning. I liked how he had the hotbox detector recording at the beginning of the video.

It was good positioning of the camera, too, to compensate for the low sun. It's hard to get good early morning shots where the track goes east-west.

That video inspired me to dig back in YouTube history for other shots of CN 305 on the CN mainline in New Brunswick. Here's saintjohnrailfan's video of CN 305 at McGivney, with a DPU no less, on August 24 2008.

The train horn echoes well in McGivney.

Here's jamminjoel's video of CN 305 at the route 625 crossing on September 6, 2008.

Finally, here's one of my own shots of CN 305, at St. Basil NB outside Edmundston on August 12, 2007.

Just a Few More Minutes

2009-10-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

"Just a few more hours
And I'll be right home to you
I think I hear them callin'
Oh, Beth what can I do
Beth what can I do" - Kiss

I decided to take the kids out and do a bit of railfanning Sunday afternoon (October 25). Most trains I see in Winnipeg are CN, so we went northeast to CP country.

There were no signs of life on the CP Keewatin subdivision at the Perimeter, so we went in to Day Street to see what was going on at CEMR. Answer: nothing. I did see CN GMD1 1413 there, and the engine of CEMR 4013 was exposed. CP 1530 and 1532 were idling in the North Transcona yard.

We made a quick trip down to Dugald Road to see if anything was happening around CN (no), so after a Tim Hortons stop, we went back up to Day Street. After a bit, a headlight was visible to the west. In good time they rolled by at 16:30 with red barn CP 9017 leading and CP 6041 trailing.

After they passed, I saw a headlight to the east. Great! Except... it didn't move. I waited, and waited, then went to Redona Street at 17:00 to get a closer look. Olympic unit CP 8872 was waiting at the head of CP 115 under the Perimeter Highway. I waited and waited some more, but I had to get going to buy some pumpkins. They were still waiting at 17:15 when I left.

On my way around the Perimeter, I crossed the CP Emerson sub and saw a southbound freight's headlight... again, no time to wait.

Maybe next time!

Caboose To Be Moved

2009-10-28T19:00:00.000-05:00

Malcolm Peacock's caboose is due to be moved to the Village Historique Acadien in Caraquet, according to this Times Transcript article. They have built a replica train station and will now have a caboose to put in front of it.

Malcolm died in August 2009 and his family was looking to dispose of his caboose. I'm glad it is going to a good home.

I stayed overnight in that caboose a few times when volunteering at the New Brunswick Railway Museum in Hillsborough. Malcolm was very proud of the caboose and kept it in good shape. He often brought museum visitors through it, even though it was his private caboose and not the museum's.

The Race is On

2009-10-28T07:00:00.001-05:00

There was a little race Monday (Oct 27) at noontime. I knew the Hudson Bay (VIA 693) was due soon, but I also knew CN 199 was ready to roll at Fort Rouge at the same time. I was curious how it would pan out. Normally westbound VIA trains are on the north track.

The RTC put CN 199 on the north track. As it rolled toward me, I could see the headlights of the Hudson Bay behind them. I couldn't imagine that the RTC would make VIA tag along behind the freight, and she did not. The Hudson Bay was on the south track, rapidly overtaking the container train on the north.

CN 199 passed me first, with CN 5731 and 2721 leading a long container train.

Within two minutes, the Hudson Bay was rolling by on the south track.

The train had the regular power, VIA 6413 and VIA 6456, on point, with baggage car 8600, three coaches (8106, 8110, 8100), diner York (8418), and two Chateau sleepers (8221 Radisson and 8223 Rigaud). I heard the previous Hudson Bay had a dome car... I keep hoping to see one on this train.

You can see the head end of CN 199 in the photo above. No doubt VIA was past CN before Diamond.

I think that's the first time I saw two trains passing in the same direction... it was very interesting.

Slug On The Road

2009-10-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

I saw a strange sight just before supper on Friday (Oct 23). I saw a CN westbound beside the Perimeter Highway on Wilkes Avenue, with ordinary units CN 2256 and 2682 leading... but they had GP9 7243 and slug 203 trailing!

Strange to see a slug on a mainline train.

Red Board at Carman Junction

2009-10-26T20:00:00.001-05:00

Allan Peden has a great story here about his involvement in a wreck at Carman Junction in western Winnipeg in the early morning of October 17, 1956. CN Extra 2503 East ran a red board at the Junction and collided with a train coming off the Carman subdivision. Mr. Peden was the head-end brakeman in the engine. The fireman was critically injured when jumping from the engine, and died later.

The Carman subdivision was sold to the Central Manitoba Railway, but Carman Junction still exists and is used. These days they have signal lights instead of boards!

Read the entire last days of steam series. There are several stories about working on CN, in and around Winnipeg.

This Day, 13 Years Ago

2009-10-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

Two slides for you today!

Here is a slide shot 13 years ago today, by Glenn Cunningham. Three of my favourite MLWs, CP 4228, 4243, and 4211, rest in London Ontario. 4243 was NBEC 4243 at the end of its life, before being scrapped in 2009 after the New Brunswick East Coast Railway was purchased by CN.

This is another slide shot on the same day in the same location by Glenn Cunningham. CP 4214 is the lead engine of this triplet.

Pacing Videos

2009-10-25T11:21:00.003-05:00

It's rare to find pacing videos of trains. By pacing videos I mean shots where the train and the observer are moving side by side. You need two things: a road parallel to the tracks with few obstructions in between, and a driver. I haven't shot any pacing videos because I usually railfan alone.

Caleb aka CNCRW94 posted a video of local CN 507 rolling through Windsor Junction. He chased it and provided some pacing footage as shiny CN 4805 and grimy CN 4725 pulled a few hoppers and tankers along.

Dave aka nbsrfan has long been a practitioner of the pacing shot. Here is his video of a recent NB Southern Railway passenger train, with a nice pacing sequence through Westfield at 4:02 and 4:27 and 5:09.

Nice job, guys!

Monday's Trains

2009-10-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

I never got around to posting the trains I saw Monday noon. I arrived near St. James Junction and I immediately saw CN 2553 and CN 5732 hauling a westbound container train past. Definitely no time for a tripod!

Sometimes you get lucky and the train is right there; sometimes you miss it by 10 seconds. :)

The Canadian could be seen right afterward. It came up to St. James Junction and stopped, presumably waiting for the freight to clear the block so it could proceed. After about 10 minutes, the Canadian started up again. From my vantage point near Kenaston I could see the lead engine was green, meaning it was the Telus engine VIA 6429.

It had a diner "Empress" deadheading behind the engines. On occasion you can see a car deadheading (traveling unoccupied) as VIA moves equipment around.

Full consist here in my railway sighting database.

The River Hills Railroad

2009-10-23T12:05:00.000-05:00

Manitoba's newest shortline is the River Hills Railroad Inc., formed to investigate acquiring a portion of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Glenboro subdivision.

CP has added the 101 kilometers of railway between Rathwell and Nesbitt to its 3 Year Network Plan aka list of sections for abandonment. That basically cuts out of the middle of the Glenboro subdivision, leaving the section from Winnipeg to Rathwell, and from Page into Saskatchewan.

Former Rural Municipality of Victoria reeve and councilor Harold Purkness is the President of the new company.

Their intent is to do a feasibility study to see if a shortline is worthwhile. Rail West Management has been retained to perform the study.

Links:

CN 302 at Sunset

2009-10-21T21:42:00.002-05:00

I was in Portage la Prairie today. I didn't see any trains on the way there, and all I saw while I was there was resident switcher CP 3082 and white caboose CP 420989.

I caught CN 302 passing through as I was heading home to Winnipeg. First, I saw it as it came into Portage at 18:04. CN 2226 and IC 1026 were the engines on the point.

I went around Portage on the Trans-Canada Highway, and I saw 302 meeting 401 as the latter came into Portage. 302 was really moving, but I was able to get ahead and set up at a crossing just west of Elie. 302 blasted through at 18:35 in the falling dark.

302 had just passed by the time I crossed over Wilkes Avenue on the Perimeter. They were making good time!

Copyright Protection and Expiration - When Do Copyrights Go Public Domain [del.icio.us]

2009-08-10T11:03:12-07:00

A good reference to when copyrights expire, especially for photographs.

Database - Railway Employees (Employees Provident Fund) - Library and Archives Canada [del.icio.us]

2009-03-04T05:42:12-08:00

Library and Archives Canada have provided a searchable database for the Provident Fund (pension) for over 20,000 retirees from the Intercolonial Railway and the Prince Edward Island Railway. This is a great resource!

Nova Scotia Railway Hall of Fame [del.icio.us]

2008-05-14T20:28:25-07:00

A site by Jay Underwood celebrating the people who built and operated Nova Scotia's railways

Article: Flood brings back past memories [del.icio.us]

2008-05-13T04:07:51-07:00

Notes on flooding in Woodstock, including the CPR bridge washout in 1976

Highball Graphics [del.icio.us]

2008-02-18T17:00:32-08:00

model railway decals with a focus on New England

Railway Proximity Issues [del.icio.us]

2008-02-14T08:09:13-08:00

For the public. Includes maps of railways. Run by the Railway Association of Canada.

Rail Merchants International [del.icio.us]

2008-02-12T04:26:45-08:00

Specialize in full-size railroad rolling stock, including cabooses, locomotives and deluxe private rail cars.

B & ML equipment for sale on Web - WaldoSoup [del.icio.us]

2008-02-12T04:26:03-08:00

Canon e18 / Lens Error Experiences [del.icio.us]

2008-02-04T05:35:37-08:00

Smiths Creek railway wasn't meant to be | Published January 22nd, 2008 [del.icio.us]

2008-01-23T05:53:56-08:00

A brief history of railroading in New Brunswick | Published January 16th, 2008 [del.icio.us]

2008-01-16T17:40:42-08:00

EARLY RAILWAYS BETWEEN NEW ENGLAND AND CANADA. [del.icio.us]

2008-01-08T04:42:58-08:00

Canadian Railway Observations [del.icio.us]

2007-08-22T07:35:59-07:00

Charles Cooper's Railway Pages [del.icio.us]

2007-08-22T07:35:37-07:00