Canadian Railroads > MLW Monday - CN Bigs at Pacific Junction, NB

This is CN 2336, 20xx, 2006, and 3706 coming off the Newcastle Sub at Pacific Junction, to the northwest of Moncton, NB. The train is #344, which I think I found out talking to a couple of CN workers who showed up here to check out the turnouts and signals. I recall them telling me this is a special high-speed turnout, so trains on either line can maintain track speed. The time is 1410, the date June 12, 1982, and there are 64 cars of mixed freight in tow. The location had plenty of action, but was quite tight for photo angles, with the rail south of here being on a high fill that dropped off pretty quickly on both sides.
Fred

---

Neat shot of some of MLW's finest.  Would have made a great chase down from Rogersville.

KG

Maybe it was a movable point switch? Would have had a second switch motor to "throw" the frog. Doesn't look like it in the Google satellite photo: https://www.google.com/maps/@46.1391812,-64.9856103,145m/data=!3m1!1e3 Guess it's more like a length of gantlet to move the points away from the curve.

Pretty treed in these days.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/17 11:35 by CPR_4000.

CPR_4000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Maybe it was a movable point switch? Would have
> had a second switch motor to "throw" the frog.
> Doesn't look like it in the Google satellite
> photo:
> https://www.google.com/maps/@46.1391812,-64.9856103,145m/data=!3m1!1e3
> Guess it's more like a length
> of gantlet to move the points away from the
> curve.
>
> Pretty treed in these days.

If you do some panning around in that Google Map link.....you can follow some Moncton area rail history.

Pan out and toward the top of the map and you can see where the Newcastle Sub (Intercolonial Railway)was brought over to join the National Transcontinental Railway at Pacific Jct.

Then it’s easy to follow the original alignment of the Intercolonial .....now Pacific Jct Rd then becoming Barrys Mills Road into Moncton.

It passed through the old CN shops complex (now the Millennium Blvd area) then Vaughan Harvey Blvd into the current station area.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/17 13:16 by ghCBNS.

CPR_4000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Maybe it was a movable point switch? Would have
> had a second switch motor to "throw" the frog.
> Doesn't look like it in the Google satellite
> photo:
> https://www.google.com/maps/@46.1391812,-64.985610
> 3,145m/data=!3m1!1e3 Guess it's more like a length
> of gantlet to move the points away from the
> curve.
>
> Pretty treed in these days.

Sorry I don't know the technical details, but as I recall, one of the track workers was a veteran explaining things to a "newbie", and they didn't seem to mind me eavesdropping a bit, and filling me in on some train numbers (yes, this was many years ago, before this would have been a fireable offence!). The main issue was the need for painstaking maintenance. As the Google satellite photo shows, it's a symmetrical setup, with neither track being tangent at the junction. It's more like a partially unzipped zipper in appearance, with both lines on gentle curves so that neither one has an interrupted path. They flew.
Fred