Canadian Railroads > On The Way to Maine

I've been going a bit stir crazy in Halifax lately, so a friend and I made plans to escape CN's endless parade of GEVOs, and go hunting for standard cab EMDs in Maine for a few days last week.  Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were hit with some nasty weather last Sunday and into Monday. Snow, which turned to rain, and then a flash freeze.  But the weather for Tuesday looked promising, so we decided to start out at oh-dark-thirty that morning.  Nova Scotia was mostly foggy on the drive west, and there were still overcast skies when we made our first contact with a train: 120 at Sackville, NB.  The four diesels roared past the now disused VIA station (VIA does still plow the parking lot, but you can't go inside) at 08:58, Atlantic time.

By Moncton the sun had come out, but the main highway was literally covered in what appeared to be an inch or two of ice.  It was sort of like a hockey rink - I could see the lines on the road, but they were underneath the ice.  We kept on driving, taking care not to wind up like the numerous other vehicles that had ended up in the ditch or median, some overturned!  In Saint John, street were in pretty good shape, and we crossed the Reversing Falls bridge, hoping to see a NB Southern transfer going to or from Island Yard.  However, the best we could do was this ballast regulator, heading over to the west side at 12:13.

At the west end of Dever Road Yard, we found three SD40s on the front of a freight, ready to go west, and a crew of track workers and a backhoe trying to free up some switches.  This was train 907, the daily westbound to Brownville Jct., ME, and we had heard that a second 907 would be running today too.  Jackpot!

Then we heard on the scanner that 907 had just cleared Fredericton Jct.  That changed things.  We were looking at the second train, and the first already had a substantial jump on us.  Rather than try to follow the track and catch them, we opted to continue west on the main highway (still icy!) and drive up Route 3 to McAdam to try and intercept them before they crossed the border.  As it turned out, we made it to McAdam just as the American crew was getting on board and doing their brake test.  They had 98 empty woodchip gons behind 2 SD40-2s, and could not fit in the yard, so they had stopped just east of town on the main line, providing this nose lit shot here at 14:26.

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/19 16:36 by cn6218.

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Although the lighting wasn't the greatest, we relocated to the McAdam station for a picture of 907 pulling past.  The station is now a museum and has had a lot of work done to it by a local group.  There is still a substantial yard at McAdam, but this was essentially a unit chip train and would be going straight through to Maine without any switching.

The final picture is technically in Maine, since that's where I was standing, and where the power is.  But most of the train is across the St. Croix River bridge and still in Canada.  The train stopped here for US Customs at 14:23 (Eastern time), and we headed west to set up for the next shot.  You can read about the Maine part of the trip here: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,4724279

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/19 17:47 by cn6218.

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Excellent images. My favorite is 6340 at the McAdam Junction station.
Bob

Killer stuff Geoff-Thanks

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

Love me some high woodchip gons; the S-curve at the station looks great, and the lighting is very powerful, with the nose popping off the dark side.
Fred

Love the fourth picture. Great use of that building as a prop. Great work and thanks for braving the elements.

Posted from Android

Nice shots!!

Nice photos, and an interesting-looking operation. But I seldom look at the Canadian board, and I don't recognize the livery of the engines. What railroad is this?

Winston Hill

Nice locations, nice bright, crisp photos. Sounds like a lot of route planning, rewarded with some 'severe clear' blue skies.
t4p.

Great work!  Congrats on IOTD!
GK

winstonhill Wrote:
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> But I seldom look at the Canadian board, and I
> don't recognize the livery of the engines. What
> railroad is this?

Sorry, I had mentioned a bit of the road's history in the other post on the Eastern Board (see link in second post), but forgot to mention it here.  The railway is New Brunswick Southern, owned by NB paper and lumber mill operator JD Irving.  The US operations are Eastern Maine Rwy. (the former CP track from Brownville Jct. to Vanceboro) and Maine Northern Rwy. (former BAR, north of Millinocket).  EMR has also recently taken over operating a former Maine Central branch from Calais to Woodland, ME that is now owned by the mill in Woodland.  The shade of green paint is the same as Kent Building Supplies (another JD Irving property) uses on their vehicles and buildings.

Most locomotives are lettered "NB Southern", but 6340 and GP38-3 9801 have "Maine Northern" on the long hoods.

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/19 16:35 by cn6218.