Canadian Railroads > CMQ Sherbrooke and Moosehead Sub Chase

Date: 12/08/19 09:49
CMQ Sherbrooke and Moosehead Sub Chase
Author: Ray_Murphy

Yesterday (Saturday, December 7th) my son and I planned to travel from Montreal to the Eastern Townships to chase any CMQ or SLQ trains we might come across. We expected to wind up in the Eastman-Magog area, and maybe get as far as Sherbrooke.

Normally the CMQ’s westbound Train #1 (Job #1) can be found in this area in the late morning, but all was quiet. We finally caught the SLQ’s northbound train from Island Pond in Bromptonville at about 10:30 and were considering chasing it north to Ste-Rosalie when the CMQ detector at milepost 54.9 on the Sherbrooke sub (about 10 miles east of Lennoxville) came alive.

What we discovered was that Friday’s CMQ #2 (which should have moved through this area by late Friday afternoon) had had some kind of problem but was finally moving again, so we left the SLQ for another day.

We caught up with CMQ #2 at Scotstown (Picture #1). The power consist comprised CMQ 9021, CMQ 9004, CMQ 9010 and CEFX 6537.

Chasing the train on the Sherbrooke sub is relatively easy, as it is 25 mph territory with a couple of 10 mph speed restrictions. Picture #2 was taken at the Route 214 highway crossing a few miles east of Scotstown.

Picture #3: Milan

Picture #4: Rural road crossing about one mile southwest of Nantes. The train included a block of ITDX molten sulfer tankcars (Picture #5) which I presume were empty (note all the snow and ice on them) and going into some new service.

Picture #6 was taken in the town of Nantes itself. This location is a bit west of the infamous Nantes siding where the Lac Megantic runaway started happening.

The CMQ’s Sherbrooke sub actually starts at Lac Megantic (Mile 0.0) and its Moosehead head sub ends there (Mile 117.1). Picture #7 is the first chase picture of the train on the Moosehead sub at the east end of town.

We continued our chase east for a few more miles, catching the train two more times, first at a location called Ditchfield on the 3rd Range road (Picture #8), and lastly at the very end of a remote road a couple of miles from the Maine border (Picture #9).

Ray

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/19 13:22 by Ray_Murphy.