Canadian Railroads > 408's Counterpart

After running a massive 408 from Moncton to Dartmouth on June 16, CN then needed to get the power (and crew) back to Moncton (see post from a few days ago). The two SD70M-2s stayed in Dartmouth to power 511, the gypsum trains, and the two ACs started out from Dartmouth late on the morning of the 17th with autoracks and other miscellaneous cars, heading for Truro.  In Truro, they backed the whole train into the "A-yard", and then picked up two days worth of CBNS and Truro cars.  There were at least two different cuts of lumber and woodchips from Sproule, some of which are shown here on the head end as the GEs and GP38-2 4732 pulled forward towards the main line to double the train together.

The usual practice is to park the Dartmouth cars in an empty track, and then add the pickup behind the power.  That way the SBU doesn't have to be tested again, and the conductor doesn't have to walk as far.  Although on this day, with over a mile of cars to pick up, the conductor was getting a ride anyway.  There was at least one crossing blocked once the train was all together.  In the second shot, 407 is up to track speed at Debert, 11 miles west of Truro on the Springhill Sub. They should have a good, non-stop, trip to Moncton now.

With the new quarter starting on Wednesday, several crews have already been called back to work, and 407/408 may become daily again rather than extras.  The 404/405 experiment (Moncton-Truro) didn't work well, but they still need to get the crews back to their original assignments.  With Halifax crews doing 120/121, they have to lay over in Moncton almost 24 hours now, and Moncton crews have to do one day down, and back the next, on 407/408.  Having the two crew bases share the two trains would seem to make more efficient use of manpower.

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/20 12:21 by cn6218.

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Nice coverage. They don't care about manpower except that they want less.
JB